Hello all,

I have owned my 1990 Bonneville SE for the past 19 years.
Over the course of the past two summers, I have not needed to open the rear passenger doors. I wanted to open the left rear door to put something in this past week end and it wouldn't open, neither would the right rear door. I tried manully lifting and pushing back down the inside lever but it doesn't seem to go up all the way to the point where it is unlocked. I noticed that from the outside, the **** on the outside door does not have any resistance when I push it in.

Could someone offer some help?

Thanks in advance.

Child locks? Not complely sure from your description what the problem is, but if it will open from the outside but not the inside, the child safety locks could be on. Open the door and the lock switch is on the rear shut face.

It won't open from the inside or outside. The outside push **** has no resistance (when you push the **** in, it just goes in like there is nothing holding it)

You will have to pull the trim panel off to see what has come disconnected inside.

okay thanks, if I don't procrastinate, I'll try to tackle it this weekend.

Haven't paid too much attention to our latch mechanisms, but let me give you some general direction.

The latch is bolted to your door at the rear shut face (this is the rear face of the door that is hidden when the door is closed). You will be able to see the latch mechanism that engages the striker on the car. There will be 3 or 4 bolts that pass through the shut face sheet metal to hold the latch.

Once you get the door trim panel off, there will be 2 (maybe 3) rods that go to the latch. One from the inside handle, one from the lock rod, and possibly one from the outside handle. Before you start taking anything apart, cycle the handles and the lock and observe/touch/feel to see how the rods are working. If they are all hooked up and working okay, the problem is probably in the latch mechanism itself. You may have to replace it.

My answer is generic in nature in that it could apply to any car. Perhaps someone else in the forum that has more specific knowledge about our car'* latch mechanism will chime in and provide more specific details.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

Search on posts by Randman1. I remember him having and figuring out the issue. Although I think he found working assemblies to put in... not 100% sure what the issue was.

I took the face (if that'* how you call it) off for the lock switch (the black plastic) and located the steel part that is attatched to the door **** and directly behind where the black face plate is. It seems to not fully go up to the point where you can feel the door unlock, as if something is obstructing it, rust maybe? I can move it freely up and down, but on it'* way up to unlock, it doesn't extend all the way up.

That sounds consistent with the functional issue you are having. Get a can of rust penetrator, or even WD-40, put some rags under the mechanism, and spray the snot (technical term) out of it. Work the mechanism around while spraying. Let it sit a few hours, then respray it. Repeat that several times over the next 24 hours (as your schedule permits). Give the penetrating oil a chance to soak in and do its job.

That may free things up and fix the problem.

Thanks a lot for all the help.
A body shop friend helped me unseize the door mechanism last night. It took him about thrre hours.
He had to yank out the interior door trim on both doors. He then sprayed WD40 on some latches, wiggled them, kicked the door, repeated this process over and over and finally, each door unlocked.
Will WD40 keep the doors from seizing again or should I spray something more, like white grease or lithium grease? If I need to spray something stronger, do I need to remove the door trim again or could I spray just through the latch at the side of the doors where the door latches on to the hook on the door frame?