Thread: Driver's door latch/ lock issues

I drove out to the Cox's River on freezing Friday night for a weekend away with the boys and their Toyota Land Cruisers (V8 ute, 100 Series Sahara and a 90 series) and in the dark, found myself on a very cold, damp and greasy hill on which I simply couldn't get any traction or beat it with momentum. Lots of very smooth rocks and I just couldn't find a line that would get me enough grip.

Rather than let the tyres down even more (they were at 30psi), I hopped out of the car to use my winch for the first time. I'm not sure what happened, but when I got back in the car to start hauling Monty up the hill, my door latch wouldn't work....the door wouldn't click into the closed position. I couldn't lock or unlock the car using the interior locking 'button' on the door sill either as it didn't want to budge.

Given that I needed to get to the campsite as a priority (4.5 hours from Sydney at this point, stupid M4 traffic), I held the door shut for the next 10km (and it was Baltic outside - down to Zero C so my poor elbow got as chilly as a polar bear's nose) and then in the morning we decided to get it sorted....which involved taking most of the door apart.

Thankfully I had a mechanic with me who is used to bush repairs like this and I always carry a hard copy of the workshop manual so we set about it with some confidence.

Some observations:
1. Land Rover doors are poorly designed. Access panels are in the wrong place, screws are poorly located, silly plastic sheets exist that don't do much etc
2. Of the three retaining clips that we had to remove and then replace in order to remove the actuator arm and locking mechanism, one was plastic, one was aluminium and one was......something else. Three different designs and materials when surely one would do. Baffling. And fiddly.....SO FIDDLY!
3. Do not attempt this in the bush without a magnet. Luckily I have a telescopic magnet with an LED light in it - lifesaver.
4. It's almost impossible to remove the foam panel without tearing it. Gaffer tape is your friend.
5. Removing the main interior door panel is a pain in the arse. Those white plastic fixtures are not as reusable as they should be. The entire assembly should be held on with screws to keep it simple.
6. Get a set of torx screwdrivers.
7. The workshop manual is poorly indexed.

The culprit ended up being a very naughty small piece of black plastic in the latch that had broken off and was stopping the door latch from clicking into place in the 'closed' position. This must have been when I got out and the door slammed shut because Monty was pointing up into the air like a Saturn V rocket.

So, after an hour of head scratching, tickling with screwdrivers and poking with torches and twisting and pulling with pliers, some highly creative language and a lot of laughs (and a cup of tea) we got it sorted and put it back together, testing each step along the way.

Getting home yesterday though, I locked the car using the key and the central locking all worked marvellously.....and then after half a second the central locking unlocked itself.

I tried this a few times and Monty seemed to be insistent on unlocking himself when I locked him, within half a second.

I'm wondering if there is some resistance on the actuator that's causing it to push back....but I'm fairly certain that we put everything back in the right place so it's a touch confusing.

Has anyone had one of these units apart before or had this sort of issue?

Bobby

I've had a similar scenario in the middle of nowhere. After endless fiddling I gave up and drove 2000km's home with a ratchet strap holding the door shut. It had started popping open with no notice - particularly when a road train would go past!

Ended up replacing the latch twice - first time with Britpart which lasted just days. Then went genuine. And it was such a pain the arse and I was so over it I paid the mechanic to sort it out.

So moral of the story is don't buy aftermarket - genuine latches are designed poorly enough.