Mychal71

1999 Honda Accord Lx 4cyl. 4 door

The rear drivers side door will not open. We have small children so the child saftey lock is on. Well I think that the door latch mechanism to open the door from the outside has broken because you cant opn the door from the outside anymore. With the child safety lock on, you cannot open the door from the inside either. Great huh?

I have tried taking the door hinges off to see if I could pop the door open enough to get the child lock undone, but no luck. There isnt enough room to get the door panel off either.

Has anyone else had this happen? Any ideas to get this open? I may be stuck and have to take it to the dealer $$$$$$$

If I could just get that child lock undone, it would open from the inside, then I could get the door panel off and fix the outside door handle.

Any help is greatly appreciated asap! Not fun having to take both kids out of the passenger side door (both in car seats still)

thanks!

poorman212

Ok an idea. Never done this and using my 95 as a ref.

You know "about" where the child lock is-use the other door. Looks like a little prying on the inside trim and you should be able to slip a piece of metal, between the door and seal. From there if you can push up the child lock????

Hey, you asked for ideas.....

campfire

Never had this problem but u can try taking the door hinges off when u open the front door and see it it bends a bit so u can take the panel off but be very careful if u can get the panel lose or it may give u play to stick a screwdriver in there to pop the latch Im just guessing here so idk if it will work best I can think of.

Heat

Take off the back seat bottom cushion, might give you enough room to take the door panel off.

To remove the cushion, remove one bolt in the seat crevice, near the right belt buckle (if you were looking from the front seat). Once that bolt is removed, just pull straight up on the front edge, there are two clips holding it in.

Also... once that seat is out the back seat will fold down flat, making the Honda much more useful for hauling stuff but that's another story.

joe zygmont

same thing happened to me, but my child lock was not on. my buddy slammed my back driver's back door shut and actually bent the lock shut. if you remove the back seat cushion, nd that side cushion, there should be enough room to remove the door panel nd then u can reach inside nd mess with the lock

Mychal71

thanks for the tips guys!!!! Ive been out of town this last week and havent had a chance to mess with it. I've tried sticking somthing down in there to try and pop the child saftey lock with no luck. Tried popping off the hinges and not enough room. I will try the seat cushion...maybe a combo of the seat cushion and the hinges off will allow enough room to either get the panel off or pop the child saftey lock.
thanks... I'll report back after I try it again.

tsasha

Hi,

did you manage to sort the rear lock out. I have the same problem I've removed the back seats and managed to get the door panel off. But can't get the lock to unlock it self...? My honda has the super locks..?

hmooblaib

i have the same problem and i fix it by taking off the inside door handle. there should be a a nail in back of that handle take it off and slide open the handle so that u can see that cable that holds onto the handle. just pull that cable and the door will pop open and then turn the safety lock off and ur good. hope that helps

parkav

Did you manage to open the door ? I have the same problem so will be grateful if you can reply as to which method worked.
Regards.

thenext

Try taking off the inside handle. You might be able to access the outside door handle from there and if you can get that popped out you should be able to yank the metal rod attached to the handle and pop it right open. If anything, you will probably have to replace to outside handle anyway so what about cutting the handle out with a dremel?

parkav

Inside door handle and the panel seem to be blocked by seal around the seat.
Do I need to pull off the inside door covering ? OR Do I need to just undo 2 handle screw only to get to the rod ?
As for cutting the outside door handle is beyond my courage !
The child lock OFF could not open the door from outside but could open from inside by latch.
Now child lock ON can not open the door from inside or outside.

parkav

Tried this, as there is no room to insert except a thin screw driver without any success.

thenext

You try a coat hanger?

tsasha

I've managed to get the door panel off but still can't get the lock off. My Honda has those super locks.

Anyone got any ideas..?

parkav

You try a coat hanger?
NO.
Thanks, gonna try when stops raining here in London.

parkav

It's sunshine & the coat hanger unlocked the child lock and then I have opened the door from inside.
Thanks, now I need to remove the trim to fix outside door opening with handle but that can wait to do with my friend.
Thanks once again.
Have a good day.

sotoalex123

I had the same problem managed to fix it by removing the inside door handle and pulling the cable towards me. I heard the latch click and the door opened. I tried with the child lock and without it. So it should work for you. Good luck.

lksammy

If anyone still has this issue, here is my 5 minute fix. I unscrewed the one screw behind the inner handle and slid the trim loose, then removed the one screw from the pull pocket trim. Then I rolled the window down as far as it goes. Once the window was down, I stood outside of the car and used a big slot head to pry the inner door panel up (i had a good three inches between the glass and rear of the door). The panel popped up and I was able to pull it away from the door just enough to get a top down view of the child lock. I used some plumbers tape to fish down and pull up on the child lock. Then I could open the door from the inside. I still need to fix the outer handle, but at least I can open the door from the inside now.

BWhipker

This thread saved me over $200, so want to add a few comments of what did work.

The passenger rear door would not open from the outside (cable came loose), but would from the inside. My spouse thought that by activating the child lock it would help - only made it impossible to open from the inside too. So had a door that would not open and impossible to get the door panel off. The local Honda dealer's solution was to break the panel to obtain access to the interior of the door.

One person suggested sliding a piece of metal between the door and frame to try to lift the child lock. As suggested, looked at placement on the opposite door to find correct location of lock. A hack saw blade (~12" or 30 cm) with duct tape around it could be inserted from the top downward to a place below the child lock switch. Bend the end 3" slightly so it curves. It took 10 minutes of trying before it worked. Helped to have second person trying to open the door every time some sounded like it clicked.

Thanks all for your help. For a non sprocket type of a person the suggestions made the repair possible.

ryeisenman

I had same problem (child safety lock on and outside door handle disconnected). I used a 10" long piece of packing crate spring steel (about 1/2" wide and maybe half a mm thick) which I bent to the right angles and tested on the openable door to reach the child safety lock. So I pushed it in the crack and it took a few minutes of fiddling. Did not have to remove any door panels.

ryeisenman

More on that: After getting the child safety off and opening the door, I took the door panel off and fixed the broken linkage with an e-clip. To do that, took the outside handle off which makes it trivial to get at the broken linkage. The handle is held on by two 10mm bolts. But getting that handle off (in particular the rear 10mm bolt) is a bit of a trick: I did that by undoing the latch mechanism (three countersunk + head bolts) which allows the latch mechanism to be down pushed out of the way just enough to get at the rear 10mm bolt with a 1/4 socket through the opening in the door where the latch usually sits. After you reconnect the linkage with an e-clip or a new connector from Honda, its even harder. But its doable. I wonder how the heck Honda put these together (maybe they put the glass in last ...).

breckrider

So, I took the inside handle off and was able to grab the bar and pull it far enough to open the door from the inside. I took the panel off and it appears that the out side handle is broken. The metal is snapped. I can't seem to get the child safety lock to move up into the disengaged position. I'm probably going to have to take the driver side rear door panel off so I can see what it's supposed to look like.

I know I'm going to have to order the outside handle assembly and the little clip that holds the inside door handle rod to the assembly but not sure what to do about the child lock problem.

It's 25 outside so this won't happen today but any other suggestions or pictures of what the child lock assembly should look like from inside the door?

Thanks. This thread has been a tremendous help already.

Virginia

badlt

Hello,
I want to add to this post as this is the method I just used and disabled the child lock no problem and able to get the door open. I didn't need a screwdriver to pry the inside door panel away though. I just used my fingers and pulled up on the panel closest to the back part of the door and pushed towards the inside of the car. I was able to create a good 5-6 inch gap and could easily see the child lock. I then simply got a flat head screwdriver and flipped the switch up and opened the door. Check out the attached pics. So easy! Thanks!





Access child safety lock

Pete_Z

HERE'S AN EASY SOLUTION! (with pictures of 1999 Honda Accord)

To solve this you use a hook wire.

For wire, I recommend a heavy coat hanger with a plastic coating to prevent scratching and to make it slide easier.

Open the door the does not have the child lock on and use it as a template.

Form the wire into the proper shape. [picture 1] The shape from front to back will be the same for either side, but you have to mirror the left-right bends for the opposite door. It's really just a slight curve front to back, and a slight bend at the hook end left to right.

Notice the slight twist on the hook, and also the bend in the wire that positions the hook end slightly outward, so it will catch the latch lever. [picture 2]

Using the working door to measure, mark the wire where the door frame joint is, so you know when it is at the right depth to catch the child latch. [picture 3]

On the locked door, slip the hook end in at the back side of the door, between the rubber seal and the door frame. There's an opening there that will allow a small hook through. [picture 4]

Carefully work it down to where the mark meets the door frame joint [picture 5], and work it around until you catch the latch and can pull it up. On the way down you may feel it hit the plastic frame around the child latch (if it has one, as mine does), which helps you know where you are in relation to the lever.

You might even pull the lever up and not know it - it doesn't take much force - so try the door handle every so often, especially if you think you might have caught the lever. (I didn't know I had pulled the lever up until I tried the handle!)

Once I got the hook wire formed correctly (it took about five minutes and three tries, going back and forth between the open door and the child locked door) I was able to open the latch in less than 10 tries of fishing around for the lever.

I wish you all success!

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