Bughalli

I have a 2001 SE Pathfinder. My back door, drivers side stopped opening about a year ago. It was locked shut. I took it to the dealer and they said they couldn't get it open. With it closed, so they couldn't pop the panel without doing damage and they felt the child lock was on, making it extra difficult. They felt I needed a new actuator if they did take the panel off, which was a $250 part. I searched the web looking for solutions and read a few things to try, but nothing worked...until I found this thread. First I read you can see the child lock from the inside if you remove the inside molding. It pulls right up. I did this and I could clearly see my child lock was NOT locked. I could also see the part of the door latch/lock from the inside (looking between the door and body) with the molding pulled. I sprayed it with WD40 from the inside, soaking the latch mechanism. I also sprayed it from the outside by lifting the outdoor latch cover. Unfortunately the doors still wouldn't open. So I took a coat hanger, cut it in such a manner to see if I could reach the latch from inside car (now that I had molding pulled out). If you look at the opposite door, you'll see how the latch engages and disengages. There's a little pin that moved up and down from the top. I had just about given up, stuck the coat hanger in there a couple more times, poking and prodding and suddenly I heard a click. It released! I must have bumped it just enough so it could disengage. I doubt I actually reached the actual pin that slides down. Once the door was open I cleaned it out and soaked it again with WD40. Now it works perfectly. Why didn't I do this over a year ago! With two kids and car seats that door has been a major pain in the butt! What a relief, I was close to getting rid of the truck. I've noticed on the back hatch these latches have grease on them from 2001. It gets thick and dirty over time, which actually hinders the mechanisms vs lubricate them. I've noticed differences in cold weather vs warm. I assume that old grease hardens in cold temps. I'm sure this has occurred on a lot of moving parts. So wiping off what you can and giving everything a good soaking of new lubricant helps.