I feel like I’m missing something obvious, but my driver’s door no longer shuts. I was out cleaning snow any ice off (we are in the middle of a nasty snow and ice storm, all my doors and windows were frozen shut) and starting my engine when I tried to close the door while I waited for it to warm up, and it would not latch, it just bounced off.

My initial thought was that the mechanism was frozen so I tried thawing it out with a lighter and then boiling water, but then I realized that the latch was not even in the right position.




Also, when I try to use the power locks that one would go down then immediately power open open, I tried it several more times then the sound the lock made got softer and softer then finally stopped working.

To make it worse, when I was fighting it, my inner door panel cracked apart at the “handle.”

How do I fix this?

My door is presently being held shut with duct tape.

 

Make sure it’s not the infamous hinge pin bushings.

George

 

It looks like the swing arm is in the closed position / when you tried to shut the door the arm being cold and stiff it didn't swing down all the way and was shoved into the the lock position by the door pin on the door jamb as you tried to close the door.
In front of the swing arm it makes a round spot - simply insert a screwdriver into the rounded area and lift the outer door handle as if to open the door at the same time move the screwdriver over and shove the swing latch down to the open position.
Frozen latches and such a heat gun on low or even a hair dryer works well - A lighter usually don't provide enough heat and hot water may seem like a good idea at the time but just adds to the problem.
And as far as the elect lock goes you may have over heated it or may have burned it up .....

 

Was going to say the latch inst up, take a screw driver or pen, pull hand and push that piece up. Some lubes should help it from sticking

 

Well I got the latch unstuck, would have been nice if I knew that trick last night. And my door electronics seem to be working again (maybe they got wet?), but I still can’t close the door, in all the slamming last night when I just thought it was frozen the piller thing that it latches on to got pushed in through the sheet metal on one side and is now at an angle and will not engage the latch. I tried bending it back out but was unsuccessful.

Any ideas?

How many ridiculous hundreds of dollars might a body shop charge to fix it?

Door is still duct taped closed.

 

You're not the first person for this to happen to. Usually it happens when the door pin bushings ware out, the door sags, and the owner keeps slamming the door to shut it, eventually the metal behind the striker doesn't take the beating any more and gives way... Mine's been repaired once already before I got mine, can tell by the taped off and repainted area around the striker...

But some other examples...













I've seen some DIY repairs that work. Not the most polished end results, but short of taking it to a body shop, it's about as good as it might get in a drive way.

 

The top picture is what mine looks like.

 

Hope you're handy with a welder then.

 

Given that your strike plate and the body attachment point looks like the top picture, that strike plate has been taking some serious long term hammering which means that the latching process has been messed up/misaligned for some time. I encourage you to determine why the door would not latch easily before you start any repair. An example would be the hinge pin bushings. Without fixing the original issue it may be very difficult to properly align the strike plate or to prevent a recurrence.

George

 

I got it fixed, not pretty, but it seems to work fine and only cost me $75, I’m eventually going to have to fix the paint anyway.



Before

After