Hello folks, Hopefully someone can help. I just bought a 95 parts car today but we could not open the doors. Both locks are working as I could see the levers moving when I turn the key but both doors are stuck. Battery is dead and I have never seen a situation where the doors will not work because of a dead battery and I have done this with 15 XJS’s so can anyone help with a solution.
Thanks,
LeRoy
are you sure locks are fully releasing or just part way? onscrew the side mirror and reach in with needle nose plyers and grab the lock rod.
Yes they are locking and locking all the way otherwise the lock levers on the inside would not move all the way from side to side when I turn the key correct? Since I never had this happen I never had to open it any other way than with the key. So if they are open any idea what could have caused this? The guy I bought it from forced the right side quarter glass down to have access to the passenger interior door handle but now it will not open.
Using a set of plastic pry tools (harbor freight) go to the rear side window and remove the glass from that nice big gasket that holds it in the opening, you should then be able to operate the door handle. Start at the top of the glass and work down the sides…I think pushing in at the top helps things, reassembly is the opposite…easier with someone inside during the reassembly. Best, JW
OOOOOOOOOPPPPPS 95, my mistake, go back to the mirror removal as suggested. JW
The car is several hours away from me and I have to have the car picked up by Wednesday so I have to be sure of what I am telling the shipper to do so I am wondering if the security system could have locked up the doors in such a way as to cause the locks not to work. The guy I bought it from said that a few years ago the on a few occasions
he would lock the car then the alarm would go off. I am looking for someone who knows this system. The problem cannot be a matter of pulling on the latch as he has been using a bar to pull it from inside from the open quarter glass. Whats more both doors suddenly not opening being a latch issue in my experience is not likely.
I have had that happen to me a few times with my 94.
The car thinks it is locked because the lever was not fully open when locked.
Never had it happen to both doors though.
The lever has to be pulled hard while pulling the door open.
It’s not easy but it is doable.
However I doubt a tow truck driver will be ale to grasp the technique.
Interesting. So you pulled extra hard as the handle was all the way up?
Driver should be able to actuate the lock using a slim Jim. Tell them to lock it, then unlock It again.
Having a fully charged battery will help, but should not be mandatory.
I dunno. The door locks working intermittently was the first indication my battery had gone south in my '83. The car still started fine. Battery tester said it produced about 10 amps. New battery and suddenly the locks worked fine.
To be fair, different locks. The '83 used great big 40-pound solenoids while the facelift uses Ford motorized locking mechanisms.
“Lazy” power locks is an indicator that the battery is on its way out, even on a facelift.
Typically one of the two power locks begin showing trouble about 6 months before the battery craps out.
To be completely correct, only one of the doors were jammed at each time.
So what I was doing was pushing the door open from the opposite seat.
At the same time, I was pulling the interior handle and pushing the door open simultaneously.
I believe that the reason it jammed was not closing the door completely before it was locked.
Thanks. I will have to go there tomorrow myself and try a few of the suggestions. Both doors are jammed
I could not get to the car so I hired a tow company to pick it up but they could not or did not try to open the doors. I do not know but now I must go by tuesday to put the car in storage as they are charging me $25 a day.
LeRoy, what ever became of the stuck door(s)?
Hello Chihuahua Waves - I thought I recently read that unfortunately Leroy Sorrell has passed away - Tex.