stuck passenger door?

[kguarnotta]

Up here in the northeast, I just had my car washed. It is hovering near freezing.

I went to open passenger door from the outside - the handle was always a little stiff (ie my kids had trouble sometimes pulling it as it was so stiff).

Anyway - I tried to open from the outside - and it sounded like something snapped - I figured maybe the water go in the seal while going through the car wash, and the door sort of froze shut. Pulling on the handle - maybe I broke something.

I found a great thread explaining how to remove the door card [https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/diy-removing-passenger-side-door-card.4016955/]- but as I can't open the door - I'm not sure what to do?

Any suggestions...
_________________
-Kevin
Lincoln, MA

2001 Eurovan
'86 Triple Knob Syncro w/EJ22
'78 Westy
'69 Single Cab
'65 Kombi - EZ-Camper

[HeyCrutch]

Typical door handle failures occur when a bare metal lever that's part of the exterior handle breaks, but it sounds like you cannot open the door from the inside either, is that correct?

One common culprit is when a permanent component of the black exterior handle breaks and no longer "levers" the door-opening mechanism that's inside the door frame ... see this VWVortex thread for some info and pictures

https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/diy-eurovan-door-handle-repair-2003-ev-mv.3060279/

If your door isn't opening from the inside either then there's more to the issue ... the connecting rod may have come dislodged (if a clip is broken) ... or there could be something interfering with the mechanism itself (this happened to me when the plastic shroud that surrounds the mechanism somehow finagled itself into the wrong position).

_________________
-2003 EV MV Wk - Forest - 51k
-2002 EV Camper - Ghost - 82k
-2003 EV GLS - Fluffhead - 176k

-1997 EVC - 12vVR6 (SOLD 5/2025)

[Endopotential]

Yikes that's a tricky one. I'm counting my blessings that I live in warm sunny California.

I have some vague memories of the setup, as I took off my door card to fix a window regulator on my '02 this summer.

My first feeble suggestion would be to get it inside somewhere warm enough to make sure everything is well thawed out, and there's no solid ice jamming anything.
If you take out the speaker and if your arms are long and flexible enough, you may be able to pull on the actuating stuff from there. Though the plastic sheet and insulation may still prevent access.

This shows the anatomy you'd be dealing with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkV5_hALvQ

Else last resort plan would be to Dremel through the door card plastic by the inner handle to get access to that pull rod?

[kguarnotta]

well - the weather warmed up a bit today, and I was able to open the door from the inside.

Looks like I have the broken handle I've seen mentioned in a lot of other posts. I'm thinking it was a combination of a frozen door - which caused the exterior handle to break, and the frozen part - making the interior handle not work properly.

I'm wondering if there is something I should lube in my other door handle - so this doesn't happen to it as well.

I think I'm going to try one of those repairs to adjust/change the exising handle, instead of buying a new one..
http://whatavan.com/tricks/door_handle.htm
_________________
-Kevin
Lincoln, MA

2001 Eurovan
'86 Triple Knob Syncro w/EJ22
'78 Westy
'69 Single Cab
'65 Kombi - EZ-Camper

[HeyCrutch]

If you decide to buy a used handle that has a working metal lever, you can swap out the lock core/cylinder from your old, broken handle in to the replacement so that your key will work to lock/unlock that door (and central locking).

Check out this video to see how to remove the exterior door hand and or9ginal lock core. Not too difficult.

Link


The video goes on to show how to re-key the lock core, but you won't need to do that since you'll have the original on-hand.
_________________
-2003 EV MV Wk - Forest - 51k
-2002 EV Camper - Ghost - 82k
-2003 EV GLS - Fluffhead - 176k

-1997 EVC - 12vVR6 (SOLD 5/2025)

[kguarnotta]

thanks for that tip...if my repair does not work - then I'll want to swap cylinders.

I ended up doing the repair as shown here -
https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/diy-eurovan-door-handle-repair-2003-ev-mv.3060279/

Unfortunately the rubber gasket/seal was sort of deteriorating. I see some on ebay - but no idea of the quality...anyone know about this seal?

I can get from a dealer for $45 or ebay for $12. ARe they the same - or is the ebay one junk?
_________________
-Kevin
Lincoln, MA

2001 Eurovan
'86 Triple Knob Syncro w/EJ22
'78 Westy
'69 Single Cab
'65 Kombi - EZ-Camper