Right Front Door won't Release

[jerryj]

2004. 5 Ram 4-door. Left front door lock will not release. Unable to release by key, RKE or inside switch. Am able to open door with inside door handle only. All other door locks ok. Anyone have a cure??

 

[tkerrigan]

Same thing happened to me, except driver's door. You need to buy a new door latch and install. The solenoid is mounted on it. They cost about $75. Remove inside panel of door, fold plastic liner towards front of door, remove bolts from latch, unhook rods at other end from latch, unhook wire clip, remove bolt from bottom of latch side window channel, you can just slide the latch with rods attached straight down into the corner of the door. Switch rods to new latch and reverse process. Or pay the dealer at least a $100 labor to do the same thing.

 

[TSPowell]

This happened a couple months ago to me. The door would lock and unlock fine, but would only open from the inside handle. I took the whole lock mechanism out of the door and found a screw that fell out. Each lock/handle function has its own rod going to the assembly. If you look where the outside rod attaches, you will see that it has about an inch worth of an adjustment slot with a screw that goes into the middle and secures it. For me the screw fell out and allowed the adjustment bracket to max out before the latch would unlock. I went to Ace Hardware and bought a screw to replace the one that fell out. Used lock-tite, and no problems since. I was going to take pictures and post the fix, but I was in a hurry. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

ONLY COST PENNIES!

 

[TSPowell]

Any luck fixing it??

 

[jerryj]

This is on the drivers side- did you have to do anything with the window glass to get

at the lock??

 

[jerryj]

not yet!! Am still working on it

 

[Dutch & Di]

I wonder if this would solve our problem too? Our passenger side will lock and unlock with our remote intermittently. Sometimes it also beeps that it is locked but it will still be unlocked or visa versa. Any thoughts? Diana

 

[TSPowell]

This is on the drivers side- did you have to do anything with the window glass to get

at the lock??

Im pretty sure I left the window up. I removed the door panel and the barrier behind it to access the lock mechanism. Then removed all electrical connections, handle/lock rods and then the screws holding the mechanism. By now you should be able to fish the whole thing out of the door. A few of the rods are hard to unlock, I think i might be easier to remove the screws first. That will give you some wiggle room.

If you are really stuck, I might take mine apart again and take pictures to post on here.

 

[jerryj]

That happened with ours also. I just don't know if it has anything to do with the

driver's side door. When I fix it I'll let you know. Jerryj

 

[jerryj]

Will give it a try. Was a little worried about maybe having to remove the glass. The way you described it sounds within my ability.

jerryj

retired IAAF Local 873

new location - Jacksonville, OR

 

[VLopresti]

I just recently experienced the same issue with the driver's side, front door of my 2004. 5. Thanks to this post, I replaced the door latch mechanism as described above. This solved the problem.



The part number for the door latch mechanism (driver's side front) is listed as follows. The list price at the local dealership was $64. 00.



55372851-AA