Went to put stuff on the rear seat, and the door will not open, bugger. Central locking button does not move even though it is making all the right noises when pressing the key pad. When pulling the outside door handle there is no resistance at all, it's like there is nothing fastened to it, same on the inside the handle has no resistance at all, it just is not pulling any thing, likewise the central locking button you can get your finger behind it and it does nothing, like the two door handles, no resistance at all.

As the door is shut and will not open after pulling the handles countless times inside and out, flicking the central locking in and out loads of times the door is shut, and not going to open. Is there some way to open the door without the door handles. Is it possible to remove the door card without destroying it, or will it have to be sacrificed and a replacement found.

When I sold my Disco 2 because it was a money pit I thought a Freelander might be a cheaper option, looks like I was wrong. Any helpful advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Phil*

Hi Phil, sadly i don't have the knowledge for a solution with you not being able open the door,

I had a similar problem except in reverse the door wouldn't lock and the handles did nothing much, i found that the door lock motor / acutator had gone kaput, so i found one (they only come as a sealed unit) online around £40 with shipping and ended up replacing it with some help from here, took me all day but worth it as garages want around £200 to do them. whilst i was sorting that out the other rear door internal door opening levers started playing up so i took the door card off and found that the cable assembly where it clicks into place into the actual inside levers had somehow come out of its position all it took was to put it back in correctly and touch wood that door has given me no troubles since.

Having said all of that I'd hang on to see if any others respond as your car is "secure" as the door won't open at all, and perhaps all else failing rather than destroy the door card yourself perhaps consider taking it to an Indie LR garage to see if they can get the door open so you could fix it yourself assuming it needs a new door actuator unit

Hi Swann36,

Thanks for your reply. I took the bull by the horns and attacked the door card with a claw hammer after removing all the relevant screws. It went reasonably well, shoving the claw in between the door pocket and the frame then levering against it, popped a couple of the door card plastic pop in clips. After that, easy to get fingers behind and pop them all off. After removing the card it was fairly simple to get the door open by pressing the open close button repeatedly and pulling on the internal door handle wire.
It did a very small amount of damage to the card, but livable with to be honest. Second hand HSE door card, £30 off fleebay, so if the card had been destroyed, a replacement was obtainable.

Forgot to say, a new door lock £100 was fitted.