I have this problem every year with my car, 1993 buick regal custom, 3.8. What happens is it gets cold, warms up a bit, and ice or snow melts and gets in the door, then it gets cold again and it freezes. I go to unlock and open the door from the outside and this problem arises.
There is a vertical rod on the left side of the drivers side, right side of the passenger side, that gets bent, from trying to open the door when that mechanism is frozen up. Just bend it back, a TINY bit and it will start working.
I got tired of taking my door apart every time it happened so i cut a little "door" in the cover thing, so i can get at that bar.
I also tried coating it in grease and that seems to lessen the frequency.
I had the same problem, the linkage rod from the handle to the lacth was bent, I straightened it out a bit and never had anymore problems with it
The linkage is likely disconnected or broken or perhaps the actual handle. For either case you would need to remove the interior door panel and examine the moving parts.
Well, since you say you can move the handle and the linkage also moves then it may be disconnected at the actual latch (the thing that closes over the post on the frame)
The linkage in the door is not that complex, you have the door lock, the inside handle, the outside handle and the latch. With that in mind you can feel your way around.
If everything is intact and the outside handle still doesn't want to open the door then the latch is probably just in need of lubrication. Or perhaps the lock is broken.
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Solution 2 was perfect, worked amazing, go with solution 2
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I had the interior of the door panel off and I can feel the rod inside the door moving up and down with the door handle on the outside. So the linkage is there, unfortunetly I can't see into the door to see anything.
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