348 Door won't open? Solution!

So this morning I take the car to work....it's been parked on jack stands for too long as you all know, the windows are already down, I climb in after only 4 hours of sleep. Start her up and drive to work.

I get to work, park in our parking, and start raising the windows. I always open the doors a little to ensure the window goes all the way up. I lean over to the passenger side and pull the handle..... Nothing.....nothing happens and I don't feel it catch at the ¾ mark where it normally get harder on the handle to open the door.

I get out of the car, I walk over to the other side....I use the key, close, open, close, open….all is good, use the button, I open the door lift the window then close the door then the door catches nothing and stays open…..WTF?!?!?!, I do it again, close the door….nothing and it bounces right back again. I go back to the other side and start the car, lock the doors from the button, then unlock etc…I get back out, door still won’t latch on after a few tries, she stays closed but the lock is now like half way, not fully close or open and the open thumb button has no resistance on the passenger side….ok…by this point I’m starting to get really pissed off…..

I walk over to the driver side, I open the door and all of a sudden….click lock, click unlock, click lock, click unlock, click lock, click unlock, click lock and this keeps going and going….and I’m standing outside between the door and the car and this won’t stop…..I close my driver door, it locks and then stops. I unlock the door and it immediately locks back again. I unlock the car and at the same time I open the driver door and it opens…..then starts all over again with the lock and unlocks…. WTF is all this SHIAT!!!!!!!!

I close the doors and windows and go to work. I’m now home and I’m trying to think what tool to use…. A baseball bat, crowbar? My M4 or maybe my .45 or a simple Molotov cocktail???




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Mario

 

As discussed on the Ricambi chat today, you're wasting a great opportunity for YouTube stardom if you actually fix the door. You go, Luke!
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Hello Mario, first of all, you are not the first person to experience the dance of the 348 door locks. I have not had it happen myself with my 348 but there are others who can help with that. Owning an older Ferrari like a 348 takes a lot of patience. There will be plently of issues like this to make you want to pull your hair out. So when these things happen, you just have to calm down and go with the flow. Just know that there is probably a 99.99% chance that whatever happens to your car has happened to others as well. And because of this, there is usually a solution lurking here somewhere on FChat.

 

My 355 had it. Turned out to be a missing rivit or connector on the door lock mechanism. Others have had the dance due to a plastic connector that fails. Search the threads. It's fairly easy to diagnose & I believe Ricambi has the later replacement part.

 

Funny, mine unlocked by themselves & couldnt be locked ....Hmmmm..

 

Hehehehe...... can't believe you posted that.....LOL


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Mario

 

Look at them Daisy Dukes...

 

Alright....the lock and unlock thing has stopped but the passenger door is still closed and won’t open. Both inside and outside latches feel empty like they are not connected (like how they are when the doors are locked normally). The post on the passenger side is still stuck/binding.

So the main question is how to open the door????


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Mario

 

If the window is rolled up, you can try to remove the outer door strakes and access the cables/latch from the exterior. I don't know how difficult it would be to remove interior trim with the door closed. Either way, I think it's time to open it up.

 

You can't remove the door strake panel with the door closed because you can't get to the two nuts at the front end of the panel.

 

But you can remove the four screws on the outside of the panel and very carefully pry the rear of the panel outward to get access to the interior of the door. And once done, one realizes they don't quite have the access they need to disengage the door from the post. Ask me how I know this...

Mario, it sounds like the door latch cable or plastic cover over the inside of the lock cylinder is broken. Your best bet may be to use a "slim jim" to pop the latch. In my case I noticed the door was a few millimeters too far in - the last time it had been closed, it rode too far over the post and was jammed. I grabbed the door and pulled it back and forth in a rocking motion and it finally popped the latch off the post to the correct position.

 

I forget the actual internal layout. I would start by taking apart the driver's door to school yourself on exactly where everything is and what piece does what. You then may be able to get a handle on what has failed on the passenger side and access it with knowledge and authority so you will be successful.

 

Chainsaw!!!!!!! ...or remain coolheaded & use a sawzall

 

I have a “Slim Jim” and a probe cam (keep forgetting I have one). I will go in and take a look and see.

I don’t own a chainsaw or sawzall….what’s with the wood tools?!?!?! LOL


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Mario

 

I like that idea - always use the right tool for the job, lol.
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There is no great pleasure than making a racecar out of a recalcitrant Ferari. Mine came very very close just recently...

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=372191&highlight=racecar

 

You got that right.......LOL


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Mario
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Before you tear your car apart; my 355 has this issue where the doors unlock themselves on they're on. My driver's side door unlocks both doors with the key how ever if I decide to be a gentlemen and unlock the passenger side door first it only unlocks that door. What happens it throws the locks out of sequence. My fix is quite simple. When I arrive at my destination I lock the passenger door with the key first then come around the driver side and unlock/lock the doors with the the Key and it some how re calibrates the locks to the norm position. Just my 2 cents.

 

The jumping of the lock posts no longer happens.


Both the handle and the push button have no resistance.
The lock won't turn on the passeger side anymore towards the front of the vehicle and only a little towards the rear.

Both doors lock and unlock on both side together but on the passenger side it does not come up fully, it comes up only by half of what it used to.




Passenger door is still closed (haven't tried fixing it yet, been busy driving....LOL)

Daniel - My wife has done the Daisy Duke.....she climbed in, she didn't care, she also loves to ride in the car.


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Mario

 

Alright, went into the garage to look at this stupid passenger door that won't open. I followed the instructions from the www.my348.com site saying the cable fits into a loop latch that comes up from the bottom of the door. So to open it, you push down on this loop with a long screwdriver.

Now here is where it gets interesting…..I push down and it won’t move. I stop and think again why the handle won’t move or the button when pushed I have an empty button….and it hits me…..the cable must be seized. So I push hard with my 12’ screwdriver and snap the plastic clip holding the cable to the latch. Now the latch is free of the cable, I push the latch down with the screwdriver again and voila calisse….the door opens.

Now the inside door handle is not connected to anything anymore because the cable is the only thing connecting it to the latch assembly. But……. the outside thumb button now works to open the door. So I didn’t even need to use the screwdriver a second time. I examined the interior latch assembly and even if the cable clips break, no matter which one, the door should open from the outside regardless. The outside button pushes an L plate that is directly connected to assembly.

So if you can’t get the door to open from the inside door handle, one of the two clips are broken.

From Ricambi
Front Cable Retain Clip to inside handle #63291200 $1.21
Rear Cable Retain Clip at latch assembly #40063208 $0.90

But…….. You should be able to open the door with the outside button if it’s only a broken clip. If the outside button won’t work, the cable is seized or the whole latch assembly is broken.

Door Opening Cable #62110500 Need to call for the price……


Going to speak to Daniel tomorrow and see how much a new cable goes for and order some new clips.



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Mario

 

Received my parts last week, ordered
Front handle cable clips 63291200
Rear assembly cable clips 40063208
Tree type Panel Clips 14188181

Worked on my car today and what a pain to remove the door cable. I had to remove the entire inside window panel and everything. What a job……..Now to change the cable you must remove the entire interior of the door to unhook the cables. Once the inside panel is removed, lift the window (via the power window switch) and now you can access the handle one. Now it seems mine was done before because the tip had a hole in it with a cotter pin.

Ordered a new cable as well and it had this rubber boot over it but with the boot on, it won't fit so I removed it.

Wife keeps asking why I keep our old patio chair cushions......this is why......


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Mario
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Nice work.

 

Going thru this Passenger Door not opening on my Recently acquired 348 project.
Inside & Outside opening are both not working. Got the Window Functioning now, but I'm not sure what to hit with the Screwdriver & many of the links in other threads are no longer valid...
Wondering if anyone has any info that might help? I have my Outer Strake loose & can feel the outer button wanting to hit a plate, but still cannot open the door...

 

Having the strake loose won't help. You should remove it then you can look (with a mirror) at the back of the lock push button. The push button pushes on a lock lever which releases the lock. At the back of the push button, there is an adjuster screw with a plastic cap (see pic below). The plastic cap tends to crack and fall off in which case the push button will lose some of its reach which may result in the lock not releasing. If you need to address the push button adjuster screw and its cap, you can remove, from outside (two bolts), the push button assembly shown on this picture.

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This simple drawing shows the push button and its adjuster screw:
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