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Hi,

I have a '96 RS and recently in the cold weather the door is unwilling to latch closed. The interior door lock button seems seized but has been that way for a while. Any ideas what could be preventing the door from closing? The mechanism in the side of the door seems to move freely.

How hard is it to take the door panels off to investigate?

TIA

Easy...

Side?

The mechanism that physically latches could be flipped over, happened to me once.
If it is.. use a screw driver to turn it over while the handle is pulled. It should turn around if that is the case.

Ditto on what Barry said, but that may be a bit hard to understand unless you have flipped the latch on the door over before. My 87' S-10 used to do it all the time.
You do need to find out why the inside lock is messing up because that may be causing the problem, but flipping the latch you can do with the panel on. Just open the door and use a screw driver to flip the latch while you are holding the door handle up. Then try reclosing it and see if it will latch.
The inside lock is attached to the latch with some thin metal bars that attach with plastic clips. One of the clips may have broken or come loose. The only way to get a new one is from the junkyard or Mazda, but I don't know if Mazda will sell only one clip. They migh want to sell you the whole locking mechanism.

ok...I will see if I can flip the latch over. I should have mentioned it is on the driver's side. I will have a look at the other side to see if I can tell what needs to be done.

I did look at the side of the door and the parts seems to move freely, but whatever holds the door closed on bar on the door frame does not engage. I has done it a couple of times but has always freed itself up eventually.

From what I gather, by pulling the handle up and using a screwdriver I should be able to get the latch to move so it will engage when I close the door, correct?

Thanks

happends to me all the time during winter usualy theres is some is or snow along the bottom or top of the door and frame, or its in where the latching mechanisim is. try seeing if there is any formed and maybe taking a hairdryer to the mechanisims, or just keep trying to close it till it finnaly does.

hahah...that happened to me once but i didnt notice it was open..then i started driving and almost hit some car with my door. lol