I have a 2000 Honda CR-V with a door lock problem that’s been going on for about a couple months now. What happens is that sometimes the driver’s door lock (and only the driver’s door) will refuse to unlock. What will happen is all of the other door locks will pop up (meaning the little peg that pops up and down when you lock and unlock the doors) but the driver’s door lock will only pop up halfway and the door won’t unlock or open.
My dad has already taken the door panel off, cleaned everything out and put it back. It worked fine for about a week and then the lock acted up again. It can’t be the key fob because it’s brand new and it works fine. And if I put the key in the lock, the door still won’t unlock.
Having said all that, when I took the car to get an oil change, my mom mentioned the problem to the mechanic and he somehow got the door to unlock by using the key.
Hope this helps. 1999 CR-V, but probably useful for other years. Just solved my uncooperative driver’s side lock. For about a year I had to jerk on the outside handle before the key could lift the lock post and let me in. Sometimes I couldn’t get out either. The electric lock would pull it back down. Pulled the door panel and unplugged, then found the problem was still there, except was no longer relocking itself, it just was hard to move, especially when hot. Took the whole thing out. Noticed a spring lying in the bottom of the door. Looked at latch mechanism and found two hooks with no spring. Loop on spring broken but I have a boxful collected over the years so was able to find a close match (about 1 inch long, medium tension). Now the unlatch lever returns to its place after the door handle released. The reason heat made it worse is the grease: slicker when hot, unlatch lever would fall back down when handle let go, blocking the locking lever. Now it stays up out of the way. Did have to adjust the length of the handle rod (take the handle assembly out while still connected to door, pull up and turn it around until the rod is right length [it is threaded at the top knuckle for this purpose]-- in my case about two turns CCW). Now everything works great. Decided I liked it better without electricity, left it unplugged. Can still un/lock the rest by the door switch, but do the driver door manually. Note: getting the assembly out is not very easy and getting it back in is worse. To get the window track out of the way: take off the screw below the latch on the end of the door, peel the rubber track out of the metal channel, and set metal channel aside. The rest is just paying attention and not forcing anything.