How do i open the front passenger door of a Rover 25 when the internal and external handles will not open the door?

Answer:
If your door is locked shut you have two options, 1, force the inner door card off remove the lock shield and window guide then smash the lock apart with a large hammer and cold chisel. or 2, if you want a little more finesse and have basic engineering skills, and this is how I did it. Remove the rear trim, rear seats have to come out first. This will give you access to the back of the door pillar. You will now be able to see the back of the 2 8mm screws that hold the door latch bar to the door pillar, they protrude the the threaded plate by about 10mm. These have to be removed. First cut them off as close to the plate that they screw into, but before you do get some vice grips on them and try to slacken them off by turning the thread clockwise. If you can do this it will help in removing what is left of them later. Now drill two holes about 10mm in diameter through the back of the door pillar so that they line up with the position of these two screws. Centre punch the remains of the sawn off screws as accurately as you can and using a long series drill, (the standard length drills are just not long enough0, carefully drill out the screws. It will help if you use a smaller size drill and work up to about a 6mm. The plate that these screws fit into is only about 3mm thick so you should not have much thread to knock out. Once the remaining thread has been drilled out the heads of the torx screws can be punched back out. The door can now be opened but may need a shove from the inside and the door catch bar may scratch the paint a bit, but at least now you have your door open. Next using an angle grinder or hacksaw cut the latch bar away from the door catch. Now you can remove the 3 screws holding the door latch to the door and remove it as normal. A trip to the breakers is next for a replacement door latch bar and a latch mechanism. £10 should see you right. Don't worry if you have made a mess of the two threaded holes in the plate where you drilled the screws out of, all is not lost as the screws from your donor car are long enough to put a couple of 8mm lock nuts on the back of.
First answer by ID1453976955. Last edit by ID1453976955. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].