Could really do with some help here ladies and gents. I’ve got a problem, I believe my rear door, passenger side has a faulty actuator. I have a replacement but I cannot get the door open to fit it. I’ve looked through the forum and have found very useful guides, but nothing on getting the locked door open if it won’t budge. I’ve tried many combinations of unlock button on the dash, the remote, engine running or not, pulling all levers inside and out but no luck. I’ve resorted to drilling holes in the door to try and pop the lock, but no joy. Basically, I can manually manipulate both levers on the mechanism and from what I can gather this should release the lock? My last resort will be to take a dremmel, cut a large hole in the door (from inside) and try to attack the lock with a drill. All seems a bit drastic, anyone got any better ideas?

Above is the view inside the door skin.

I had this problem, but I managed to open it, by getting someone to press the unlock button on the dash, and pull the internal door unlock lever at the same time. After one or two goes, it unlocked.

If that doesn't work, try removing the trim from the other (working) door and checking what moves on the actuator, then see if you can force it on the faulty one, maybe ...

Cheers for the reply, I have tried pressing the unlock button (both on dash and keyfob) whilst trying all the levers but no joy. I’ve also got the replacement actuator unit and from looking at that it appears it should open when the cable levers are activated. The cables are now disconnected (after a lot of fumbling around in the door skin) but I can feel and physically move the levers, but the lock remains closed?

Have you tried the combination: hold down both lock & unlock on dash whilst another person activate levers?
2 man job

Think car should be started and in P

Still no joy.........activating the release levers (mechanically) on the lock mechanism does not release the lock. I'm thinking that the door might be 'superlocked' meaning both mechanical levers are disconnected internally. I believe all of the locks 'superlock' when you lock with the key fob, meaning they can't be opened from inside or out (preventing theft). The problem is, if the actuator develops a fault whilst in this state I can't see how you'd get it open, other than brute force. I could try and apply 12v directly to the superlock motor to see if that helps release it, anyone know which wires i'd need to apply to?

you may have tried this many times but from outside pressing unlock on remote repeatably and simultaneously pulling releasing door handle many times over.
you can try power on lock & superlock motor



IMO: if that doesn't work a motor must be seized and hammer etc. needed to break lock out.

Hopefully you have fixed this now, but if you haven't, do you have the child locks engaged on the rear doors?

Big thanks to all who posted and helped me out with this one. Hope this might help others in the future. Basically, I think I was on the right track with the 'Superlock' idea. After digging in a bit more it seems that the car can be configured to 'Superlock', which means neither internal nor external handles will open the door. This is to prevent someone smashing the window then opening from the inside. Additionally the dash unlock button will not open the car when 'Superlocked'. It seems that the function is standard with one press of the lock button on the remote with UK spec cars, though could be programmed differently. If you sit in your car and lock it with the remote, you'll find you cannot open any doors if Superlocked. So, the only way to open the car was with the remote, so I now stopped trying the dash button and focused on the remote. I then gave the actuator a few taps with a block of wood and a hammer hoping this would free things up if they were jammed. Next I got the Mrs to unlock with the remote whilst I activated the external door handle lever, and to my delight the door opened! Happy Days! I'm going to have a look when I get time but I believe inside the actuator are two motors and several gears. One of the motors is for the Superlock. I think I had a problem with this or the gearing. Incidentally, the child lock was on (I couldn't remember) so the internal lever would have never opened the door.