Having a problem with your lock is always a troublesome affair. However, it makes all the difference whether the door is locked in a lock or unlock position. With an unlock position, you are constantly under risk of your car being broken into without any resistance. In this scenario, even your insurance company will think twice before reimbursing you, seeing as how the motor vehicle theft was partially your fault.
On the other hand, having a door lock stuck in lock position can be just as troublesome. On the one hand, it can prevent you from accessing the vehicle or it may force you to enter the car by the passenger door. Fortunately, opening your car and fixing the lock isn’t nearly as difficult as it may seem and here are several tips to help you out with this.
Diagnosing the problem
The – stuck in the lock position, is a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself. The cause of this problem may stem from several different issues. The connections may be broken, there may be rust and grime that cause the jamming or there could be some structural damage. Your primary task is to diagnose the problem, seeing as how each of these problems has its own solution. Fortunately, figuring out which of these issues happened usually isn’t that difficult and it doesn’t require mechanical prowess. Ideally, however, you would take your car to a specialist. So, look for a reputable local auto locksmith and entrust them with this problem.
Broken connections
In order to understand the concept of a broken car door lock, you need to understand how the car lock functions. There are several internal and external connections to the car door latch and, in this scenario, the connection between one or several of them would be broken. In other words, if your door handle, your door lock cylinder or the interior locking switch are not properly connected to the car door latch, the car door lock will be stuck in the lock position. It really is that simple.
Naturally, in order to fix this problem, you need to repair the broken connections. To do so, you need to open the door and troubleshoot the current situation of the lock assembly. You also need suitable replacement parts or a mean to put the pieces that are currently broken back together. Needless to say, this is not a simple issue to resolve and it might be for the best if you were to leave it to professionals.
Rust, grime or jamming
The next potential issue that we need to address is the one of malfunction due to the presence of grime or rust, as well as several other causes of jamming. The latter usually happens due to the fact that a foreign object is stuck in the keyway. We’re mostly talking about broken keys and key parts. Diagnosing this problem is the simplest of them all – you try to put the key inside the lock and if you can’t fully insert it into the keyhole, there’s obviously a blockage. Nonetheless, if you can’t unlock the vehicle even with a car key remote, the problem is far greater than you may have originally thought it to be. With the upcoming smart technology innovations, the situation may become even more complex.
Fixing the issue is quite simple, you should try to open the door and the lock, check what’s causing the blocking and remove the residue or the foreign object. Since you’re already working on the problem, it would be wise to additionally lubricate the assembly and try to move it, while you’re still in a position to make some further adjustments.
Structural damage
It goes without saying that the structural damage is the worst of the three types. Still, there’s a particular type of damage that will leave mark on your door latch in a manner that will leave you in a scenario where the door stays stuck in the lock position. Most commonly, this happens either due to the aggressive slamming of the door, a fender bender or, in the worst-case scenario, a crash. What happens after this is that the latch could be either bent or disconnected from the rest of the assembly.
Out of all the above-listed, this is the one that you should definitely take to the mechanic. This is because there are so many variations as to what may happen to the lock during the accident. Even opening the door without causing too much harm to it may be difficult on your own. In other words, attempting a DIY repair, instead of saving money, may end up causing even more damage. To make the long story short, opening the door may be the most difficult part of the repair but it’s just the beginning of your trouble. More likely than not, you’ll have to go for a replacement.
In conclusion
In the end, it’s important that you, as a driver and the person who uses the vehicle in question the most, probably know how the lock got damaged in the first place. if there was an accident or a bump to the door side, you were probably there when it happened. If the key got stuck or broken in the lock, chances are that you were the one who broke it. Just having the idea of what’s wrong is already a huge advantage when it comes to fixing the issue.
