my 96 Jag automatically unlocks all doors when I open the driver door, my grandchildren are much quicker so now I cannot open the back doors from the inside and the inside handle on the driver door has a lot of play in it and I am afraid it will be the next to stop working. How can I fix these handles?
Logically it seems like if you shorten the rod from the handle to the latch (by bending it)it will take up the slack.
I can’t place the info about the kids being quicker affecting your ability to open the back doors from the inside,still shorten the rod.
All modern cars (even my 1988 Jetta) have a child safety lock on the rear door jambs, it it currently set?
It disables the inside door handle.
I’m with Andrew on this…I think it’s actually law. I loved it when my kids were young…and a bunch of us at work would go out ant lunch and I’d drive…I had to open the doors for them because of those child safety locks.
They might use cables (like a bike brake cable). The newer Jags do. They have a bad habit of stretching and causing this problem. The only fix is to replace them.
Your grandchildren pulling the handles before you unlock the doors, in itself has nothing to do with the problem. This issue is that they probably pulled very hard on the door handles. That has probably stretched the cable in the door that goes to the latch. This is not an uncommon problem some Jags and for the similar Lincoln LS. The only fix is to have the cables replaced. On some models, you can only get the cable as part of the door latch assembly. I’d get them fixed, because the outside handle cable may fail too. When that happens, the door can’t be opened and the labor to fix it will be much higher.
Thank you all so much, one door did have the safty lock on and it works fine now the others had a stretched cable. Your help was much appreciated.
Look on the door near the latch. Oops, you found it.
We did the rod shorten trick on GM CK pickups,you could take the air grill on the edge of the door off and reach in and bend the rod.
Yes, but it doesn’t do any good to bend a flexible cable, it just goes back. Most cars do have rods, and that trick will work on those. This one doesn’t.
Just for the reader who has the problem with their pickup,maybe they didn’t know about this easy fix.