Passenger Door Stuck - Repair Options?

[cry0]

I'll try to make this short and detailed. I have a 2007 Yaris Base Model, which has treated me awesomely aside from the bolts under the passenger/rear tire clanking on a bump (a topic for another day). A few days ago, I unlocked my passenger side door with the key (something I rarely do) and after that... The door refused to open. I climbed in the passenger side, manually unlocked it, and all seemed well. Until I decided to "test" and lock the door and open it with the handle on the inside. This was a mistake. It didn't open, and nothing would change that.

At first, manually moving the lock was impossible; it was stuck and good. I managed to pry the door panel back enough to see how the lock mechanism worked, but even using the rod manually would not let the door open. I could hear it trying, but it just wouldn't go.

After playing with it handle, the rod, and the door lock switch for about 45 minutes, a miracle happened; the door opened. I was overjoyed. I took the panel the rest of the way off and pulled out the mechanism, opened it up, and gave everything a good cleaning and regreasing. It seemed to work fine now, so I put everything back together. To my horror... it stopped working again. Same problem. At least now the lock switch was moving, but it just wouldn't open.

Now, I can't get the door open. At all. There are no junk yards with a Yaris, Tacoma, or FJ in the area to salvage a new assembly from (from what I found they are all the same) so that I could just break the door open (gotta do what you gotta do, right?).

So, is there a way to remove the striker from behind the door panel? I see the bolt heads are facing the door which leads me to believe this is no good. I really can't afford a new assembly and would rather just take another go at trying to fix the one I have and maybe clean the motor and make sure everything was connected right, mechanically speaking. Any ideas?

[CTScott]

You can't remove the door latch assembly without opening the door first. And, forcing the door open will make a huge mess of the door frame. Your best bet is to try to get the door panel off to give yourself access from the inside. From there you can reach in and flip the lever that the door handle lifts to release the door.

[cry0]

I've tried this, though to be honest it may not have been the the lever you speak of. Are you meaning the lever that gets pushed down when you push the rod down, or is there another mechanism I'm missing?

[cry0]

Can a mod go ahead and delete this thread or merge it with http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53626 ? There is more information on repair options there and I have started updating my repair process on there.