Driver's Door Won't Latch

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Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

The driver's door on the 2000 GTS won't latch. Have fiddled with locking and unlocking. Also tried igniton on and off, but that didn't help. You can slam it to your heart's content but it just sits there, slightly ajar.

Any ideas?
 

Lee00blacksilverGTS

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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

I just had this happen with mine, yesterday, but it seemed to be a function of a dead battery, once that was resolved it was fine. Hve you tried going through a few series of start cycles to convince the car it is back on? Another trick a fellow owner showed me yesterday was to open the rear hatch, reach inside to the manual release on the door flip it up and hold it there and then have someone push inwards on the door. It did not work as the problem was still a dead battery.
 
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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

Well I don't have a dead battery (engine starts fine) so we can rule that out. And the passenger door latches just fine.

It must be some sort of computer glitch. If I sit in the driver's seat and close the door with the inside door latch manually held open, I can get it to partially latch. Then I lock the door and open it with the inside latch. Once open, I relock the door and when I close it, it will latch fully.

Interestingly enough, this only works if I'm sitting in the driver's seat.

Anybody know how I can get the computer back on track?

















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GTSnake

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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

If there's something wrong with the drivers door I usually check the wire harness in the door hinge first. That's the weakest link where you'll most likely get a lot of broken wires.
 

Randy

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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

If there's something wrong with the drivers door I usually check the wire harness in the door hinge first. That's the weakest link where you'll most likely get a lot of broken wires.
I was about to post the same thing, as I've repaired six broken wires in my driver's door-to-chassis wiring harness. I'm not sure how a broken wire could cause the issue you state - failure for the door to latch, but I imagine its possible.

Easy enough to check for a broken wire: just pull the rubber boot loose from one end or the other, then gently pull on each wire - if one comes free, it was already broken and needs to be either spliced or replace the whole wiring harness. (Personally, I've just spliced in thicker wires - no guarantee that will help any, but it puts off the wiring harness replacement for now).
 

Batboy

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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

Agreed with two previous posts. I had two wires break in the hinge area to the point I couldn't get the door to open. While trying to fix it myself I had the same latch problem. I patched in 12 volts directly to the solenoid and the door would latch, but it didn't fix my opening problem. Finally, I found the problem with the help of my tech. Anyway, it sounds like you have the begining symptoms of this problem.
 
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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

It's the battery. Finally tracked it down yesterday. The battery is not dead, but it's just weak enough to create a problem with the door latch.
 
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Re: Driver\'s Door Won\'t Latch

Got everything fixed today by installing a new Optima battery. Door latches just fine.

BTW, the instructions for a battery changeout on the website were very helpful. I did not have to modify the battery tray or trim the ground post on the new battery to get it to fit. It slid in with minimal clearance between the frame and the ground post, but since the ground post has a plastic cap on it, I figured I'm okay. The positive post did not even come close to the frame (and it's got a plastic cap also.
 
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