My Door Won't Open, at all...

Tried to take my 360 out for the very first time this year and to my pleasant surprise, I could not open the passenger door. When I got in the car (battery was charged), the locks seemed to cycle a few times and then stopped. Then, I could no longer lock/unlock the doors using the key fob; I could use the key to manually lock/unlock the drivers door but no use at all on the passenger side. To begin, I have found and thoroughly read through the following threads:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/175604-360-spider-door-locking-closing-problem.html

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/193970-360-door-wont-open-i-am-so-screwed.html

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/314348-door-will-not-open-unlatch-360-spider.html


The problems I have are as follows:

- door will not open with either interior or exterior handles; this leads to me believe the lock itself is at fault, not the cables
- I popped off the arm rest pad and tried to manually tug on the cables; no success
- my hands are nowhere near as small to fit through the arm rest hole as some of these threads have suggested

Any recommendations on opening the door? I know that if I can get it opened, I could take the door panel off and eventually fix it myself...

 

Same thing happened to me with my 348. It ended up being the door post that the door latches onto. I just checked my 360 and the door post (the metal post that sticks out from the door jam for the latch to latch onto). On the 348 it had a metal wrap around the post that the latch would get stuck onto.

The 360 post is different (it does not have the metal wrap to get stuck onto). I took my 348 to a body shop and they were able to remove the door panel (correctly) and fix the problem. If it were me, I would bring it to a body shop and have them remove the door panel. It is always good to have a good relationship with a GOOD body shop to help you out with various problems (rock chips, buffing out a scratch in the clear coat, fixing a stuck door).

 

same happened to me recently - the door was locked, with no external or internal handles working. My case was even more difficult, as both cables fell off the lock on the inside (basically, the plastic holding the lock together started to fall apart).

the way I fixed it is this:
- purchased a replacement lock and had a good look at it. This allowed me to understand how cables pull the actuators inside the lock, and where the actuators are located. I suspect in your case the actuator is stuck in the lock position, and you'd need to manually push it into unlock.
- removed the metal surround of the door from inside of the car. If it's not screwed to your door from underneath (as luckily it wasn't on my door), you'd be able to do it too.
- removed all screws holding the card to the door. I could not remove the card completely, as it was stuck at the front of the door, just above the speaker. but I was able to pull if away from the door enough to put the arm in.
- as I have the Spider, I lowered the roof and removed the seat to give me plenty of room for manouvre
- then I pulled the card from the door as far as I could, put my hand with a small screwdriver inside the door, and started looking for the small hole in the plastic where the lock actuator is (this is where the outside door cable goes to). After 10-15 minutes I was able to put the screwdriver in the right place and opened the lock!

And then spent 2 hours cursing FIAT for producing such a piece of *****. 12 year old lock falling apart, WTF?

Having a Spider was a huge advantage, as absence of the roof allowed me to stand where the seat used to be, and find the best position to get to the lock.

hope the above makes sense - it's not the easiest of the repairs, but good chance is you're not completely screwed.

 

The problem is that I don't have too many shops around me that I trust. I am considering trying to remove the door panel myself from the inside...

 

Thanks for the brief write-up. Just a quick question: where did you purchase the lock and did you have to modify at all? I know that these locks are obsolete and I clearly can't get an identical one to match my keys...

 

I doubt you will be able to remove the door panel all the way with the door closed but you might be able to get enough of the screws off so that you can work inside there to open the door. I wonder if you can do it without removing the passenger seat? I thought there was a way to remove the arm rest and access part of the assembly.

 

The only piece I can remove from the door is the arm rest pad. This exposes both the lock/unlock cable as well as the interior handle cable. Unfortunately, I can't get to any other part of the assembly...

So far my only option (aside from taking it to the shop) is to try and remove part of the door card off on the inside and try to manually reach the lock lever...

 

So the cables are in tact and you can tug on them to no avail?

 

That's correct. This leads me to believe that the lever that actuates the lock, and essentially opens the door, is stuck. It's as if I am only pulling the cables until they are under full tension. I can try to pull as hard as I can, but then I risk snapping the cables...

 

When you take of the interior door handle, you could also loosen the Phillips screw under the interior handle and unscrew it. Thus will let you move the hard "rod" in the armrest. I'd move this and lock/unlock the door THEN pull on the cable.

unless the motor is toast or the lock interior is toast...

 

I can't wait to see what works for you. I have the same problem. I have removed the pass seat and was able to take the entire door panel off easy, but I still can't get it open. I can move the lock back and forth right on the latch itself but pulling the cables will not unlatch it. I thought it might be something with the window system where it has to roll down a bit before it opens. Maybe there is a lock out until it is down a bit? The car I am working on is a project and does not have any power but I have powered it with a power supply and rolled the window up and down and used the power to actuate eveything but to no availe.

 

Window has absolutely no bearing on the lock assembly.

There IS a little lever on the lower rear part of the window regulator that has a "lever" on it that changes the force from the interior lock lever (small guy in the interior handle) vertically to the lock mechanism in the door. Perhaps the inner pushrod came loose from it?

 

I feel your problem is likely with the lever I have arrowed with red below. You should be able to get something down into the door from above and tweak it.
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The spring in the lever pictured above ought to have enough tension in it to pull the cable but when the cable is full of crud it sooner or later gets the point that it's not able to do that and the lock gets stuck.

 

I bought a lock off ebay from a damaged 360 car being parted out. Cost me $150, so not too pricey. Haven't had to do any modifications whatsoever. The lock mechanism in the door consists of two parts, you wouldn't need to replace the part where your key goes in, so don't worry about matching the keys. Your current keys will work after replacement.
If you have a look at the photo of the lock a couple of posts above, the top red arrow points at the little hole where the lock actuator is located. I was able to put the screwdriver in there and pull the actuator to the side to get the door open. If you've got someone to help you, they can hold the torch pointing down towards the lock making it easier for you to see where the screwdriver should go.

 

I did try to loosen the Philips screw under the interior handle and actuate the locking linkage back and fourth but no success. It looks like it definitely might be the lever pictured above, since the interior handle and exterior handle are both connected to it. It would not seem logical for both cables to crap out at the exact same time. I would agree though that the window mechanism should have nothing to do with the locking mechanism. I'll keep you posted on what I find tonight...

 

This is very helpful, thank you. Is the above assembly listed as #4 in this diagram?
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I wonder why so many passenger door locks have this issue when the drivers door doesn't? The previous owner of my car had the same issue and the dealer replaced the door lock.
Alan

 

^That's a very good point, considering the fact that the driver's side door gets considerably more use than the passenger side.

 

Yes, No. 4 is the lock mechanism but No. 5 (the cable) is almost certainly your problem.

My car is RHD and I encountered the problem on the driver's door, so effectively the same side too. Perhaps the cable loops down more on that side than the other.

 

That is interesting. You would think that they would be almost a mirror image (the passenger grab handle being the only difference). The Ricambi diagram shows both cables to be the same for LH and RH so lengths are the same.
Alan

 

FWIW, my car is RHD, and the problem was on the dirver's door too
Seems to be a common thread with rubbish right hand side locks.

 

I had to coming in from the garage to say Hooray and thank you. I jst got back work from working two weeks for my two weeks off at home and I went out and spent about 30 seconds and had it open.

The picture FerrariDublin put up in post 13 worked for me. I got a screw driver in there and push out on the lever arrowed in the picture and pulled the inside door cable and she popped right open. First time this door has been opened since I bought the car! Thanks!

 

You were absolutely right, along with the others who chimed in. It was in fact the actuator getting stuck. Unfortunately, I did not have the time or patience to remove the door panel so I ended up taking it to the dealer, as it was due for service anyway.

Overall, it only cost me about $500 for a new lock assembly, labor and tax included...

 

Glad to hear that both of you got your doors fixed in the end - now go and do some driving