to keep this short my front passenger door wont unlock so it's stuck locked. i have acuracare. to get to it the dealer said theyre probably going to damage the door panel. the dealer called and said he wasn't sure if the panel will be covered or not but the latch and other stuff should be. is it? if not how much is it? thanks in advance

 

the door panel doesnt have to be damaged in order to get to the door actuator.

 

the door wont open and they cant get it open. its just what he said.

 

Try a different shop- anyone that has to damage my car to get it open isn't getting their hands on it.

 

Man, people don't seem to read through before posting. The reason the dealer is saying the panel might have to be damaged, is that THE DOOR IS STUCK CLOSED. To remove the panel the right way, you need to open the door. Geez.

IMO, if they have to damage the panel to replace the covered part, then they need to replace the panel as well. That's just my opinion though, how can the dealership service department tell you they don't know if it will be covered? I'd tell them it damn well better be.

 

they said that it'll be covered if it turns out that something is actually faulty. it wont be covered if something just came loose or something. so i guess i have a dilemma on my hands here since the panel itself is $500+.... i posted a vid of whats happening in the Problems and Solutions forum. im kinda wary on the part where something might just be loose and i'll end up paying like $XXX just for that.

 

Thats bogus IMO. If something came loose, THAT IS FAULTY by definition. That is a fault.

 

I totally agree with you...sounds like they are trying to back out of possibly paying for this

 

yes i know... its not the dealer thats paying for it its AcuraCare. thats exactly what the service rep said "If we break the panel and find that something is just loose then NOTHING will be covered. If something is broken then everything will be covered" Seriously tho, how hard is it to open a door? Use a slim jim? These guys are Acura TECHS and cant figure it out? come on man. secondly, what kind of techs need to break a panel to get to something. these techs sound shitty.

 

Maybe try another Acura dealership in the area.

 

acuracare contracts do not cover trim pieces in general. however, the service advisor needs to call and inform the rep of the situation and it will be taken care of as a necessary item. the service advisor does not have to call acuracare at all unless the claim is more than $500, just type it into interactive and the coverage status is shown, if he does that it will cover the actuator,latch or whatever and not the panel thus the need for the advisor to call.

i dont think anything is loose, unless someone has been messing around in the door.

 

no one has been messing with the door but it does look like that lock is moving somewhat. im not sure. do i really want to risk taking a chance and probably end up paying close to $800+ just for this?

 

What's your alternative, never use the passenger door?

I don't know, I'd raise hell about it. OK so if "trim pieces" are not generally covered, to me that means if you have a problem with a trim piece it isn't covered. If you have a problem with a covered part, and in the process of fixing it they destroy the door panel, it damn well better be covered and the car returned to you exactly as you brought it to them, except with the problem fixed.

 

i told those fuckers to not do anything and just give my car back. if anyone is going to break my door panel ITS GOING TO ME.
i did call acuracare AND acura corporate. the acuracare guy was a complete douche bag and said thats how they have to take it off. i ended up hanging up on him when he was in mid sentence. acura coporate said they couldn't do anything about it because the warranty is handled by acuracare

 

Exactly, I don't see how it would make sense any other way.

OP, I would take it to another dealer that has more balls to tell Acuracare what the deal is and what needs to be covered. Some dealers or even service advisers/managers just don't feel like putting in the leg work for the customer. Believe me I see it everyday.

 

yes they said that it would be covered if it was discovered that something was faulty. apparently "being loose" doesn't count as faulty.

 

^yeah but either way that's not your fault. So no matter what the actual problem is if they have to break a perfectly good piece of the car to solve the issue it should be covered. Now whether it's stated that loose isn't covered or not there's always ways around stuff like that.

For instance on my 03' Accord my crank seal was leaking and all I did was ask the advisor how much it would be for me to get it taken care of because I knew it wasn't covered. They told me $600 and I was fine with that but didn't want to get it done right at that moment. He came back to me about 20 minutes about the actual issue I was there for and told me that he had also gotten Hondacare to cover the crank seal repair. I guess because we were loyal customers or something. I didn't ask because I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. LOL

So, there are ways to get non covered items covered. Just gotta keep pushing or get somebody to push for you.

 

Acuracare is basically a 3rd party extended warranty, just happens to be a division of Honda. Acura corporate does not have anything to do with it. Being loose is considered an "adjustment" and therefore not covered by ANY extended warranty. The dealer has to tell you that you will be responsible if no part is faulty for 2 reasons. 1. cover their ass if they break the panel (which will happen most likely). 2. because they know acuracare will not cover the repair if it is only an adjustment needed (probably a bad latch).

To me, it looks like you only have 3 options.
1. Let them diagnose the problem, break the panel and fix if covered
2. You break the panel, have them diagnose the problem and get the part only replaced and you buy the panel.
3. Live with it.

There is no reason to take to a diff dealer, argue with them and all this other bs. Sounds like they are doing the correct thing in telling you upfront of the situation instead of breaking the panel, finding something "loose" and then charging you cause the warranty doesnt cover adjustments.

 

i told them to not touch my car. so now i have the task of figuring out how to get my door open by myself

 

I just looked at my passenger door.
you are able to reach all the screws with the door closed.

the problem is popping the panel off of the clips with door closed.

 

I just looked at my passenger door.
you are able to reach all the screws with the door closed.

the problem is popping the panel off of the clips with door closed.

 

yea... you need to pop it from the bottom huh

 

yes sir, the way i popped my panel off was by grabbing the bottom panel and pushing up to get it off the clips.

since your door is stuck, there is no leverage.
I say you need to get acuracare to cover the panel, because it is going get fucked up.

 

OP,

Need to ask a couple of obvious questions that haven't explicitly been addressed in any of your posts. Bear with me:

1. I assume you've manually pulled up on the knob and it didn't unlock the door?

2. When you pulled up on the knob, did it move and did it remain in the up or unlock position?

3. When you use the door lock switch to unlock the doors, can you hear the actuator on the passenger door firing?

4. When you use the door lock switch to lock/unlock the doors, does the knob on the passenger door move up and down?

5. Not sure if our doors can be slim jimmed, but did the dealer even discuss trying this to unlock the door.

6. You might consider calling a locksmith. They know all sorts of ways to try from the outside. Might be worth a try.

 

i think this will address most of those questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv64E...layer_embedded
if i pull on the lock it does not move

 

im going to assume there is no way to bend it back from the top to even look inside? acuracare said they would cover it ONLY if something is faulty inside... NOT if its loose. thats why i took my car back.

 

OK, don't think anything is loose, more like jammed (my guess is inside the actuator or along the lock cable path).

How hard have you pulled on the knob? I wonder if you might be able to get it unlocked by forcing the knob up as hard as you feel comfortable while someone else tries the door handle?

If this is due to a jam, I don't think a locksmith can help you, but it'd be worth a $50 service call if it saves a $700 panel.

...still waiting for FEDEX to show up with my timing belt kit...grrrrrr.

 

I had the same thing happen to me with a customers car. Another technician replaced his door lock actuator and the customer says the door doesn't lock or open when FOB is used. I tested it and saw the actuator lock/un-lock however when I went to open the door it didn't open. The problem was the techician installed the door panel a bit off causing the top lock to bind within the door panel causing it to not open.

Now I know you tried this, but the only way I got this door to open was to push inward on the door panel where the pull lock is and pull up as hard as I can on the lock itself while someone on the outside was pulling on the door handle. After a few times it opened. Even if you cut the door panel off you will still have an issuse opening the door. Best of luck, call a friend and see if that works with you as well.

 

thank you for that. i was wondering if anyone had the same problem lol i will try it tomorrow