2000 Ford Taurus Door Lock Problems 120,000 Km

TAURAS1

MEMBER
2000 FORD TAURUS

Hi there,

I own a 2000 Ford Taurus and I have been having issues with my door locks, where after I get out of the car, the door does not latch on and close at all. This only happens on the drivers side door and no where else on the car.

At first, I thought that this problem was being caused by the cold climate and made sure to lube up all of the hindges. I was also able to get around the problem for a while by using the auto-door lock button and locking/unlocking the door a couple of times, but now that doesn't work at all.

After further investigation, I found that the problem only occurs when I pull on the latch inside of the car to open the door. What happens is that the door lock button stays up and does not go down until I put some force on it. Even when I put force on it, I still need to hit the lock/unlock a few times to make it work. Once I put force on it, the door seams to work again until the next time that I open the door from the inside.

I know this sounds silly but now I open the window, unlock the door and reach out to use the exterior door latch. This is not much of a fix but for the moment I can get out of the car and close my door. Any ideas or what may cause this and how I can fix this issue?

1 Reply

TAURUSWHEEL

MECHANIC
718 POSTS

I would suggest pulling the door panel off and checking out the operation of the latching system, it could be any number of things, hopefully something easy to see and fix. Get yourself a manual, Chilton or whatever, to guide you in removing the panel. It's not that hard to do, usually the worst part, especially if it's cold, is not breaking the plastic push pins when pulling off the lower section of the door panel. There is a special tool to hook behind them, but if you're careful, once you get it started, not bad. Pins are replaceable, just about any parts store has an assortment if you need one or two. If you don't want to go the manual route, look over ther panel carefully for any screws, plugs that cover screws, etc, before starting. Once the panel is off, usual;ly some type of plastic watershield is stuck over the metal panel, carefully pull that off, it goes back on easy, then you have access holes you can see in, by moving the window up or down, keep fingers clear, you can see the various workings.