Hey Lads,

So when I first rebuilt the XJ6 I went through and rebuilt all of the motorized locks. Everything has been humming along for a long time without any issues.

The other night my wife called me on her cell with an issue. You see she was sitting in the car, in the driveway and couldn't get out. She thought it was pretty funny that I had to come rescue her and as it turns out, the drivers door lock would no longer cycle - bummer. I finally got her over to the passenger side and out but there is some concern that I wanted to discuss.

While she was in the seat, I wondered why she just didn't unlock her door manually with the button and she said she couldn't. I reached across and tried myself and nope, I couldn't get it to move either. So it seems to me that manually unlocking these doors is an issue if the motor fails and in an emergency, a person might not be able to escape the vehicle!

I know everything is fine with the assembly as I meticulously removed, replaced and / or repaired every lock assembly in every door (it was a mess).

Have other discovered this when their motorized lock mechanisms have stopped working? I need to get in there this week to see if this is a possible wiring issue or maybe the motor has simply failed on the lock. Having a hard time figuring out why the lock cannot be manually pulled up and the door doesn't pop it when you pull the inside handle.

Color me concerned

 

There are at least two or three similar threads in the archives

Apparently there is a particular failure mode....I can't remember the details...which flat-out prevents the door from opening

Here's one....

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...995-xjr-84518/

Others with a better memory will chime in

Cheers
DD

 

Thanks!

Wow, that's crazy!
He went through the same anxiety that I went through when I realized the possibility of my wife being trapped in the car.

Well I plan on having a really good look at the lock assembly structure when I get it all apart.

 

Hey Lads,

This has turned into a bit of an issue here and I am kinda stumped about how to address it further.

So the drivers door is locked but I can hear all the locks cycling, including the drivers door when I lock and unlock with the remote.

The inside door handle is still connected. I can peer down the inside of the door with the window is down and I can see the cable tensioning and releasing as I pull on the inside door handle.

Even with a pair of pliers, wrapped with a rag is not enough to pull the button up to unlock the door. The button comes up to some degree but has zero effect on the locking mechanism.

Finally, the key will turn the outside door lock to the right for locking it but won't even budge anything in the unlock direction. Certainly not going to snap off my key over this.

So there are two primary questions I have.

1) I will doublecheck in the morning but I swear I can hear the motor cycling in the drivers door for locking and unlocking. If it turns out not to be, is there anything separate (fuse / relay) that affects an individual door lock?

2) Given that everything is as I said it was, how on earth is one supposed to get the door open again? It's no problem to do the repairs once I am in there but we all know that the door panel cannot come off with the door closed. I am not going to take a Sawzal to my door panel. LOL

3) Does anyone have a door lock sitting around where they could see what could possibly be causing this and offer any suggestions as to how I can get the door open? It seems to me that something mechanical has broken or fallen off inside the black box and has put the door into perma-lock mode. Didn't know Jaguar offered such an option?

Could use some help here lads.
Climbing over the center console is not an option

 

Did some more searching and found at least one good video showing this exactly but on the rear door.

It appears something goes wrong inside the motor box and it gets stuck in the locked position. Pretty nuts that at least the inside handle is not designed to override this.

My huge problem is not being able to remove the door panel as long as it is stuck closed.

If anyone has any pics, I would like to see what I can possibly get to without damaging the door panel. I think if I remove the burl wood trim piece I might have some better access. Might require drilling a hole to get closer to the box and maybe I can pry it open. Not sure, never been faced with this issue before.

 

Hopefully others will chime in but I think you'll have to just cut thru the door trim

On an older (80s era) XJ6 I was able to remove the door trim with the door stuck closed but I can't see doing so, without damage, on the later cars.

Somewhere in the archives is a pictorial of the trim panel removal. Maybe I'll help in some way, I dunno

Cheers
DD

 

Tell you what, as hard as it was to find a pristine set of door panels for this car, I would feel better about using a hole saw through the outside door skin LMAO.

There has to be a way in?
It's possible, maybe to get the rear end of the panel away some but I don't want to risk pulling on it too much especially without a solid plan of what I am doing in there in the first place.

What might be helpful is a picture of the electronic box assembly dissected. That way I could see what I am up against inside there. I put quite a bit of force on the door button with the pliers and I would have thought that would have accomplished something (including breaking the mechanism) but it didn't do squat.

Will do some more investigation on thsi in the morning. Wonder what a Jaguar dealer would do? In the newer years of the car I would suspect they would have just busted the door panel out and replaced it with a new one but that's not an option nowadays. Wonder how they would handle it now?

B

 

This may sound far fetched but try disconnecting the battery and then try to manually open the door using the key or using the key and having someone try the interior handle at the same time. Just might work. Good luck!

 

At this juncture, nothing is far fetched but unfortunately, I already tried that. From what I can gather after looking at some stuff on the web, the motor mechanism fails in such a way that it jams in the locked position and I guess Jaguar never thought of how to override that failure. Lucky us

 

Then I would proceed with unbolting the drivers seat ( 4 T45 bolts ) and get it out of your way thru the back door. You should then be able to access most of your door panel. Remove the upper trim as usual except you won't be able to remove the single screw behind the defroster rubber. It should give you enough room to pry the upper portion high enough to remove the lower section. To remove the upper screws on the lower section try getting in there with a stubby phillips head screwdriver or use a 1/4 inch ratchet with a 1/4" socket and a phillips bit. Should work fine,just take your time. It'll be alot easier to replace once the door is open!

 

Are you telling me you cant lower the windows and use a wire hanger to manually unlock the door?

When my Rube Goldberg designed lock assembly failed, I was able to manually hook something that enabled me to manually open the lock...it was something just by the latch itself.

i opened the door and was able to order the missing piece to reconnect the lock parts back together

 

Interested to see what comes of this. Sorry, no help here, but I am battling a similar issue on my XK8.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-open-175483/

The one difference I can see is my key sounds like it tried to unlock the door. Everything else the same, from door lock audibly cycling to the cables pulling. I've thought the same....it seems like the latching mechanism itself is jammed and nothing will release it.

If you come to a conclusion before I do I'll be interested to hear it. I'm just short of using a sawzall on the interior metal door panel and taking a hammer to the latch, though I'm afraid it will only make it worse.

 

Another maybe hairbrained option might be to pull the lock open by getting a piece of wire with a loop in the end and slide it between the door and the pillar. If you look at the set up on the (open) passenger door, you'll see the rotating "U" shaped piece that locks onto the pin or stud on the receiver on the pillar.

Make up a suitable hook using wire and see if you can fish into the gap and hook onto the "U" section. If so, pulling on it might help as you try the door handle. Can't recall the direction of rotation, but if it's wrong, then a long thin blade pushing against the edge of the "U" might be needed. Just a thought.

 

Razorboy, check out my thread in my last post. I finally got my door popped after much contorting and knuckle skinning. The guys over there, especially michaelh and Gus, were super helpful. There was a video posted about an XJ that had the same problem that I found helpful. The locking actuator on mine had frozen down in the locked position and had to be forced upward with a screwdriver in order to unlatch the door.

Good luck!

 

Yes, that's exactly what I am saying.
I did try that, had the window down and a slim-jim firmly around the pull button mechanism. There simply is not enough pull / leverage to break free whatever stuck in there. The guy I saw in the video I watched used a large flatblade screwdriver to ultimately pop it up and with some effort I might add.

 

Excellent news!

I think we are / were running parallel paths there.
Looks like the only option is to do what you have accomplished and try to gain access through the door card somehow. Might be easier on the XJ over the XK but who knows? If it stops raining here soon I will get my shot at it. Will follow up with results.

Thanks!

 

Now its just gotten funny!

Had to go out of town last week on business and got myself prepared this morning to attack this door issue.

Pressed the keyfob to unlock the other doors and ----------- nothing.

Battery was completely flat.
When I put the charger on it, the charger went haywire with the display voltage and this usually means the battery is toast.

As I walked by the drivers door I could hear the motor inside the door trying to work but all it was was clicking noises.
Guess I never heard that when I worked on it the last time so I assume this attempt inside the door went on continuously until it ran the battery flat

So I guess new battery tomorrow and then in I go.

 

Before purchasing a new battery try placing it on a charger and have it load tested. Did you ever manage to get that door opened?

 

When my digital charger goes bonkers trying to define a charging voltage, that's all I need to see. I've seen it before.

Yanked the battery and took it back to the O'Reilly's. Yup, dead BUT under warranty. New battery installed and ready to rock. Did catch me out though as the starter wouldn't hit but realized that maybe the alarm / disarm function was messed up. Closed all the doors, hood and trunk and set the alarm. Then I disabled it and vrooooom. Started right up Good times.

 

Ok Lads,

Hopefully, this is going to save some guys a ton of frustration and in some cases, a lot of money if your XJ6 door deadbolts like mine did.

It took some time to research this out but here is what I came up with.

The door locks on this car are a series of interconnecting but separate pieces. There is the door button, the exterior handle and the interior handle that through various mechanisms all need to work harmoniously together for the system to work. See the pic below to witness the complexity of this device!



So after a bunch of research and finding only snippets of useful information, I did come to the conclusion that my door lock had suffered a deadbolt condition. I haven't taken the assembly out of the door yet but what I had read was that the gear driven, electric motor assembly breaks, locks, jams into the locked position and since the design is to use the least amount of levered strain on the motor and gear assembly, the mechanisms work well in one direction but are horrible to get them to work in the opposite direction. In my case nothing worked anymore and no amount of pull on the doorlock button had any effect. I was definitely locked out!

So the next step was how do I get the damn door open? You can't get the door panel off with the door closed so I was faced with a dilemma. I did some research and found the picture above and the one below. The upper picture showed me the mechanics of the door lock and the lower picture and a couple of others offered me insight into how to access the part I needed to get to. I knew I needed to get directly to the tab on top of the motor (its the connection at the bellows on top of the motor assembly) and the pic with the plastic cover on the lock assembly showed there was indeed access into that area if you were clever.



Now I had a quasi-plan but would I have to take the seat out and remove all the door panel I could to access the joint? In the beginning I certainly thought I would. I started by using a coat hanger with the window down, trying to grope my way into that small opening in the plastic case right below the door button arm. Messed with that for a while with no success - except for scratching the window tint ................... ugh!

So I took the door handle pocket and burl-wood trim piece off and then removed the 2 x phillips screws holding on the top part of the panel. I was able to wiggle the piece out and away from the door on the pillar side but of course there was nothing I could do towards the front. Turns out I didn't have to. With that moved out of the way a bit I moved a bit of door liner material and now had great access down to the lock assembly and with a flashlight I could see the little brass-colored armature I was after.



I fashioned a little tool using my vise-grips and a hooked end tool and fished it into the opening and around the armature. After that it took one simple little pull and a "pop" and the door lock was open! It was so easy I wasn't convinced it had even worked!

Check out the pictures
The second pic shows my tool coming in from the top left corner an headed down under the button armature which is where the opening is in the plastic. Get the hook around the brass armature down there and give it a yank. Popped right open.

Took 5 minutes to put the door back together too. Nothing to it.
One caveat though.
I got in the car to go for a spin and ****! The auto-doorlocks kicked in when I put the car in gear but the drivers door did not cycle. I don't know why but maybe I pulled the armature off the motor or something? Won't know until I strip the door lock out to inspect and that won't be until next week. But to be sure, you should check before putting everything back together. If it does lock again, at least you can go right back in and give it a yank again. Then I would take the rest of the door panel off to disconnect the wiring until you get a replacement in there.

Well it was a bit of an investigation but I figured it out for myself and I hope I have saved others time and money. Good Luck!