fatjoe

I know, and yes I did search the entire forum to include other forums. I have come to only find out that there are a lot of people that have 2003+ Zs that can't get their passenger door open and no has posted a resolution. There's no way to get the interior panel off if the door does not open. There's no way to open it from the outside, because Nissan decided that the car does not need a key on that side.

Can someone post a resolution?

*NOTE: We know you have the same problem so there's need to address the fact that it has happened to your car too. We need someone to post their resolution.

FairladyBlue

stab the door panel with a knife and rip that thing off... door panels arent that expensive

fatjoe

I was hoping that I didn't come down to doing that. I will wait until next Saturday and if no one steps forward, I'll have to stab it.

FairladyBlue

i think that may be the only way to reach the part that is disconnected.. i cant thnk of any other way without destroying

fatjoe

Okay. Today I cut into the door panel and managed to get the entire thing off. I took the inside metal panel off and reached in towards the rear of the door. I figured out that there's a rod that links the outside door handle to the actuator inside. On that rod is also a connection piece that lifts up and down when either the inside or outside handles are pulled. I noticed that when the lock is in the unlocked position, you can open and close the door without issues. When the lock is in the locked position, if you pull the outside door handle, it will made the connecting piece on the rot leading to the actuator to stick and cause the lock to only lock halfway when you unlock it and lock it back.
Before I decide to go any further with breaking the door apart any more, I'm going to order the entire assembly to ensure that if I break something, it can be replaced.

FairladyBlue

I would order the replacement door panel like yesterday if you havent already.. but i wouldn't order the door lock assembly until i was sure i couldnt free fix the existing one..
unless of course, you have euro to blow

fatjoe

No. I don't have euro money. It's dollars. 24.5 years of military service. The panel is ordered and it brought me to the idea of covering it with another fabric. It's time for a change from the old gray plastic panels. I read this in the service manual:

EXTERIOR HANDLE ROD ADJUSTMENT
Rotate the bushing to adjust so that the clearance between the bushing
and rod becomes as shown in the figure.
CAUTION:
Be careful not to make the clearance 0 mm (0 in) or the rod will
be pressed continuously.

Possible Meaning - the lock will only unlock halfway. So I will be rechecking the door next weekend.

fatjoe

Finally after cutting the door panel almost a year ago and thinking that I fix this problem with WD40, I didn't. So now that I have to get the car inspected here in Germany, they don't play with you driving around without a door panel.
Today I figured it out. You have to get the door panel off. As stated before, I cut my off last year and have been driving around with it like that all this time.

With the plastic cover of the door panel off, you will need to take off the metal cover inside of that. This will mean that you will have to also unscrew the window regulator to get that panel off. After that, with a flashlight, look inside the door towards the back of door and you will see the door lock regulator with a small blue washer on top of it and a small rod going into it. Pull the washer and rod up and you should be able to work the door unlock switch to get the door open.

Once the door is open, remove the 3 hex screws where the door latches to the car. This will remove the lock regulator. You don't have to remove it from the door, just move it down until the rod is no longer inside the blue washer.

Now you need to take off the door handle. Move up from where the hex screws where and you will see 2 rubber grommets. remove them and you will see 2 10mm screws. Be very very very careful when removing these 2. If you drop them inside the door, they will fall and slide inside the door's protective beam and be lost for ever. After removing them, ease the door handle off.

On the inside of the door handle you will see 2 springs. The larger wound spring will be really lose. The seat that holds the tension on the spring is plastic and is prone to failure. Using a flat tip screw driver, you need to run the spring around so that it has tension again.

Now put the handle and regulator on and check you work.

I am not all that great at doing a write-up, but this is what I know worked for me. I you know how to take the door handle off without going through all of that, it might be best to go that way.

Good luck.

zakmartin

Thanks for the update, Joe. Dude, I feel for you on fixing cars when you're stationed overseas. When we were stationed in Manila back in '82-'84, the fuel filter on our '79 Chevy Malibu would clog every 3 months. It was made from some damned metal-impregnated pumice stone and you couldn't get the part anywhere. We had to have stateside relatives ship us 10 of them so we'd have enough on hand. Thanks for fighting the good fight.