406oc.co.uk

Hi, I'm new here, so apologies if this has been covered before. On my 2003 Rapier 1.8 estate the driver's door lock assembly has fallen down inside the door. So on the outside of the door, where the keyhole should be, there's just a hole! The Haynes pictures don't make it clear to me what the lock/barrel assembly should be screwed/riveted to. So have you any idea how I reattach it please?

Hi mate, welcome.

You will need to remove the door card, 3 torx screws. 1 under the cover in the electric window switch, lift the switch assembly from the finger hole side and unplug it, 1 under the circular cover by the door mirror, and the last one down the bottom, under a cover... )

Gently pull the card from the bottom to prise off the clips, some will break but its no big deal. If you have lights in the door card you will need to uplug them. When the card is hanging, simply lift it up - the triangular door mirror piece may need to come off, this just pulls out.

Peel back the white weather seal sheet from the top, and have a peek inside. The barrel is held on by a 10mm nut, you will need a small extension on the socket.

I guess your nut has fallen off, if you can't find it to replace it, nick one from the little black valves on the bulkhead in the engine bay and replace that one at a later time.

Any problems then send a reply...

Hi, thank you for that. I'll have a look at it over Easter and let you know how I get on. Cheers, Nick

Well, I finally had the door card off last weekend. The securing nut hadn't dropped off, thank goodness, so I manoeuvred the lock barrel back into position and tightened up the nut, and it's stayed put since then.
(And after I gave the lock several doses of WD40, the central locking even works via the blip. Sometimes.)
So thank you very much for your help.

Glad its sorted

The lock barrel worked loose again. This time, when I'd got the door card off I took a closer look and found the root cause of the problem. The nut that holds the lock barrel in place screws onto a stud that's fixed to the inside of the door handle. (Sorry, I should have taken a picture.) This stud had broken off. When this had happened before, a previous owner had stuck it back into place using body filler. Which, to be fair, worked until I bought the car . So I'll need to replace the door handle. Does anyone have a spare driver's door handle in Monaco blue please?

Oddly enough, my donor car is Monaco Blue.......

PM me your address and I'll send it over ( I don't need it anyway as I have sold the latches.. )

Kelv.