Hey guys, so i've been driving my Z in the canadian winter, and so far it's been good. but for the past 2 days, there has been an issue. i've searched the forums and no one seems to have something similar to mine.

so here's the issue. one morning i decided to go warm up the car and i notice that when i opened the door, the window didn't do that drop it usually does. uh oh. so i figured maybe i can at least open it and get in.

bad idea. so when i try to close the door it wouldn't close. fack. so i tried slowly pushing it to see if it'll lock. nope. oh boy, i'm gonna be late for work.

after a while i just slammed the door and it closed. HOORAY! but that was a bad idea. i tried opening the door again and it would not budge. i tried locking/unlocking the door and the door will not open.

when i lock the door, you hear the mechanism fine. but when unlocking the door, you hear this grinding noise as if it's not fully opening. there is no way of opening the door from the inside or out. it's as if it's sealed shut. the door **** just moves freely and does have that "click" to tell you it's open. now, the first time it happened i figured hey, i'll take another car and hopefully it'll "thaw" out. when i came back after work, it was fine. but now that it's happening more frequently, it's starting to get annoying.

what can the issue be?

my car is a 03 touring. 258k kilometers.

if anybody has/had the same issues, PLEASE HELP!!!

thanks a bunch

 

I’ve encountered what you describe. It’s been very cold here (minus Zero) the last few days.

If you door won’t open after unlocking with the FOB: Press the lock button on the FOB, and then press unlock again.

Also in the case of failure, use the key inside the door lock instead of the FOB.

When all else fails in very cold weather, I gently tap the door glass with my the bottom of a closed fist before unlocking the door (with the FOB or the key inserted into the lock)

--Spike

 

I have a similar problem, I live in so cal so when it gets below 50 degrees sometimes my passenger door won't unlock from either the inside or outside. You can hear the lock not moving properly, 5 minutes in the garage it works fine...this has happened to me 3 times, once with my wife were she had to climb through the drivers door.

 

I have the same scenario, winter driving a Z in northern Ontario.. Last winter I learned my lesson after breaking the handle. The mechanism is all white metal and very brittle, especially in the cold. Do not force it, if it doesn't want to unlock, you need to gently heat it up.

I can typically get in through the passenger door and slide over. You can also try to lower the windows (press and hold unlock on the key fob). Crank the heat on the car, change it to face setting so the air comes out the door and heat the inside of the car up. After 30 mins of driving it normally functions like normal. If you're at home, you can use a hair dryer from the outside.

Bottom line, don't force it. You will break it very very easy and it will cost to fix. $150-200 for the new handle and if the door is locked closed with a broken component then you will have to cut off the door panel and replace that too, as there isn't enough room to remove the panel from a closed door.

Good luck and only 1-2 months to go!