1998 Audi A6.. Occasionally (and not getting more occasional) the outside drivers door handle won't open the door. The locks pop up with the remote lock/unlock. But the handle won't open the door. The inside handle work fine to open the door when I reach it from the back seat... (Back seat outside handles work fine.) No combination of outside key lock/unlock or remote lock/unlock will get the handle wroking until I pop it from the inside...

Ideas???

Thanks!!

 

Pull the door panel off and inspect the linkage for the handle. There is a problme with a plastic part that breaks, however this will make it so the door never opens via the handle.

 

i think im having the exact same problem. it was intermittent yesterday and the day before. it was 9F degrees today and i think it finally broke. does anyone have a better guide to removing the door panels than this: http://www.audiworld.com/tech/int13.shtml

2001.5 s4m

also, this plastic piece, does anyone have a part number? how are the bentley manuals for these cars? i had them for my e30 and e34 bmw and they were pretty good.

 

The good news is that the door panel is super easy to pop off. (Compared to most cars that have a dozen+screws and/or chintzy clips to pull.) Use a small screwdriver from 'under' the door handle (there is a small hole) to pop the window switch assy up, (hole is near the front of the swithch assy.. ie front of the car)and disconnect. (there is a molded in 'clip' on the front of the switch assy, that you may need to depress a bit for it to pop up... use the braile system)Remove the two screws, both exposed. one at the front upper corner, and one at the rear uppercorner... just below the window trim. The screws face fore & aft when the door is shut. Then the door panel pops straight up.. Literally pull straight up on the door handle. You can do this with the window up or down... I found it easier with the window down. The door panel sits on the sheet metal with inverted"L" shaped hooks molded into the plastic...if you can picture how that would let the door panelgo straight up and out.

If you figure out the PN for the piece and fix the issue, please repost. Mine hasn't been intermittent now since Dec 15th when I posted. So I doubt anything is really 'broken'. I am betting sticking... But hit it all with some WD40 or white lithium grease (pending what it looks to already be lubed with) while you have the door panel off.

 

same problem with my passenger side door on my s4, works fine from inside, intermitantly opens from outside

 

door panel is easy to get off
where is the piece for the outside door handle?

 

Finally got around to taking mine apart...heres what I found. The outside door handle linkage inside the door pushes down on a part of the door latch mechanism. The part the outside handle linkage pushes on it is a seperate latch operator than the inside handle uses(hense the insides work fine), the part it pushes on was not returning all the way up so the outside handle "pushrod" was not reaching it, I lubed up the part of the door latchworked it a few times and now it works great everytime.