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Drivers door not opening from outside


Bretthudson_41
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Looking for help.

 

I have a Ford focus zetec S (2009/ 09 plate)

 

I washed my car earlier in this cold weather, I've just gone to open the door in this cold weather and it felt froze up, the door handle went a little floppy and now won't open from the outside. I have to open the door from the inside so I'm guessing something is broke.

 

I'm worrying so badly now as someone is coming to buy the car tomorrow all being well and I've broke the flipping door!!

 

Anyone with experience know what I could of done and if it's a cheap and easy fix?

 

Thanks in advance

 

I've put a pic of the car there so you can all see the type of handle

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

20190202_143355.jpeg

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Most likely broken the loop on the back of the handle that engages with the locking bar inside the door.
Most likely a new handle will be required.
It's not a hard job but is a bit of a faff regards removing the handle plus sourcing a replacement.
Also depends on whether it's a keyless entry handle or not (wires to connect up inside the door) and matching colours.
The handles are reasonably cheap on eBay but obviously won't help you for your viewing tomorrow. [emoji21]

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

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Most likely broken the loop on the back of the handle that engages with the locking bar inside the door.
Most likely a new handle will be required.
It's not a hard job but is a bit of a faff regards removing the handle plus sourcing a replacement.
Also depends on whether it's a keyless entry handle or not (wires to connect up inside the door) and matching colours.
The handles are reasonably cheap on ebay but obviously won't help you for your viewing tomorrow. [emoji21]

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)


*****! I might say I'll knock £100 off I'm sure he will under stand if I say it was frozen up
Is there anything that might of fell off or anything like that I could easily fix?

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It's likely that you've snapped the part circled in this picture-
c5d67115004e98070b31a09dcdb76fb0.jpg

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

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It's likely that you've snapped the part circled in this picture-
c5d67115004e98070b31a09dcdb76fb0.jpg&key=a6d0d4072e156cde2a2064b2f3b3d7eee04f35297a8bfdeaced9b942d714857b

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)


Will changing that be a problem because it's got the lock barrel in there or are they easily changed over

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I have an old Haynes manual at home.
I'll dig out the exact routine for you in the morning if you want.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

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I've had my latch freeze in the past so after I opened the door it then wouldn't latch closed. If I recall correctly there are two cables/mechanisms, one for the outside handle and one for the inside. It's probably the case that the outer one froze after you washed it rendering the handle useless until it thawed yet the internal handle worked fine.

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Great advice guys. I don't want to hijack this thread but as it's here and I was about to post a new one I thought I'd just add my issue.  Same door handle 2008 focus.  Last 6 weeks been getting really stiff.  Tried wd40 and it hasn't worked.  Also on the frozen mornings the lock mechanism wouldn't open all the way so had to pull the inside handle to open it. I'm guessing it might have been frozen as with the OP.  But why so stiff?  Is there any grease to put in there?  I'm confident nothing has snapped or broken.  

@Bretthudson_41  Absolutely lovely motor; if your buyer walks away because of a door handle then that's his loss.  You'll get another one!

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17 minutes ago, Albert27 said:

Great advice guys. I don't want to hijack this thread but as it's here and I was about to post a new one I thought I'd just add my issue.  Same door handle 2008 focus.  Last 6 weeks been getting really stiff.  Tried wd40 and it hasn't worked.  Also on the frozen mornings the lock mechanism wouldn't open all the way so had to pull the inside handle to open it. I'm guessing it might have been frozen as with the OP.  But why so stiff?  Is there any grease to put in there?  I'm confident nothing has snapped or broken.  

@Bretthudson_41  Absolutely lovely motor; if your buyer walks away because of a door handle then that's his loss.  You'll get another one!

Give the latch a good dose of white lithium grease spray or silicone spray, WD40 just strips away any existing grease and isn't actually healthy for the mechanism in the long run.

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13 minutes ago, WES180 said:

Give the latch a good dose of white lithium grease spray or silicone spray, WD40 just strips away any existing grease and isn't actually healthy for the mechanism in the long run.

Cheers Wes, I've probably made it worse.  Will it be good enough to spray it in without removing the whole handle as in the video?   With the wd40 I just pulled the handle partially open and sprayed it in the gaps!

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2 hours ago, Albert27 said:

Cheers Wes, I've probably made it worse.  Will it be good enough to spray it in without removing the whole handle as in the video?   With the wd40 I just pulled the handle partially open and sprayed it in the gaps!

I would imagine it would be fine a long as you aim the straw in the right direction I will be doing mines too as the handle can get very crunchy in this weather 😁

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43 minutes ago, F0CUE said:

I would imagine it would be fine a long as you aim the straw in the right direction I will be doing mines too as the handle can get very crunchy in this weather 😁

Cheers Ian.  Yeah i just pulled the handle back, plenty of room to get the straw in.  Will soon see if it works.

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  • 4 years later...

I recently bought a 2007 Ford focus and the drivers front door won't open from the outside handle. I replaced the handle and the handle reinforcement and still won't open from the outside. I sprayed pb blaster on the latch to see if that would break something loose but nothing changed. It's also weird that after replacing the handle and reinforcement, the door handle doesn't fully go in. The outside handle sticks out a little.  I'm about to replace the latch assembly too but I wanted to see if anyone had better ideas before I spend more money. Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks

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Sounds like you need to change the latch, but make sure it is the same part number as the original

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