Sliding Side Door Latch/Lock

2005 T1N 51,000mi since new

I've always kept my Sprinter inside, and the sliding door has worked flawlessly.

But I had to leave it outside for 2 months (stored/not used) and suddenly the Lock/Unlock is so stiff that I am afraid I will break the key (the key rotates freely until actually trying to lock or unlock the latch, so it's not the lock tumbler itself that is stiff). Even reaching around the passenger seat through the front door, the inside handle is really STIFF and difficult to lock/unlock, or open. It feels like the assembly was lubricated with peanut butter rather than oil or thin grease-cooler temperatures make it MUCH worse.

The inside handle/latch has a single Philips screw in it, and nothing else. I would like to remove the black plastic rectangular handle assembly to lube the attached mechanism (I suspect that's what it needs), but before I just remove the screw, I would like to be sure that a bunch of small parts won't fall inside the door to the bottom and be unreachable.

Unfortunately, part of the "stored for 2 months" story is that the van is currently filled with incredibly heavy things I cannot move out of the van, so I can't get inside the van, close the slider,and have access to remove the gray Masonite panel to access the bottom of the door if need-be.

The other alternative temporarily is to shoot the latch from the small rectangular opening (maybe 1/8" X 3/4" if memory serves) with a liberal amount of WD40, Liquid Wrench or other aerosol to see it that frees the latch up.

Anybody have any experience with the latch/lock assembly to keep me out of trouble?

Thanks,
Bob

Ya, I work on fed ex vehicles and they open that door 100 times a day, its usually due to puling to hard on the handle to open the door. It then unalines the mechanism. You can fix by bending it back.

riskydnb said:

Ya, I work on fed ex vehicles and they open that door 100 times a day, its usually due to puling to hard on the handle to open the door. It then unalines the mechanism. You can fix by bending it back.

Click to expand...

Thankfully mine was not abused, so hopefully nothing's bent, but can I take off the inside door "handle" (latch unit) by removing only that one screw in the canter of the black plastic assembly and NOT removing the whole fiber-board door interior panel as well?

I just don't want to do more harm than good.

Thanks-

I have an '02 Freightliner Sprinter.. Mine should be very similar if not the same... And you won't have anything falling off if you unscrew that black inner handle/latch, unless something is broken inside, in which case you want to know sooner than later I would imaging.
I will fish through my photos and see if I can't come up with what my door looks like with that cover/latch off...

Couldn't find a photo and am not near my own Sprinter to take a quick shot, but I do have the manual and I just copied that section regarding the inner sliding handle removal. Ya should be golden.

I believe there are two screws. Yes, you can just take the handle off. It will often break at the plastic hinge if it requires toomuch pressure to activate the mechanism; I am on my third handle (which I have reinforced with steel).

Thank-you for the picture and steps.

Interestingly, the 1st step in the illustration is to remove the "Trim Plug" over a Robertson (square drive) screw while my '05 just has an open Philips screw (no trim plug), though this may be the ONLY difference between the model years since I doubt they'd re-design a mechanism that is perfectly adequate. I would imagine that the inside handle just inserts into a portion of the assembly and activates it, but is not physically attached to it in any way (clips/screws, etc), so when what they just show as "(1) Handle" in the illustration is removed, the whole piece just can be removed inward.

As far as learning of something broken, right now wouldn't be a good time to make the assembly completely inoperative (if removing the handle causes parts to fall), since I cannot remove the lower fiber board to access the actual latch (which is below the handle assembly). If I really thought something were broken, I'd probably prefer to keep it barely alive until I get where the van will be unloaded (perhaps months from now since it's acting as a rolling storage container as part of our cross-country move, which in turn is on delay).

Right now the whole thing "works" but has so much friction that at 50 degrees, it almost doesn't move (and I am reluctant to turn the key hard enough to lock/unlock it), but at 75 degrees it is much less stiff, and works with less effort (to where after exercising it with the inside handle several times I CAN use the key to lock/unlock the mechanism), so my thinking (hope) is that the assembly is intact, but suffered some loss of lubricant, or corrosion while the van was outside for those couple of months, since when it was parked in August, it was absolutely fine, then suddenly when accessing it after its "slumber," it was incredibly stiff.

Any illustrations build confidence that I will know "what's in there" before I remove that handle (which should expose enough of the mechanism to get some light lubrication onto/into it).

Thanks,
Bob

surlyoldbill said:

I believe there are two screws. Yes, you can just take the handle off. It will often break at the plastic hinge if it requires too much pressure to activate the mechanism; I am on my third handle (which I have reinforced with steel).

Click to expand...

I can only see the one screw as in the posted illustration. Is there a second, hidden one, that becomes visible when the handle is partially removed?

It sounds like your mechanism got too stiff to activate as well, like mine has, leading to broken interior handles?

If so, what did you do to free-it up so that it worked fine with the replacement handle for a while (before getting stiff and breaking again). I take it that since it happened to your van several times, it's somewhat normal for them to eventually get stiff enough to break the plastic hinge?

bobinyelm said:

I can only see the one screw as in the posted illustration. Is there a second, hidden one, that becomes visible when the handle is partially removed?

Click to expand...

Look closely with the inside handle pulled out. Behind the handle is an oval shaped plug that covers (hide
s) the other screw. There is a very small hole along the edge of the plug to pry it out with a micro screwdriver, paperclip, or whatever works. Once I had the handle off I sprayed everything liberally with silicone lubricant. I'm on my third handle as well.

For what it is worth, I've felt this sort of resistance when the latch at the rear of the door needed to be lubed. The inside and outside handles have linkages which go horizontally toward the rear of the van where they release the rear latch. If this latch is binding you will experience the sort of symptoms you are having.

My original latch problem was traced to a misaligned mechanism that made put too much resistance on the plastic handle and the lock actuator. I bent some door sheet metal a bit, added a shim, and lubed everything.
The NEXT broken handle was basically the same thing, plus the poor ergonomic design of the handle itself. I have a passenger van, and the slider gets opened more from the inside than every other door; the handle gets a lot of use. Mercedes designed the thing poorly, the handle that activates the mechanism to unlatch the door is also intuitively used to yank the door open. This puts a lot of stress on the CHEAP PLASTIC hinge and prongs. A better design would have been one handle to activate the latch and another to yank the door open (attached to the door sheet metal).

I've reinforced the handle hinge and prongs with metal and JB Weld (.25x.75" id aluminum channel, shaped to the contours of the prongs, drilled to allow hinge pin, also need to cut a couple slots on either side of the hinge pin) and have had pretty good luck. I also put a felt pad, like for furniture legs, on the door where the handle hits when opened all the way so there is a little cushioning instead of an abrupt stop when yanking the door open from the inside.

I've wondered about the idea of placing a vertical metal handle over the door latch at the position where the door handle unlatches but is not at the end of it's travel; where it would then hit the underside of the metal handle and that handle would in turn be used to pull the door open. Getting it "just right" would be the problem.

Someone has already posted concerning this but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in, too.
If you have not already done so spray silicon lube on the side door track on outside of van, especially at the inward curve that brings the door flush with body of van.
If you are able to open door spray a very liberal amount of lube on locking mechanism on rear of door, preferably while working the latch.

Also, since you are unable to remove the inside panel spray a good deal in that open slot on front of sliding door, again while working the latch handle, both inside and outside handle.

We enter our Sprinter 100% via rear doors due to wheelchair placement. Seldom do we open any other door. Sliding door has been a pain since new. Dealership has done both replaced and removed to clean sliding door latching mechanism when was under warranty.
After warranty every few months the door gets hard to open. We spray every point we can get nozzle in with silicon spray and that seems to help(knock wood). While you are spraying you may wish to spray the track that roller arm rides along instide the door frame, especially one under the step. Amazing how much easier the door slides when these are sprayed, too.
It won't hurt to spray all other door latches as well as hinges to. The driver's side door is less noise since spray it when getting fuel but passenger front door is never used and hardly ever opened and it's like the slider door. been trying to remember to spray it down when do slider door but handle is hard to work and screeching is horriable even after spraying what can reach of hinges.
"Good Luck!"

Well, amazingly, after one hot day, the latch started working fine again. I sprayed thin lube through that thin opening (about 3/16: X 3.4") at the mechanism as a precaution and for now all seems well again.

I cannot imagine WHY it got SO stiff, then was fine again. It felt like extremely thick lube rather than a physical binding, but why would it just 100% fix itself?

Another day.

Thanks for all the replies!

Metal expanding with heat may have something to do with it, repositioning the mechanism a little. It's mounted to the door sheetmetal.

surlyoldbill said:

Metal expanding with heat may have something to do with it, repositioning the mechanism a little. It's mounted to the door sheetmetal.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but I've had the vehicle since new (coming up on 11 years) and it never did that before.

Strange.

Well, it's OK again, so you can't fix something that's not broken.

Maybe the lube will keep it from happening again.

2004 Dodge Sprinter Van -
there are definitely 2 screws holding in the plastic door handle; one was covered by a curved plug toward the front of the handle and the other was obvious under the movable latch (as shown in one of the prior manual photos).

I traced my problem to a bent tab on the lock mechanism where the plastic handle connects to the mechanism. Mine bent forward causing the handle to not fully move the unlock mechanism. It's the tab where the plastic handle engages locking mechanism. I straightened the tab and it works like new again. Hope this helps.

The mechanisms and cables eventually lift a sliding pawl that locks the rear latch shut.
I had good success flushing the old lube out of the pawl by squirting solvent lube UP into the mechanism at the back of the door while I spun the latch disk. It is outside the door’s weather stripping and had collected a LOT of dust over the years... lots of black gunk drained back from the latch. Finish with a light weight lubricant.

-dave