Posted this in S2000 talk, but seeing if any locals have had this problem:

I go to unlock my car today using the remote and I find that the driver's side door isn't properly unlocking. It will momentarily unlock, and then quickly lock again. The lock switch on the door panel also appears to swing freely. I can't unlock the door using the key either. To get in/out, I have to unlock w/the remote and time it such that I open the door while it is briefly unlocked. This used to happen on a '99 Civic I owned, but only when it was cold. It's not that cold right now. Anyone deal with this before? I'm gonna take off the door panel this weekend and see if something came undone. It seems like something is keeping the door from becoming fully unlocked. It looks pretty silly when I am trying to get out of the car, I have to use the outside handle, hah.

 

sounds like something is bent(lock rods)

 

If you need parts, let me know.

 

Yeah, sounds like something is bent and/or messed up. Might have to take the door trim off and investigate.

 

Is that the door that got "Dicked"?

If so then internal push rod may be out of plane .... if not then someone may have tried to slim-jim yo sh!t and bent some thing.

 

Haha nah, it's not the dicked door. There aren't any markings of anyone trying to snap it to a slim jim, but I'll check again. That would suck because that means it happened in the parking garage where my car now sleeps...

I'm thinking it's something mechanical (vs. electrical ...EDIT - of mechanical origin, but a mix of both) because the lock switch is able to move freely. Hopefully it's not something that will be a PITA to fix.

Sounds like this guy had a similar problem:
http://forums.s2kca.com/showthread.php?t=30438 - I may need some parts Jerry, the guy says he needed a new door handle. I'll let you know.

 

I want to say it's your door actuator. Most of the times it's that.

 

Leak it down beotch

 

Agreed.

 

Root-cause:



It turns out the that a thin portion on the end of the lock switch snapped, causing the rod to poke at random parts of the door panel. I'm guessing the door wouldn't fully unlock because the rod would hit the door panel before the system reached an "unlock" position, causing the car to lock again.

I'm not sure what would cause this to happen at <32k miles, but my guess is that I contributed to it somehow with my OCD-ish habit of "double" locking the car. That doesn't make total sense though, because once the car is locked, the actuator shouldn't continue to tug on the lock switch since the rods are already in "lock" position.



Whatevs. Looks like I need a new lock switch / rod combo...