door latch

[KIKER]

I can't open my left rear door on my '07 quad cab. It happened about a month ago and I tried from the inside and outside, worked the lock up and down, banged on it, and it opened and worked until yesterday. It's doing it again. Does anyone have any input on this? How hard is to get the inside door panel off? Will it even come off if the door is shut? Any help on this will be greatly appreciated!
Jimmy

 

[sag2]

You sometimes can get the panel off without breaking it but not likely. Try everything you can to get it to open one more time and then repair it or leave the panel off until you are sure it is repaired. You can try removing the hinge bolts to give you a tad more room, but the risk of bending sheet metal is very high so be careful if you try that. If the latch is tight you will not get it to move very far.
If you can't get it off pull the other side and get a good feel of where you might need to cut the panel to access the linkage with minimal damage to the bad side.

 

[KIKER]

Thanks, I will try that. If I can't get it open, what are my options? The handle pulls out, but nothing happens.

 

[cerberusiam]

The door panel will come off with the door shut. Flip the seat up and you can get the fasteners that hold it on. The panel pulls up then out so it should be fine once it is loose. Probably broke the plastic clip that goes the from the latch to the handle.

 

[KIKER]

I went back out to my truck a couple of days ago, to work on the latch malfunction. The door opened of the first try! I looked up a video on youtube and it's not that hard to remove the inside panel, but I haven't taken it off yet to see if I can see what is causing the door to not open. I guess I will have to some day when I can't get it open, no matter what I do to it.