98 V70 Driver's door won't open

[brungardtj]

Thank you gentlemen for the advice on opening the latch without cutting. I'm going to attempt it right now but I wanted to give a quick tip on removing the door panel as I didn't find it mentioned in any blog but after I figured it out, it made the panel removal very quick and easy. The difficulty is pulling the door panel away from the door far enough to free the clips/pins that hold the panel in place. I used the curved end of a flat pry bar. It allowed me enough leverage and the sharper edges of it "dug in" to the bottom of my door panel well enough that it simply pulled the panel away and released the clips, allowing me to push the panel up and out of the way.

Good luck all.

Jeff

[lfilson]

Here it's 2018 and I've shown up to wake up this thread. I own a 99 V70 and a few weeks ago, I went to exit the car and it wouldn't open from the inside. I rolled the window down and tried the outer handle and it didn't work either. The journey from there to here has been one continual PITA process of watching videos and finally searching and searching until I found this thread.

So far, I've used a knife to cut a large hole in the door panel. That seemed almost easier than pulling out the entire door panel with the door closed. Then, I used a grinder to open up the hole around the lock actuator mechanism to give me more room to work.

I haven't bought my replacement lock yet, but I'm going to soon.

This website is a God-send. This thread is the only thing I've found on the entire world of the interwebs that deals with this specific problem, of the locking mechanism being broken in the closed position.

Once I get the lock and go through the process of studying / making the tool, and trying to unlatch it, I'll post my results. I'm anticipating it being an enormous PITA, even more than it has been.