'99 Camry Driver door stuck shut, Pwr locks not working

[Lush696]

Greetings AF!

My Driver door is stuck shut - which is obviously quite an annoyance crawling over the passenger seat constantly (although it's nice to get the girlfriend to gas up the car and run in the gas station! ; )). The power locks failed a few weeks ahead of this issue - the keyless entry works them quite a bit; I have not located a fuse for them - even looking over the manual; Where is the fuse? I've checked all the clear fuses - they're ok; Is it one of those aluminum cased ones?

The door then got stuck shut - I took off the bezel (but can't take the door panel off because it's stuck shut!); The plastic bracket that mounts the door handle and the lock pivot is broken, so the door handle doesn't actuate completely. The lock itself won't seem to go past 1/2 movement no matter how hard I force it and I don't hear any actuation. How do I get my damned door open??? I will obviously have to junk a bracket to replace my broken one, but I fear this will not be possible until I get the door open to remove the panel! Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

[gator2764]

I have a 95 camry that had the same kind of problem. Maybe yours is different, I hope so. It cost me a little over $600.00 to get it fixed. A spring had broken in the door lock mechanism and I had to have the whole thing replaced. You will not be able to remove the whole door panel without trashing it by the way. I was able to get the very top part loose and then I was able to look down into the lock and I could see that the lock would not fully engage. I tried my best but could not release it. The dealer had to wedge a bar from the top of the door and completly break the lock, once that was done they could not close the door since doing that would just bring more trouble. They said once the door was closed after that you could not get it back open!! Ordered the part that morning and had it back the next day. It was hard spending that kind of money but the car is still in great shape after 244K and I figured it beat making a car payment.
Good luck and let us know if that is the problem.