This thread has hints at the end for getting it open:

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184936&highlight=Door+opening

There are a number of prev. threads that may help, this is ONE of them with hints for getting it open when stuck from both sides.

 

When you press the unlock button on your keyfob what does it do? does it attempt to unlock the door and make alot of racket?

 

When you press the unlock button on your keyfob what does it do? does it attempt to unlock the door and make alot of racket?

Mine does and it likes to lock the door when you try to open the door

 

I don't have a key fob, my doors are manual lock/unlock.

 

oh, hmmm. so using your key in the exterior door handle won't unlock the door? I would try turning the key and pulling on the handle at the same time and see if it won't open, it has worked for me in the past. Worth a shot before you try to break into it haha

 

Nope! I have tried unlocking and locking it with the key, doing it on the inside, nothing works, the door is just stuck shut even though it's unlocked. So I have to take the panel off to get anything fixed, but I'd be doing it with door shut and the seat in the way, so it should be fun..

 

Ok, try this.

on the inside door handle if you look there is a little round plastic screw cover behind the handle. take a screwdriver or pick and pop out the screw cover. Take either a phillips head screwdriver or a t-20 torx and remove that screw (you will have to physically look to see if its phillips or torx). Once you have that removed the plastic bevel around the door handle that also has your window and lock switches will come loose. Simply wiggle it loose and pull the door handle open to get it off, you may also want to disconnect at least the unlock switch so you can get the bevel out of the way.

Once you have that removed you can see the black plastic housing and handle and a cable that runs into the handle. to get the handle off the door its best to remove the interior panel so you can close the clips from the back and pull it out, since you can't do that to get the handle off the door you will have to be careful and simply pull it away from the door until the clip pops free, then rotate the entire handle assembly until it will unhook from the door.

Once you have the handle free from the door you can see a bright orange piece on the top of the handle, take a screwdriver and pop that off and you can see where the cable attaches to the handle. Note you can only remove or install the cable with the handle in the locked position. So after you have the orange piece removed push the lock tab on the handle to the locked position to reveal the cable end. Pull it out (if its not already out) and try to pull on it using a pair of pliers and see if that will open the door for you. Once you have the door open you can finish taking the interior panel off to make it easier to put the handle back on.

Also you can't take the interior panel off with the door closed, all the screws that hold it on are covered with the door closed, you have no option but to get that door open somehow. Unless you want to use a hacksaw.

See if that works for you, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

 

Awesome! I will try that today. I have a very simple model, no window lock or door lock button, so I think it will be easier, I hope. Lol. I will update if I run into a problem.

Thank you!!

 

No problem i'm here to try and help out when I can, let me know if that works out for you to get it open at least and then we can see better whats broken and may need to be fixed and go from there.

 

DON'T pull on the cable..............PUSH IN on it while firmly holding the outside plastic cable cover, pulling reinforces the bad condition there if the unlock/lock functions have seized with each other. Common on these piece of crap door latches. What happens when you accidentally lock and unlock the door at the exact same time. Easier to do than you think.

 

I found myself busier and not able to work on it until today.
I followed your instructions, which were very helpful, and I got to the end where I then did both pull and push in as the other guy said. Nothing worked, the door still stayed shut...I am so confused as to how to finally get it open! [dunno]

I think a hacksaw is my best bet at this point...

Any other pointers?

 

So just to be clear, you popped off that tan/orange looking piece thats in your picture and pushed pulled on just the cable? I don't think a hacksaw would do you much good haha unless you want to go jeep style.

I'll see about another option, its obvious its something in the lock mechanism mounted to the inside of the door, not opening the latch. We will get it one way or another haha

 

No, there was an orange piece but it was behind that tan piece, on the back. I popped it off. I didn't remove the tan piece, I didn't know if I should or not. I just pulled while holding the whole thing, lol. I will try working on the tan piece later, but I don't know if that'll help much to get it open.

Thanks for helping me, I appreciate it!!

 

Yeah you will probably need to take that tanish piece off, the tan piece that is actually connected around the cable on the more bottom left of your photo. Just take a screwdriver and carefully pry it up away from the black housing, after that you should be able to see if the end of the cable is still attached to the handle. If it is then you should see the cable move when you pull on the handle, if its not you can put the door handle into the locked position which will reveal the spot on the handle that the cable goes into, you will be able to see all of that from right underneath that tanish piece.

You just pushing and pulling on the whole assembly only pulls on the cables housing, you need to actually pull the cable itself, it is a steel cable just like your throttle cable it rides inside that nylon/plastic housing except for the end/ends.

Sorry about some color misconception, all of the ones I have ever messed with were orange where your tanish piece is. Don't know if its actually a different color or if its just REALLY faded but sorry about the color confusion haha.

 

I had your picture cropped a little bit, its not really in the bottom left its more in the middle haha, its the piece that your index finger is touching, just want to make sure

 

Like he said, you work on the cable end while holding the outside housing. If cable operating correctly it will move and click in and out but if seized no movement, don't expect it to fix itself. I use needlenose visegrips to grip cable tight while hopefully not damaging it. You may have to work on it for a bit. PUSH IN is what unlocks the seize-up but you can't be whiney about it. The problem not the cable but down inside latch assembly where you cannot get to it even if you take it off the car. New latch time. I'd rather fix mine.

 

I think it's tan because my car got all the leftovers at the factory cuz it's falling apart everywhere lol.
Ok, so after getting the tan piece off and holding the cable, use grippers and push in with the cable as hard as I can until something happens? Or will it be damaged if I push too hard?

 

once the tan piece is removed you take a pair of pliers and grab the cable end with the pliers while holding the black housing with your hand. I believe you should be pulling on the cable to unlock it, not push. The cable will "push" back in when you lock the car, but that action happens in the door latch itself, unlocking and opening the door should both be the same motion which would be pulling on the cable. I had almost this exact same problem with mine and I never pushed on the cable, only pulled. Of course I have power locks but the handle and function should be the same regardless.

 

amc49 mentioned pushing in as well as pulling out to help free a stuck mechanism.

Worth trying.

 

Oh, I see I completely missed the part where he said pushing frees up the seized latch, I didn't understand what he was trying to explain earlier by pushing. it would make sense it could help free up a stuck mechanism, definetly worth trying.

 

Ok! So, I got it open! And I recorded a video to show what all is happening..
http://youtu.be/AxiiX4TcTu0

In it you'll see I manage to get the door open after putting the handle back on, then show you something else and then try opening it again and it doesn't work like it's supposed to. After the video I tried again and got it open with the handle on. It's just fidgety because of whatever is wrong...

 

I should mention it still doesn't open from the outside though.

 

fix 'er up while you can still get it open, as you know now it's a lot easier to get the inside panel off when the door is open! (let alone bolts for the latch at the end of the door)

 

Outside door linkage may well be broke, they commonly do it when the latch assembly goes into this tizzy. The added latch friction from bad latch then breaks the unlock tab off outside rocker linkage.

Shaking my head. I clearly pointed out what the problem was in post #10 yet no one reads. Then all this wondering why it keeps seizing up again and again on the video when you insist on locking/unlocking door at same time over and over. You do it at 1:08 and twice more in the 2:40 plus location on the vid. You CANNOT lock and unlock the door at same time without messing the latch up. Keep your hands off the upper lock tab while opening door with the lower lever and it'll work fine forever!!!! Mine has been after repair on two cars for years now. Hit that lock/unlock at same time though and the problem instantly if you do it right.

When you lock and unlock the door at the same exact time, you reinforce the condition that makes it happen to then do it easier and easier. The LATCH in back of door is messed up, the problem is inside it. I take mine apart to fix, it requires destroying it to do so and why 99.5% of you out there cannot fix them, new latch time for you.

Most will have trouble understanding the inside of the latch assembly, like 50+ parts and an entire planetary transmission simply to rock a link back and forth across a limit switch. Another limit on opposite side of latch as well. The parts dry up of lube but impossible to get all lubed up as needed with the latch still together as a lot of the parts are totally shielded and lube will not get to them. Two other sealed compartments inside the latch besides the one you think you see while looking in any holes there. About the only way to lube is to submerge the latch in various orientations in oil and oil will not last. That would probably fail the electric drive motor as well.

I have fixed the white (tan) cable end/locator as well with a hose clamp and custom made clamp to avoid looking for new door lock cable (last time bought $15), fixed for maybe $2 and still working long after. The white section commonly breaks to let the cable flop loose and door then quits again. You can always look at the other end of cable down in door lower, another end that can break to foul things up.

 

Well i'm glad to see you managed to get the door open! Now you actually have a chance to fix the problem, it would be nearly impossible with the door closed. Next I would get the panel off so you can see inside the door, like amc says I would replace your entire door latch mechanism since trying to fix it would be well beyond many people's ability. I would start with that and if you still have problems replace the handle and cable as well.

But also like amc said you do need to keep your hand off the lock/unlock tab while opening the door, that is what is kicking it back into a seized position. You probably don't do that as often with the handle in the door panel since it would be a little harder to do but you do need to make sure you don't do that.

Getting the panel off is pretty easy, there will be around 10 or so torx screws around the edge of the panel and 2 screws hiding underneath the door handle (the one that doesn't move or open anything). pull all those out and then you just grab the panel and pop it out away from the door and up.

 

Our 2003 Ford Focus Driver’s side door latch cable broke so I couldn’t open it from either side. I realised the cable was broken when I tried to move the cable at the back of the door handle after popping it out of its clicked in position ( I had previously removed the door handle mechanism, see below for how I done this) and the wire came all the way out when I pulled on it.
So I managed to get it open by;

1) Removing the 2 small black screws at the bottom of the door panel which you can get to with the door closed. (see the passenger door for referencing where they are located)

2) Removing the wing mirror adjustment cover which just pops off


3) Removing the small circular cap that hides a screw behind the door handle and then removed the screw and removed the plastic housing from behind the handle

4) I used a very small circular file to scratch around the 2 door panel screws at the door pillar end of the door, you need to scratch around as deep as possible (see the passenger door for referencing where they are located) I did this so that when I pulled hard on the panel this area would break first and wouldn’t cause too much damage, I pulled up and then out on the panel quite a few times and the panel loosened but also broke at one point by the door pillar end. The end closest to the hinges stayed fixed as this end still had 2 screws holding it in place.


5) I managed to get a large enough space to fit my arm in, so I placed a mirror inside the door so I could see the locking mechanism and then placed a torch so that it illuminated the lock area, I could see the broken cable so spent some time bending the end of the wire into a hook so I could hook it with the other piece of broken off cable which I also bent into a hook on the end

6) After hooking the 2 ends and pulling several times with no luck (watch your hands as I slipped a few times and there’s plenty to bang your hands, try to pull up in the same direction the cable originally travelled in)


7) I gave the locking mechanism a few gentle smacks with a hammer

8) I then tried turning the keys that I previously put in the door lock and to my surprise the central locking all started working


9) I tried pulling on the hooked cable again and this time it opened!!! It felt like it had a lot of pressure on it so if you have someone else with you to help I think when you try pulling on the cable the door will open easier if someone pushes on the door.
Wishing you the best of luck