1994 855T A tip for doors that will not open
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08-11-2012, 08:28 PM
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1994 855T A tip for doors that will not open
It appears that one of the occasional failure areas in our cars - at least for those of us here in the warm, southern states - is a door that will suddenly not open. Try opening it from either the outside or inside door handle and it will not open. There may be other causal issues but this discussion is limited to the following experience.
Thanks to Tech here on the forum I determined that the actuator rod that opens the door latch from the inside door handle falls out due to bushing material that crumbles and fails. You have to remove the door panel and plastic cover in the door to see this first hand, though.
The actuator rod will typically fall to the bottom of the door. If you are lucky it will fall straight down and you can lift it out with a magnet. If you are unlucky, like me, the rod will grow legs and hide in the most remote, difficult to reach part the inner door depths. After an hour of fishing I hit the pause button and looked around my garage for some rod stock that I could fabricate my own acutator rod. I had the other door panel off so I could see about what diameter I should look for. My solution was the wire handle for a one gallon paint can. It has the same diameter and after 10 minutes of bending, and a cutting, voila, one actuator rod.
Happy with my fabrication efforts I thought I'd go fishing for my original actuator rod one more time - a tiny magnet stuck on the end of a coat hangar. Success!
Why mention all this? Well, if you were really up the creek - couldn't coax the actuator rod from its resting place - and this happend after hours or on the weekend you probaly couldn't run over to your Volvo dealer and get this part. Another poster suggested that you can even go to Advanced Auto Parts and get a package of grommets that will get you back in business in a pinch.
Me, I'll head to the Volvo dealer Monday and buy/order the factory (actually 740 series part) suggested by Tech - just looks like a better fit than the Advanced-sourced grommets. But, I do have a spare actuator rod!
Thanks to Tech here on the forum I determined that the actuator rod that opens the door latch from the inside door handle falls out due to bushing material that crumbles and fails. You have to remove the door panel and plastic cover in the door to see this first hand, though.
The actuator rod will typically fall to the bottom of the door. If you are lucky it will fall straight down and you can lift it out with a magnet. If you are unlucky, like me, the rod will grow legs and hide in the most remote, difficult to reach part the inner door depths. After an hour of fishing I hit the pause button and looked around my garage for some rod stock that I could fabricate my own acutator rod. I had the other door panel off so I could see about what diameter I should look for. My solution was the wire handle for a one gallon paint can. It has the same diameter and after 10 minutes of bending, and a cutting, voila, one actuator rod.
Happy with my fabrication efforts I thought I'd go fishing for my original actuator rod one more time - a tiny magnet stuck on the end of a coat hangar. Success!
Why mention all this? Well, if you were really up the creek - couldn't coax the actuator rod from its resting place - and this happend after hours or on the weekend you probaly couldn't run over to your Volvo dealer and get this part. Another poster suggested that you can even go to Advanced Auto Parts and get a package of grommets that will get you back in business in a pinch.
Me, I'll head to the Volvo dealer Monday and buy/order the factory (actually 740 series part) suggested by Tech - just looks like a better fit than the Advanced-sourced grommets. But, I do have a spare actuator rod!
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