2002 door stuck shut

My passenger side door is stuck shut ,neither the indoor or out door handle will open the door. Lock does move ok. How do I get the door open since I can not disassemble the door to find out what is wrong with out opening the door. Glenn pollockg@cox.net

Call a unlock door service or use a body shop. Also it is not a good idea to put your real email on an open website.

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It seam like the whole word as my e mail any and i do not have the $300,00 to have the door unstuck.

The world has my e mail any way.

Huh? What could that mess-of-words possibly mean?

Do you walk to school, or do you carry your lunch?
:thinking:

Could it be frozen? Run the heat on high.

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tried that no luck

The cost of something like Pop - a - Lock is $30.00 to $50.00 and excuse me for suggesting you should not put your email on an open forum.

More than likely the plastic door latch rod clip has broken and the rod is no longer attach to the door latch.

Here’s an example of one.

What I have done in this situation is, remove the seat and either place it in the back seat, and if there is no back seat, pull the seat past the steering wheel out of the vehicle.

Now the inner door panel can be removed so the door can be opened.

Tester

You might get lucky with a slim jim, hook the right lever and bingo! You can look at an exploded view of the mechanism to see where to start feeling around

A Slim Jim only works on a door that’s locked.

Not on a door that won’t open.

Tester

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I have caught the right piece with the broken plastic clip, just anecdotal evidence for sure.

Here’s how a Slim Jim works.

Tester

I expect you’ll be removing the seat as posted above. But you might get lucky. Try this: Remove the door panel from the driver’s side and take a look at the mechanism. You may be able to come up with a method to open it using a slim-jim gadget or just a coat hanger bent into the correct shape. You can try it out on the driver’s side door first to get the hang of it. Folks here have said they use wooden wedges to pry the window inward to make the space where you put the slim-jim a little more roomy. Remember you still can lower the window on the stubborn door, so if that’s of any value, take advantage of it.

As a last resort you always have the option of pushing the lock cylinder out w/a punch or something similar. You’d have to replace the handle ass’y probably as it would probably get damaged. But it might allow you to get the door opened.

One more idea, you might can cut a hole in the door panel to obtain the needed access to the latch mechanism. Finding a used door panel on a Frontier probably isn’t that difficult.

Here, let me translate it for you, VDC. “It seems like the whole world has my e-mail anyway and I do not have the $300 to have the door unstuck.”

There are many reasons some people have problems writing. My beloved daughter is dyslexic, genetic in the family, and she has her Master’s Degree in Science Education. She teaches in a special public school, not special ed or anything like that, that school has the highest % who go on to college, with only students who want to be there, and not long ago became Teacher of the Year for the second time in 25 years.

Why? Because of her positive personality and her ability to motivate science students to, er, learn science.

Every semester, in every class, she tells the students she is dyslexic, explains what it is, and asks them to wait till she is done speaking to point out her spelling errors on the black board. Every time, there is a kid who gets all excited and says, “I have that, too.”

No doubt the rod may be disconnected but I had a stuck drivers door once. Took it to a body shop for a discussion of what to do and back home again. I thought it would be easier to cut an access hole in the door and weld the patch back in but before I got drastic just decided to get very aggressive with it. Shoved it good a few times and it popped open. Can’t say why for sure, if it wasn’t unlatching all the way or what but it opened and never had a problem again. So if you are sure it is unlocking, I guess I would give it a try since the cold weather might have gummed the lock a little.

Along those same lines, OP could try a few bumps w/a rubber mallet at spots near the latching area.

When I say aggressive, I mean like football blocking, or bumping a refrigerator back in place. Really aggressive without hurting yourself.

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A word of caution. In some states, a Slim Jim is a burglary tool. You can be arrested for having one,so don’t keep it in your car.
In other states, a Slim Jim is a food item and will fend off starvation while you wait for the tow truck to arrive.

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Has the temperature where you are been well below freezing? Did you try to wash the car lately? Has it sat in freezing rain lately?

I’m wondering if it’s the neoprene rubber seal around the doors perimeter that’s stuck.