After getting the car back from the panel beater the driver's door lock striker (amongst other things) does not retract fully making it impossible to open the door from the inside. Ie puling the door handle to the full extent of its travel does not fully retract the lock striker - having to reach for the external handle every time which is not very safe.

It wored fine previously and though I've taken the door mechnism apart in the past I dont remember any adjustment for the striker travel. Is there any way to fix this \ adjust the travel of the striker?

Is it a clubby door or a roundnose door?

If it is a clubby door you should be able to adjust the rods to open the door sooner.

I can't remember off the top of my head if there is a way to really adjust a roundy door (can't remember when I last had mine apart). Hopefully someone else can remember.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

roundy

Righto - could you possibly elongate the holes a little bit to slide the mechanism into the door more?

<edit> is the striker plate in the correct position? They may have put it on wrong and it is positioned furthur out from the b-pillar than what it was?

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Nope - the striker just doesn't retract into its hole enough.

Loosen off the screws holding the latch mechanism to the door. Sometimes you can slide it across a little bit.

The inner handle mechanism is mounted on elongated holes so you can slide it towards the front to take some of the slack out, which sometimes helps.

Sometimes though it is down to worn components which you may need to fix or replace. I had a Mini that I could not for the life of me get to open from the inside. In the end I just used the external handle all the time and looked like a wally.

Anto has got it. On the inside mechanism the the holes should be elongated (not sure if factory - but all doors i have seen are like it) this allows you to move the mech forward to take in the slack. I had to elongate the holes a little more on my door to get the required effect, it wasn't much, but it worked a treat.

Ryan

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Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Genius....all fixed now. The mechanism on my door also has a small 4th screw locating it in the one position (the hole for it is round not elongated. In the past this fixed the mechanism in the right place, but prob. one thing or another has shifted during reassembly and it became the wrong position. So just removed that screw, slid the assembly forward and...fixed.

I knew there's no point spending hours trying to fix stuff yourself - somebody else would have already done it. Thanks alot Anto.