Driver's lock broken from inside

[Suzie-Q]

my dad said it might have something to do with the linkage cable. huh? he said if i take off the door panel that i just need to adjust a few things. right or wrong?

basically one day i went to get out of my car, and i pushed the lock by the handle to automatically lock all the doors. (i did it everyday and it had always worked. it had even stayed locked when i shut my door!) this particular day, something went horribly wrong and there was a lot of tension preventing me from pushing the lock down. it finally clicked and locked, but from that point on the mechanism has been broken.

now the lock stays in a position that makes the door look locked, but it still hinges and springs back if you push it, and the door does not actually lock unless it is locked from the outside. when the key is used to lock the doors from the driver's side, all the doors still lock like they should.

it's not a big deal or really an inconvenience, but it just happened to one lock out of nowhere and i thought it was weird. any help?

[Manarius]

1. Your door isn't supposed to stay locked if you shut the door without holding the handle.

2. The behavior you describe (minus the part about it looking locked but not) is normal. You should actually always lock the door from the outside.

If you're worried, you might want to pull the door cover off and check the mechanism. It probably is broken.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, take the door panel off and check the linkage. One of the plastic clips probably came off. Depending on the location, it may be easy or a pain to fix.

I've got a 91 turbo legacy in my driveway that does the same thing.

[Suzie-Q]

i've never had to take the door panels off, but i'm assuming it's only held on by screws and clips. is it a fairly easy thing to do (i hope )?

[Busdriver]

Yeah, its real easy, or it was for me and I'm a beginner...

I might miss a step, but here it goes...

- Unscrew the door handle (big pull bar) from the top and bottom, on top there is a spongy black earplug thingy that hides the screw, on the bottom there's a plastic square hiding the screw.
- Pull the plastic plate behind the metal inside door handle off, carefully, it's weired because you have to push towards the outside edges for it to come off, so push the left side left the right side right, the top up and bottom down.
- Then you still have two or three scews at the bottom edge of the inside panel to uscrew.
- At the doors bottom end edge there is a hand hold looking indentation put your hand there and pull gently on the panel towards you. There are several plastic snaps you can feel where they are by lifting the panel towards you.
- When all the clips and screws are out grab the panel and pull a little towards you while you push the whole thing up along the window.
- There is still the powerlock and window electric cable attached, pull the cable plastic clip out of the holder towards the back.
-Voila!!

That's how I did it and it went smooth, nothing broken...

[Suzie-Q]

thanks! awesome detailing. i'm a beginner too

[Busdriver]

Were you able to get it done?
Pretty easy to remove the panel eh?!