Hi All.
I have a 2005 Pathfinder. I've not had it more than a month. I noticed very early on that, when using the central locking to open the doors, one of the rear side doors wouldnt unlock. The external door handle wouldnt open the door. So, I'd open the front door and use the internal door handle on the rear door to open it. Interestingly, once the door was opened and closed, the exterior rear handle could be used to open the door, so the handle functioned, but didnt unlock A little inconvenient but, I thought, "I'll look at that when I have time."

So, I had a little time today so I opened the door as above and I noticed the child lock slot had a piece of plastic was wedged in it. I took this out........ Closed the door..... I now cant open it at all! not with either the exterior or interior door handles!

So, has anyone had this issue and how do I open the door given that neither of the handles work?
thanks
Ian

Weird
Let's take a look of locking mechanism for rear door.

As you can see, outer and inner handles have each separate cables, so your problem must be in locking mechanism, not in either handles.
The problem is that you cannot disassemble locking mechanism while door is closed.

Does inner handle give proper feel and resistance when you try to open it? Or does it go idle like not pulling anything?
If it is like doing nothing, idling, you may try remove inner door handle (you pry out inner handle plastic triangle and you will find screws which hold handle fixed to door). Maybe you could pull inner cable with plies to open the door.

Maybe it's power locking mechanism not releasing the lock? Check this, too.

In case you would go into disassembling, here's how it is put together:

LOL....or try this video instructions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3qCwHOdpUk

Thanks for the replies guys.
The inside handle was working and I think the little bit of plastic was stopping the child lock slipping. I dont think the feel of it has changed.
I'm going to take the panel out tomorrow, hopefully!! I'm guessing it will come out with the door closed. If I need to I'll take the seat out too.
thanks again and I'll report back
Ian

Mine does exactly the same thing, intermittently. I've put it down to the central locking not releasing every time. Let me know if you got any resolution!

Thought I'd revisit this thread today as I've had so many issues wth the back doors which has today resulted in neither rear door openable using the outside handles.

I have already replaced the handle on the passenger side. The little plastic rod that forces the mechanism open was broken. On the replacement, this also brooke this week. I got about three years use out of it! On trying to remove the handle today, one of the nuts wouldnt come out because the threaded stud which this nut screws on to just truned in the plastic moulding. So, on the passenger side, I'll have had two new handles once the one I've just ordered arrives. Also, the inside handle broke where the ball on the end of the release cable fits into it. So thats new too!

On the driver side. I've replaced the external handle too. And, on the cable that joins the outside handle to the locking mechanism, the plastic collar has snapped so I need a new cable now.

Really, the quality of these parts is truly shocking. I've been driving nearly 40years and have owned nearly 50 cars and I've never had to replace door handles before. Really, they are poorly designed and poorly fabricated.

Not sure why, but the R51's made in Spain have had a lot of issues with the exterior door handles breaking, especially on the rear doors. We don't have those issues in the USA. Instead, we have the radiator cooler failures that take out the transmission and upper timing chain issues on the VQ40DE. Personally, I'd rather deal with the broken door handles!

Hi guys, quick question, where can I find the part number for the doer locking mechanisms? Need one for the left hand side rear door. Cheers