Broken Door Handle

[Daz 27]

i drove my MX5 to work today & when i opened the door at work it felt like something broke in the door handle. i didn't worry too much about it but when i went to hop in the car to come home the outside handle doesn't work either.
so on the drivers door the inside & outside handles don't work, anyone know how i can open the door & anyone if i can get the door trim off with the door closed?

[JBT]

I don't think it's possible to get the trim off with the door closed - too much interference from outer dash. Unless someone knows for sure how the mechanism works, you may have to take the trim off the pax door to see how it works to enable you to open the driver's door with a coat hanger or something.

[lowmiata]

yep it can be done just have to be gentle

start with speaker cover ;)

and work from inside out oposite to normal

[Daz 27]

yep it can be done just have to be gentle

start with speaker cover ;)

and work from inside out oposite to normal

Ryan, does the speaker cover just unclip?

[Wuey]

Having suffered the indignity of yogaing myself from the passenger seat to the driver seat in public view several times, yours truly might be able to help here.

Get a torchlight and a long steel rule. Wind down the window and pry the window rubber seal apart with your fingers. Shine the light into the cavity just to the left of the keyhole. About 20cm down, you will see some linkage mechanism. Use the ruler and gently poke willy-nilly. You might just hit the sweet spot after a few goes. The door will magically, voila, pop open. Trust me, I have done this many times.

Remove the door panel and gently peel off the plastic sheet. Look for a spring parallel to the window sill at the top. That spring should be there to hold tension on the door opener. It might still be dangling on one side. Simply latch the other side back onto to the linkage. If you're not sure how, remove the passenger door panel to see how. If the spring isn't there, it must have dropped into the bottom of the door cavity.

My spring never came apart. The door jammed due to a worn lock. I have since installed a remote opener.

[lowmiata]

yep it can be done just have to be gentle

start with speaker cover ;)

and work from inside out oposite to normal

Ryan, does the speaker cover just unclip?

sure does same way as door trim

remove pinch weld and you will have plenty of room

[JBT]

Did you get the door trim off with the door closed and get the thing fixed yet? What was the problem?

[Daz 27]

Did you get the door trim off with the door closed and get the thing fixed yet? What was the problem?

yep, fixed it over the weekend.
got the door trim off with the door closed, it's quite easy really, the only fiddly bit being the 2 top clips near the dash. the bottom rear of the door was a little bit fiddly in my car because of the race seats but it only took about 10 minutes to get the trim off.
Wuey was spot on about the problem, thanks mate, the little spring was gone. i found it in the bottom of the door, the end had snapped off it so i just bent one of the coils over & formed a new end. fitted the spring back where it should've been & the door works fine.

getting the trim off took about 10 minutes, finding the spring & re-fitting it took about 10 minutes but in between that trying to get the bloody door open took about an hour. i couldn't figure out which bit of the mechanism wasn't working without the spring fitted, finally found it though, there's a little tab under the bottom of the door latch that i needed to press down, once i found that it was all easy.

before doing any of this i did try the steel ruler down the door with the torch for about 20 minutes with no luck, you can see bugger all in there with the trim still fitted.

[Wuey]

Daz, did you cause any damage to your door trim by removing it with the door close?

Yes, I know the mechanical linkage inside the door does look rather kinkly and complicated if you examine it with a torch from the window sill. It took me less than 10 minutes first try and I can do it again in under 3 minutes every time thereafter. There is just merely a squre cm of the spot that you have to jab at to trigger the spring action that opens the door.

[Daz 27]

Daz, did you cause any damage to your door trim by removing it with the door close?

no damage at all, i did take my time & it was pretty easy.

[Ruby95]

Thank Guys, I had exactly the same problem yesterday, yes the door trim came off without damage, I would recommend pulling the trim of the other door right at the start, once you understand how the whole thing works, it even makes it easier to get the brocken door open. All up it took a frustrating hour before I read this post, then about 50 minutes after that which had both doors back together ready to go.

Many Thanks

Keith