Okay, so my drivers door panel has been pushed in enough to stop the window going down more than 1/3 but not enough to affect the interior trim. It now seems as though this has somehow triggered the locking mechanism in this door into a state of being permanently locked, as when power is on and i open another door from the inside handle the central locking keeps locking and unlocking until that door is closed when it reverts to being locked.

When I pull on the inside handle/metal rod I can hear it kind of clicking something in the vicinty of the door latch, however it doesn't release (similar to how the ouside handle normally would when it's locked). I have also tried manually pulling up the plastic rod that moves the locked/unlocked tab on the top of the door up and down but to no avail.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? I really don't want to have to cut open the door/trim or pry if I don't have to.

Thanks nick

might be able to get to the latch if you take the belt mould off the door, and poke a hook tool or something similar down there and try reach it.

Are you talking about the bit against the outside of the window? Worth a try, I might see if I can get my hands on the schematics of the inside of the doors as I would only be relying on vague memory from when I have been fitting speakers etc.

yep thats the one, the rubber/plastic strip. i think theres one screw on the rear end of the strip, but seeing as you cant open the door, itd be better to just rip it off in my opinion.theyre probably 5 bucks for another strip from the wreckers or U pull it

Seriously considering getting out the angle grinder...

Does anyone have a pdf version of ford/gregory/haines etc etc repair manual which has the schematics for the inside of an EL door? I'm currently working off very vacant memories and what i can see from above and success is low lol.

Mate if the doors already smashed for the price of an ef/el door you may aswell just get the grinder out start reasonably central and work your way back
Hell I could probably give you a door or 2 for 50-100.

Where are you located if your close enough I could possibly drop by next weekend or something, and just rip my doortrim off, then you've got a door to compare with