Manual Lock not locking on ’93 Mirage

[kyiame]

Hey everyone, I’m new here :woohoo:

I’ve got a ’93 Mitsubishi Lancer Sedan (called the Mirage in the U.S) it has old school Manual Locks, and the driver’s side door seems to lock properly (goes all the way in when you push it down or use the key). However when you pull up on the door handle from the outside you can see the lock move halfway up but it remains locked, when you do it one more time it comes up all the way and the door unlocks and opens. This only occurs on the driver’s door, all other locks operate properly.

Also there have been instances where I lock it and it stays locked no matter how many times you lift the handle (as it should) but when this happens I also am unable to unlock it using the key, it won’t budge. The only solution is to enter the vehicle through the passenger side and pull up on the lock from the inside, then push it down again, and pull it up once more to unlock the door. These times seem to be completely random as I have tried to replicate it (pushing in or pulling out on the door or even lifting it while I lock it with the key) and I have not been able to consistently recreate it.

Not sure if this is important but the inner door handle on the driver’s door doesn’t work (seems to be a worn out spring on the handle, even though you can see it pulling on the lock rod I assume it doesn’t provide enough torque to get it to open) so I have no way to test if this problem occurs by using the inner handle.

As you can imagine I can’t keep anything in the car for obvious reasons but I really wanna install a new stereo system and I need this fixed first.

I also have a problem with the central locking not working for only the passenger side front door. It operates normally with both rear doors when I use the key on the driver’s door for Locking and Unlocking.

I’m stumped!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Topic

[dreamer2355]

You may need to pull the door panel off on the drivers door and do a visual inspection of the door handle, lock and linkage to see if anything is binding or sticking.

[kyiame]

I already did a visual check while I was trying to recreate the random “getting stuck while locked” issue… what baffles me is that everything appears to be fine. I even moved the end of the latch into the lock position with my finger and wasn’t able to unlock it with any kind of force…unless I used the key, which is how it should be isn’t it?. Now since this was with the door open I have no view what happens with the latch while the door is closed. Only thing I can see is the lock rod visibly moving when you lift the handle from the outside which definitely shouldn’t be…

Remember this uses manual locks so it is a simple mechanical connection between the lock – pulling on the lock rod – which pulls on something inside the latch mechanism to unlock the door. so the handle should have no influence on the actual little lock knob as it uses a completely separate metal rod to reach the latch mechanism.

I’m thinking it could be something wrong with key mechanism in the handle providing the handle access to the latch mechanism, though I could be wrong and am basing this solely on the fact that it is the only part of the handle with access to the locking mechanism within the latch.

So i’m looking for advice from those wiser than myself before I start ripping things out and making it worse. Not to mention spending money on parts I don’t really need which are hard enough to even find because smaller, less used aftermarket parts are very rare for this car.

[EricTheCarGuy]

2 things come to mind. The first is that you might have a problem with the latch assembly. This is what the rods for the door handles and locks go into and it also latches the door to the body. To fix it you may need to replace it. Second, I’m wondering if someone may have already had the door off for something and perhaps switched the rod locations on the latch for the door handles. What I mean is perhaps someone hooked up the inner handle to the outer handle spot and vice versa with the outer door handle. This might also explain why the inner door handle does not work properly as the door SHOULD unlock when the inner door handle is used NOT the outer door handle.

[kyiame]

Ok I’ve finally been able to fix my problem…it took me awhile as I was away for most of january.

As Eric suggested it was in fact the latch assembly which was just plain worn out from use over the years. So I had to buy one 🙁 …but I didnt wanna spend so mush on an assembly from japan, so I researched any other options….I found what seemed to be the only one on ebay but is was from a ’96 for a grand total of $20 Shipped :woohoo: I crossed my fingers that it would be sufficient and bought it.

I did have to improvise and change out one of the lock Rods between the old and the (relatively) new one as they were slightly different, also needed to saw off the piece of steel which held the Central Locking control unit to the old latch assembly…but my door now locks, and unlocks, as it should. :blink:

Thanks for the advice guys!

[college man]

thanks for the update and the fix.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Awesome! Thanks for keeping us up to date and posting your fix.

[Author]

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