I’ve got a 2005 Nissan Sentra. A couple of months ago, I started seeing an issue which now seems to be happening all the time. When I reach my destination, I can’t open my car door.
What appears to be happening is that the handle on the inside of the door isn’t catching whatever it’s supposed to catch. No matter how hard or frequently or violently I pull on the handle, nothing happens. The door won’t budge. But (and this took me far too long to think of) if I roll the window down and pull the OUTSIDE door handle, the door opens just fine.
I’m seeking expert opinions, layman opinions and WAGs about a) what the problem is; and more importantly, b) how much it’ll cost me to fix.
There’s either a rod or cable connected to the inside door handle that has been damaged or disconnected. I notice there are lots of YouTube videos on how to replace the front inside door handle on 04-06 Sentras. You might watch a couple to get a sense of what’s inside the door panel, and how hard the job is.
If you have access to a second car, you could open the door up and see if anything’s broken, or if it just needs to be reconnected. If not, you might buy parts first and then return anything you don’t use.
My WAG is it wouldn’t be super expensive to have it done by a mechanic, unless you have to replace the inside handle and it has power accessories. I had a power window switch break, and it required replacing the whole door handle assembly, which in my car (a Mazda) was over $350.
A long time ago, I had a similar problem on my F-350. I had to roll down the window and reach outside to open the door. When I took off the inside panel, I found that the part of the door frame that the handle was connected to had “torn” from all the use. Because of this, pulling on the handle didn’t make the cable short enough to unlock the door (and, it had been going on for awhile, which is why the metal was torn - I kept yanking on the handle to get it to unlock). I ended up cutting a piece of sheet metal and pop-riveting it as a “backer" to fix the torn section. That lasted until I got rid of the truck.
You might be able to get it to work by using the handle by moving it and at the same time holding it though the motion it needs to keep it in its intended alignment throughout the motion. I had that happen in a different car, and it was the outside door handle but by using 2 hands and holding it in place as I used it I could get it to work. What happened is one side of the hinge detached and would not push the rod far enough to open the door, but by moving it in the way it was designed to it still worked.
I’ve had a couple of car issues where it was either “hours of researching how to fix it, followed by days of tracking down two little parts and a week of messing with it…”
Or “a half hour of the local car guy knowing what to do.”
I’ve fixed a few Nissan door handles. Nice when the truck is so reliable, the damn door handle wears out first!
The rods are secured with little plastic clips to the metal handle (pink ones and yellow ones). I’ve found that get get brittle and break. The rod falls out, or is rendered inoperable. A fairly easy fix, but getting the door panel off is the tricky part. It can be done without breaking the plastic tabs or wrecking the panel, but you gotta be careful and patient. Also difficult to get your hands in there to replace the clips, I found. I pulled some clips off a car in a junkyard.
One of the things that has gotten me through life this far is knowing where my strengths are and aren’t. I don’t think I’ll be tackling this one myself, particularly knowing that I lack the skills noted by @Gatopescado. But I am appreciating the informative responses and will be sure to let you all know what the mechanic says.
My hope was (and thanks to this thread, remains) that this isn’t a four-figure repair job because I’m really fond of this car, and it’s got very low mileage for its age (about 85K), but we have a relatively newer vehicle as our primary driver, and having a second car is, by far, more of a luxury than a necessity for us these days. I’m not likely to sink any significant money into this.
If money is an issue you might consider getting an estimate from a mechanic and a body shop. Body shops would have to deal with this sort of thing possibly more than mechanics do.
Second this. A couple of years ago, I needed some repairs to a car including control arms in one corner. Mechanic - $125 per hour. Body shop estimated fewer hours at $75 per. They did a fine job. If the new factory part is expensive, the body shop might also be more willing to install a used part.
Depending on where you live and if you’re dealing with a dealer or a mom and pop mechanic those labor rates could be 25% higher or lower. Also that assumes they round up to the whole hour, most places round up to the 15 minutes so you could be in for fewer total hours of labor. The parts involved here are generally pretty cheap and ubiquitous so I think that estimate is on the high side, and in fact there may be no parts required if this is simply reattaching a loose connector.
You can see here that it’s maybe a 5 minute job to get that panel off to look at what’s going on.
