To make a long story short a couple of weeks ago I was locked out of my 1993 Maxima SE. A friendly cop stoped and used a slim jim to unlock the front passenger side door. A couple of days later the outside handle on the passenger side front door no longer worked. The cop really went to town with the slim jim and must have knocked some thing loose I figured. Because of the cold weather I hadn't done anything about it. Yesterday things got worse. I put my front passenger side window down and heard a loud thunk. Now neither the inside hadle nor the outside handle will open the door. It seems to me that something is just bent or loose and if I could get in there it would be an easy fix but I can't get the door panel off with out being able to open the door. Any suggestions?

 

the metal rod was probably bent or the plastic clip broke. both would require you to pull the poor panel off.

 

you could probably get enough of the door panel off to open the door, without being able to open it to get the whole door panel off.

 

Been there. You can't get to all the screws that take off the panel because the door is shut but you can take the ones out around the door handle and pop open the edge of the panel. You have to flex it hard because of course because the door is shut. Be real careful or the door panel will be damaged. If you get the egde of the panel off you should be able to reach in there adn open the latch. Good luck it is not easy.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. At least now I have a plan of attack. I will post here about the results when I can get to it.

 

*makes mental note to not have car slim jimmed* oh wait, I have the keypad (gotta love the gxe options)

 

just look at craigB's window regulator replacement tutorial that tells u how to pull the door apart... u can get to most of the bits from there

 

MaxNub91 is right about Craig's site. It is excellent and I used it to replace my window regulators.

Once you get the door opened, I would recommend replacing the internals from a junkyard car or someone here with a parts car. You are right, the cop probably bent or broke something in there.

It shouldn't be that much to replace it. You will probably get off easy because the cop didn't charge you and a locksmith would have nailed you for a Benjamin or so (unless you have AAA or something).

 

Hmmm. Where can I find craigB's window regulator replacement guide? It sounds like it would be usefull.

 

I ran into a similiar problem with the new Max I bought. Guy had shaved all door handles and the rear passenger door would not open from the inside. I thought child safety lock switched. Ended up being the rod from the lock had come off and at some point got pushed down and simply locked the door. I found this out after removing the door panel. How? I removed the hinges and the pin in the metal strip (thing that keeps the door from just slamming open and shut). That allowed me to pull the door open enough to get the panel off. Of course, you might have to pull the front fender to get easy access to the hinge, but I think it can be done without pulling the fender. Just a suggestion from personal experience. With the hinges off, you should be able to get to the screws near the front with a short phillips and be able to pull the snaps off the bottom. It will save some risk in breaking the panel as it is really just stiff cardboard.

 

It's in the stickies in the FAQ sticky, near the top of the 3rd gen page.

 

I finally got around to attacking the problem and the results weren't great. I managed to get the door panel off after about an hour. After another hour and a half I was able to open the door by playing with the lock. I started digging into the door innards and I found that the damage was pretty extensive. The metal rods that come off the power door lock actuator were knocked off and to make matters worse the plastic tabs that they attach to are broken. The real problem is that when the cop slim jimmed the door open he not only did the above damage but he also appears to have messed up the part of the door that hooks on to the latch on the body of the car. Does that make sense? I am talking about the c shaped mechanism that secures the door to the car when you close it. I was not able to take it out because it was to cold but I did examine it closely and it no longer works consistantly. I finished my exploration and I buttoned the whole mess back up. I guess now I need to find replacement parts. Does anyone have any sugestions?

 

yea go to a junkyard and and rip apart a door and take all the innards ( yummy innards)

 

take the whole dam door!

 

seriously, find a car that is the same color and take the hole door, would be easier to replace.