Drivers door won't unlock with key or central locking/unlocking device

[John McB]

Have had no issues until a few days ago.
When i try and unlock the car remotely, I have to do 2 clicks to open passenger door as the drivers door won't unlock remotely or with the key.
Once I have climbed across to the drivers seat, I can't unlock by pulling up the knob on driver side door.
The only thing I have seen in the forums which I will try 2morrow morning is to disconnect the battery for 20 min so computer resets itself.
Any other suggestions?
1997 VS ute.

 

[BlackVXGTS]

I was going to suggest you have a problem with the door actuator, but in that case you should still be able to pull up the knob on the driver's door. Given that you can't open the driver's door at all it means that you can't even take off the door card to see if something looks strange with the mechanism inside the door.

You could try removing the snib button (the red bit) and pull the knob off to see if anything is binding. Refer to the link below to see how to do this:

https://forums.justcommodores.com.a...-side-not-working-vs-calais-commodore.263700/

FYI. The easiest and quickest way to reset the computer is to remove the 20A engine circuit fuse in the relay housing on the driver side strut tower for 10-15 seconds and then replace. However, I doubt that will solve your problem.

 

[statey1975]

Sounds like that door is stuck in the deadlock position. Short of ripping the door skin off and disconnecting everything, I think you can only un-deadlock it with the key.
When I had my VR, I had the problem where I deadlocked the car and then couldn't un-deadlock it again, I nearly snapped a key off in the lock before I finally got it unlocked....vowed never to use the deadlock again!

 

[hako]

If it is deadlocked and the will not turn enough to disengage the you will probably have to rip/destroy the door trim to access the lock....trims are cheap enough at wreckers.

Good Luck.

 

[BlackVXGTS]

If it's deadlocked, the OP shouldn't have been able to open the passenger door with the remote.

 

[statey1975]

If it's deadlocked, the OP shouldn't have been able to open the passenger door with the remote.

Well, true. But if it wasn't deadlocked, he should be able to unlock it from the inside, too.
Gremlins have a habit of being against all rules of reason.

 

[statey1975]

I actually found someone else on another forum who was having almost the exact same problem, apart from the fact that it was the passenger door. I won't go posting the link, that's just not cool. He said that his actuator had "locked up solid". He was able to remove enough of the door trim with the door closed, and managed to disconnect the actuator, which freed up the lock and allowed him to open the door.

Good luck!

 

[BlackVXGTS]

The attached diagrams may help you to use the fix identified by statey1975. I've included images for both the front and rear doors because I find the diagram for the front door to be a little confusing. Basically, the rods you see in the diagram have ball-shaped ends that hook into plastic retainers on the actuator. The actuator is located on the door lock end (rear end) of the door.

 

[John McB]

Thx all who have replied
Weekend so have a chance to sort this out.
I tried disconnecting the fuse to reset computer : BlackVXGTS, you were right, it did nothing.
Always good to try a simple option first tho.
Thx for dia above and links too
When I use the remote, the drivers door snib button jumps a bit, but not enough to unlock
About to try and remove driver's snib

 

[John McB]

Not sure what happened, but its working!
I made the tool and was trying to work out what to do with it.
I was pulling the snub (red thing) up with the tool and a little gremlin said "try the key".
It didn't work right away but a bit of jiggling and it opened.
With heart in mouth, I locked the car with the remote, and then pressed unlock.
It worked!
Thx all who advised.