2006 Buick Lucerne

Rear door will not open from the inside or out. It feels like something became unattached from the handle. There is no resistance when pulling on the handle.

What has failed? How do I get the interior panel off with the door closed?

Open other back door take out bottom of the back seat it might give you enough room to get the panel off.
If not you may need to take out the back of the seat

Lets hope no one says {pull the door lock up}

Haha, true.

The lock goes up and down just fine with the locking/unlocking from the fob, it just feels like their is nothing attached to the handles.

I should have said first try a slim jim with the window up or down.

If there is a way to remove the rubber rain gasket at the bottom of the window, you might be able to get a peek inside at the door latch mechanism.

In this situation, I would journey to a local salvage yard and "practice" removing door panels and rain gaskets from junk cars. Gain a little knowledge like a gorilla and then go back home and finesse the door panel off.

i support the junkyard trial and error statement just dont tell em what youre there to do lol
Also i know this pain ive had to do this exact thing with my suburbans rear passenger door twice..new clip in the handle that holds the rod solved that

If you can't get the inner door trim panel off by removing the rear seat, I would remove the opposite door trim panel to observe how the latch mechanism works and where everything is located. The inner and outer door release handles are connected to an arm on the door lock that moves to unlatch the door. Once you see exactly where that arm is, and which direction it moves, you can practice activating it by slipping a coat hanger (or whatever works) down from the window interface. With the door panel off you can observe how it works. Once you can do it on that door, try it on the other.

The odd thing is the inner and outer door release handles use separate rods to activate the latch. The fact neither is working might be an indication there is a bigger problem than a rod popping loose.

By removing your other panel, as 2kg4u suggested, you will get an idea of how the linkages and latch work........


two things are possible here:

the linkages are disconnected or the latch is rusted in the closed position......

Here is one thing to try......you say the inner and outer door handles have no "resistance".....just open the passenger rear door.....now, with the door open, is the resistance of the handles the same as the other side? If it is, the latch mechanism could be rusted shut by water......so with the door in the unlock position, have someone on the outside of the door(holding the outside handle in the open position), to catch it, as you give a few good thrusts against the rear of the door from the inside......you want that guy on the outside to catch the door or you may go flying if it opens....

If that doesn't work, you get the panel off, and all linkages are intact, then you are going to have to get some PB Blaster in the door and soak that latch as much as possible while repeatedly moving all linkages.....may have to do this several times, and let it soak in....

Almost forgot....

How do I remove the rear inner door panel on a 2006 Lucerne? - Fixya

I bought a used 2006 Lucerne and both rear doors would not open. Here'* how I fixed it without opening the rear doors first.

Remove the seat bottom. It'll come out with the doors closed.

Remove the screw behind the inside door handle. It'* hidden under a plastic cover that you must first remove.

Pry the interior door panel off. Yank and pry it from the upper corners. You will break off the lip that the door panel hangs on (a light steel panel) located on the inner top of the door panel, but it'* not critical anyway. All the other bits that secure the inner panel are pins that pull straight out. Pull off the door panel, detach the cable that runs from the inner door handle to the latch mechanism. Detach one wire harness and set the door panel aside.

What follows is pretty much out of sight. On the first door I did, I had to cut an access panel in the steel inner door structure to see what I was doing, but the second door I did blind, by feel. Try it without cutting an access hole. If that fails you can always cut a hole if necessary.

Follow the cable that goes from the inner door handle to the latch mechanism. At the end of the cable, on the latch mechanism, there are exposed parts that are corroded and stuck. You can kinda see them with a flashlight but it'* not easy. You want to concentrate on the bits that are near the end of the cable. Spray them with penetrating oil. Work them back and forth. Grab the far end of the cable and pull with vise grips. Push the exposed bits the opposite way with a finger and then pull the other direction with the cable. Back and forth. Harder. More penetrating oil. Cuss a little. Push with your fingers, pull with the cable. Then, "Click". The door will open.

When you reassemble it, the inner door panel will no longer "hang" from the light steel piece that you broke off, but the other pins that you didn't break, plus the screw under the handle, will hold it good enough to work.

These instructions are offered in honor of my father John, who taught me how to make old crap work without spending much money.