Help needed….

I am at a bit of a standstill and need some thoughtful advice regarding a problem I am having with my 95Q. My front driver’s side door will not open-- it appears I have a problem with the door lock actuator, or one of the switches or mechanisms inside the door.

In order to repair, or even to give it a good diagnosis, I need to get the door open (to get the inside panel off). Here’s a description of the behavior:

 The inside and outside door handles act as if the car door is locked; pulls with ease and with no resistance. No change is felt when the unlock sequences are gone through using the remote, the lock/unlock switch, lock knob, or key.  The inside lock knob appears to not quite make it all the way to the normal open position (about 80% ) when you try and unliock. There is some resistance when pushing it the rest of the way; doing so causes all door actuators to lock. Using the remote, the first “unlock” causes the driver door actuator to “unlock” (it is audible), however, no open door. The second “unlock” with the remote cause all doors to unlock, however, they immediately lock (curious symptom....something is prompting that).  The inside door lock/unlock switch has the exact same response, it unlocks all doors with an immediate lock of all doors.  When this first happened, I was able to open the door using the key, but now it basically has the same effect as the remote.  Random combinations don’t work….. The theft prevention cycle seems to work fine, and all other visible functions seem to be working (interior lights, etc.)

After I opened it with the key I initially thought that maybe some lubrication was needed to the locking mechanism; did that and everything worked fine for a couple of days. Yesterday, I was trying to close the door, after getting in the car, and the door latch would not catch/grab the latch bar with the door was in the fully-closed position. After a few open/close cycles on the door lock/unlock switch, the latch engaged. But that was it; the door handles do not respond, the door remains in stubbornly in the closed state, and I have resort to embarrassingly crawling through the other doors into the driver’s seat.

The FSM gives me an idea of how to diagnose what might be wrong, but I need to get the door open to get the inside panel off. It feels like an electrical or electromechanical issue, as opposed to a mechanical part, but am at a loss.

Ideas and thoughts are appreciated!

Do you have a Factory Service Manual?

Have you tried locking/unlocking the offending door with just the key and the battery disconnected?

If you have no problems locking/unlocking the door with the battery disconnected, then its a good chance the door lock timer is the culprit.

Thanks, anlasak. I do have the FSM.

That was a good suggestion. I gave it a try, and no luck. The door lock doesn't respond, even with the battery disconnected...

im coming up with nothing...cant think of anyway to get in that door, without taking the panel off. i think worst case senario is to find your sellf another door panel, and pry off the one thats on there now.

its gonna be a mechanical problem, thus causing the electrical response. my thoery is the latch spring broke or one of the plastic rod fastners let go, or maybe you lubed every thing up too much and the rods slipped out of place???

so the outside and inside handles dont do anything?? can you hear a possibly out of place rod sliding around??

??buy a honda???

I would buy a set of slim jims and start trying to jimmy it open. For reference you could open the passenger door (easy as pie) and see what you need to jimmy. Last of all, a highly experienced locksmith may know a trick we dont know, lol.

Don't pry the door off man.. lmao.

I know it's full of electronics, but somewhere in that door is a mechanical piece that is holding the lock closed. It's not majic or electromagnets, lol.

These old threads should help. One has pictures.

zerothread?id=223771

zerothread?id=135059

You're going to have to get the door open and replace every plastic piece inside the door. Should have IMMEDIATELY opened the door panel once it started doing it for the first time!

elwesso wrote:You're going to have to get the door open and replace every plastic piece inside the door. Should have IMMEDIATELY opened the door panel once it started doing it for the first time!

Very true....good advice to all G50 owners when a problem like this appears.

Looks like a visit from or to the locksmith is in order. After fooling with this for several days, I am leaning towards this being a mechanical problem; possibly the latch not releasing on the striker bar. There is a short hum from the actuator on unlock which would possibly indicate that it is encountering mechanical resistance. The fact that when unlocking all door results in an immediate lock could also reflect that something is causing the unlock logic to abort and re-lock.

I just have to make sure I find a good locksmith to get the door open so I can get the panel off...this could get ugly...

not to be a naysayer, i just dont understand how a locksmith is going to get into the door. if you think hes going to try and go through the out side door jamb, make sure you tape it up so not to scratch the paint.

may the force be with you!

Okay, one more check in the vast NICO knowledge base out there...

I believe that my problem is the door latch is just plain stuck.

I went over to visit with an experienced locksmith to see if he could open the driver's side door. He told me that the tools (slim-jim) he would use would access the same mechanism as the door lock actuator, and that it would probably trigger the auto-lock in the same way it is acting with the lock knob. He suggested going to the dealer.

So I went to the local Infiniti dealer, no problem. The quote is about $350-$400 get the door latch replaced (3 hrs of labor + parts).

I know this is a somewhat obscure problem, once I get the door open, I feel comfortable in replacing the latch and any other components inside the door. But how would they go about opening the door? What secret does the Infinti technician (body shop?) have to get this done??

I have read all the threads I can find, scoured the FSM, but found almost nothing.

I'll take it in to the dealer if that is my only alternative...


Modified by mcastro at 3:02 PM 7/28/2007

They will be removing the interior from the door to gain access to the latch mechanism.

Is that it? Can the panel be removed with the door closed? Not a lot of room to work in....

Plenty of room if you remove the seat.

Sometimes it takes an hour or two and a few different techs to get the special oem thick clothes hanger like tools to grab the lock mechanism.

Plastic wedge and pumpup spreader mini airbag to make 3/4" clearance.

We have a special set of 24 bent rods [~~$150] to attack doors.

We get about 1 of these per year per shop and make sure the owner is rightly punished [at least verbally] for not heeding the warning signs.

"Oh it's been misbehaving for the last year but I thought it would fix itself"..................it sure did! Sir that will be $400 and 2 hours in the public stocks on the town square. With the I'm a car idiot sign around your neck.