Passenger Side Rear Door Will Not Open!

[shorn]

Hi all,

I have a mk1 1.9TDi 130 Leon that I'm having a slight problem with. The rear passenger side door will not open. I have tried it from inside and out but it just will not unlock. Every other door is fine, and this door was working because I only opened it a couple of weeks ago as I installed a car seat base! Im not too sure what to do or try?

[shorn]

Forgot to add, I've tried giving the handle area a whack to no avail, made sure I've pulled the internal handle twice and the interiior windows still work fine!

On a sidenote, MOT is due this week, would this be a reason to fail it?

[flares]

I had that with mine , central locking mechanism was shot . About £90 for a new one , you`ll have to try & get the door panel off to open the door though

[Gordz]

I had this on my mk3 ibiza, just had to continually press the unlock button on the key until it opened, or lift the door pin up with pliers! My leon doesn't have door pins and so I assume yours wont either, so just try the continual unlocking with key, or get the door panel off and have a good look and fiddle around?

Shouldn't fail an MOT I wouldn't have thought, I've watched garages perform MOTs in the past and they have no need to go into the rear of the car, so they'd never know!

[drue1]

Originally Posted by gordz_ibiza

I had this on my mk3 ibiza, just had to continually press the unlock button on the key until it opened, or lift the door pin up with pliers! My leon doesn't have door pins and so I assume yours wont either, so just try the continual unlocking with key, or get the door panel off and have a good look and fiddle around?

Shouldn't fail an MOT I wouldn't have thought, I've watched garages perform MOTs in the past and they have no need to go into the rear of the car, so they'd never know!

it would fail as all doors and boot and should open from inside or out

try and get the door panel off or get the pin up

[Gordz]

Originally Posted by drue1

it would fail as all doors and boot and should open from inside or out

Is this on the actual MOT 'checklist'? As like I said, I've seen an MOT done all the way through just to see what they actually do etc. And never once saw them open my rear doors!

[LEE69]

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_620.htm

Open and close the drivers and passengers' doors. Check that each latches securely in the closed position. Check also that front doors can be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle.

[Gordz]

Fair enough! Maybe I just missed the guys doing it!

[Nutkin]

if you remove the rear seats then its not a failure


rear doors only have to open if people can sit in the rear.

[LEE69]

Might have to remove the belts too.

[Gordz]

Here's my thread from a while back when I took the rear seats out of my old Ibiza

http://seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=184477

[Nutkin]

Originally Posted by LEE69

Might have to remove the belts too.

nah if theres nowhere to sit then there is no need for belts or doors. in spain cars come like this. tax is cheaper if you can call your car a commercial vehicle.

[shorn]

OK, well just having a look at that link to the MOT manual and it actually states as a reason for failure...

"b. a driver's or front passenger's door cannot be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle from the relevant control in each case."

Now that is specifically stating a FRONT passenger door, so resumably the rears will not be included in the reason for rejection. I shall probably ask whoever I book it in with before hand.

On the subject of the door not opening, my wife tells me that it did this a while back, but then started opening again.

Will it be possible to get the door card off whilst the door is locked shut?

[shorn]

Anyone got anymore suggestions on getting the door open or similar experiences?

[Gordz]

Originally Posted by shorn

OK, well just having a look at that link to the MOT manual and it actually states as a reason for failure...

"b. a driver's or front passenger's door cannot be opened from both inside and outside the vehicle from the relevant control in each case."

I was right then! That would be why I never saw the MOT guys at the garage open the rear doors! lol

You could possibly prize open the top of the door card and have a look in? Might be handy to take out rear seats? Maybe could get all of door card off that way? Working from memory here, lol.

[Nutkin]

get a new door card and a dremmel and cut it off.

[drue1]

Originally Posted by shorn

Anyone got anymore suggestions on getting the door open or similar experiences?

does the door pin go up when open the doors with the key/fob if not try some wd40 around the pin.that might help

[LEE69]

How are they going to check the rear belts if they don't open the rear doors?

There are screws under the handle, remove them and the door card comes off, but the mechanism is then behind the metal carrier.

[shorn]

No door pins unfortunatley! I'll have a go at trying to get the card off but mightend up sticking it in garage as need the car pretty urgently!

[tonyjo]

Originally Posted by shorn

Anyone got anymore suggestions on getting the door open or similar experiences?

This happend on the rear drivers side door on my LCR. In fact, its happend twice now. It will require a new central locking motor as mentioned in this thread. My local stealer only charged me £130 for a new one, which included fitting and VAT. Not too bad.

I also could not open my door. However, I finally managed it by inserting the key in the drivers door and opened the lock manually. Then, leaving the key in, carefully open the rear door from the inside. With just the right amount of pressure it opened. However, the down side is, once its open you can never lock it! No idea why this worked, or if it opened at all because of what I did.

The mechanics at my dealer thought that it was caused by the classic water leakage problems that Leons suffer from, and the lock failed due to excess moisture.

Good luck!