Rear passenger door won't open/unlock all the way

So, if it wasn't bad enough my front passenger window won't go up and down, now my rear passenger door won't even open. It tries to unlock, but doesn't fully. The unlock nub only goes half way up, I tried pulling it up, pulling it up and playing with the handle, and even using pliers. All that did was leave me holding the plastic piece in my hand and the metal rod falling to the side in the door! So, my project tomorrow is to put the motor back in the front door for the window and do some more wire testing, and now to try to get the door open some how. I've never tried to take the door panel off when it was shut, any one done it before and have some pointers? I feel like it's going to suck to undo the xmas tree clips on the bottom towards the rear... Also anyone have this problem before? I'm thinking it's like my driver side front door where I had to do the spring trick for it to unlock. Unfortunately, the back door doesn't unlock when trying to open it like the front, I know it's to keep kids safe, but right now I hate it! lol.

So got it all apart, couldn't see anything wrong though. I took some pliers and yanked like hell on the lock stick thing and it unlocked so I was able to open the door. locked it and it did the same thing. Yanked on it, came back up. I WD-40'ed the hell out of it for now. And it will unlock after 2-3 presses of the switch. I think the lock motor is going.. Not sure. Nothing seemed to be binding. Nothing was hitting. Not sure. Gonna try another time when I have some grease to grease it all up and see if it's just friction keeping it form moving.

Hi there, as for the driver's side window not going up or down, I have had the same problem. Ford explorers seem to have this problem where they like to immitate that the window motor is broken when it is in fact stuck. I will warn you that removing all of the bolts is a pain far greater than I experienced when I had to put a new motor in my car. You will need flashlights, a mechanics mirror, and some pateince. One of the bolts you will not be able to find because you have to drill a hole with a power drill right through the door from the inside of course, on the other side of your drill hole will appear a bolt amazingly enough. i am not sure why ford just didn't put a hole there but thats ford. As for where to drill it is an indentation near the motor on the outside metal panel. You can kind of see where a supposed hole was supposed to be drilled. You have to look at it to know what i'm talking about. It took me two tries to find the right spot to drill so unfortunately I have one more hole in my door than I needed but you don't see it anyhow. When you get the motor disconnected, use a voltmeter and perform a resistance test on the motor just to check and see if it might be the motor most likely not though. If all checks out then just simply put the motor back in and it should work just fine. I have been through the same thing with my car twice so if you have any questions just hit me up with a reply.

Hunz said:

Hi there, as for the driver's side window not going up or down, I have had the same problem. Ford explorers seem to have this problem where they like to immitate that the window motor is broken when it is in fact stuck. I will warn you that removing all of the bolts is a pain far greater than I experienced when I had to put a new motor in my car. You will need flashlights, a mechanics mirror, and some pateince. One of the bolts you will not be able to find because you have to drill a hole with a power drill right through the door from the inside of course, on the other side of your drill hole will appear a bolt amazingly enough. i am not sure why ford just didn't put a hole there but thats ford. As for where to drill it is an indentation near the motor on the outside metal panel. You can kind of see where a supposed hole was supposed to be drilled. You have to look at it to know what i'm talking about. It took me two tries to find the right spot to drill so unfortunately I have one more hole in my door than I needed but you don't see it anyhow. When you get the motor disconnected, use a voltmeter and perform a resistance test on the motor just to check and see if it might be the motor most likely not though. If all checks out then just simply put the motor back in and it should work just fine. I have been through the same thing with my car twice so if you have any questions just hit me up with a reply.

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I got it fixed a while ago. Pretty much did what you did. I took the assembly out (drilling out the rivets and took the whole piece out to look at it) and tested it on the bench at work, metered the wires, all checked out fine, put ti back in and it worked perfectly ever since.

I have the same problem. My passengers side won't unlock, leaving the door stuck shut. I driver's side will only open from the outside, and I have to push the handle down and play with the lock to unlock it. Sucks...

^ I got the same problem too. Any word on fixing it? What you had discussed before was the window motor, correct?

almost all the doors on my 2000 Mounty are screwed up in some way. The back to open only with a good deal of force even when unlocked and the front drivers side door has locking/unlocking issues......

Take the inside of the door off......after consulting my mechanic he told me to drill out the rivet that holds the actuator in place. DON'T DRILL IT ALL THE WAY OUT. Its kinda tough to explain, but drill it so the actuator inside the door is still connected to this rivet, but becomes more loose. This free's up the actuator and allows the lock to move more freely w/ some WD-40.

I was a little nervous, and you need two people so my mechanic was kind enough to do it with me. My adivce: take the door apart and take it to a mechanic and show him your problem......see if he tells you what mine told me

With me taking out the window motor and putting it back in fixed my window problem.

But my locks in my passenger door were sticking for a long time like I said in the post, taking it apart and lubing the hell out of it helped it, it would unlock after a few hits of the button. But after a while of randomly lubing it up, it started to work just fine. Haven't had a problem since.

I'm having a similar problem with my 00 exp. on the driver side door, from what research ive done, it appears that the plastic clips that hold it all together get loose/crack, and cause the problem, im trying to track down the clips but the only part that i can find is the acutator itself.

taffywhtsi said:

I'm having a similar problem with my 00 exp. on the driver side door, from what research ive done, it appears that the plastic clips that hold it all together get loose/crack, and cause the problem, im trying to track down the clips but the only part that i can find is the acutator itself.

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Are you talking about the yellow plastic clips? If so you can use a spring to help it and it fixes it. The clip itself doesn't break. It's a spring in the door mechanism you can only replace by replacing the whole thing. I'll look for the thread on it when I have time.

on my 1998 mercury mountaineer the both back passanger doors will not open any one have this problem

Here is how I fixed my driver side door locking problem

I had this problem for months on my driver side door. I couldn't lock it using the lock switch (Both on the door and on the back) nor using the remote. I feel that it tries to lock but the stick never goes down. I had to push it down manually. However the unlock works fine from the switch and from the remote.

First I excluded the wire issue discussed in this thread. becbause I feel the movement of the stick for trying to lock.

Last night, finally I got some time to diagnose it and here is what I found.

The actuator that moves the stick up and down for unlocking and locking was forced away from its position due to the missing of the holder on the door panel. So it is lower than its normal position inside the door. When trying to lock, it didn't have enough pulling force to ull the stick down. However it still can push the stick up for unlocking when he stick was pushed down.

Here is the picture shows that the holding ribber is gone from the driver side door.


Here is what is supposed to be. Picture taken from passenger side door.



Below if the how I fixed it.

1. Take off the door panel and took out the actuator.


2. Punch out the scew in the middle of the bracket.


3. Put a slightly longer screw in and towards outside so you can lock it with a nut later


4. Put the braket back to the actuator. This took me sometime because the braket is so tight.

5. Install the actuator in its original position and lock it from the door panel with a nut.

thanks for the pic

take the clips completely out. take the outside handle out and keep the rod mounted onto the handle. Put a nut onto the end of it. Take a mapp gas torch and put a right angle onto the end of the rod..just enough to get ther nut on.. keep the nut on when heating or you'll screw up the threads when you bend it. put the right angle bend into the hole where the clip went and put locktight onto the threads. Throw the clip thru the window of your local Ford dealer. they are made to wear out. You'll have to take out the window track for this but it's only one bolt and it fits into a slot at the top. easy to put back in. (these are for the yellow unlock clips for the outside handle rod)

I have a similar problem. Both rear door on my 98 explorer will not open, I pulled the panel off and pulled like hell on the bar itself and nothing. I was even pulling on the locking bar to make sure it was unlocked. It won't open from outside either, does anyone have any ideas?