My passenger door on a Peugeot 106 is closed and refuses to open. The central locking trys to do something but fails. When using the key in the lock it will not turn far enough to unlock the door. Because the door is locked in the closed position I cannot see how to get the door trim off without damaging it to get to the mechanism
Any Ideas?

Dan, October 2006

Same problem with closed door not opening.
Took all the inner trim off & STILL couldn't open it.!
THEN read about the banging cure,
tried it & it worked.!!!!
Cheers for that.

I've zapped the outer handle mechanism with penetrating spray as best as I can & it's working for the time-being.
I'm just about to do the same to the other 3 door handles.!

Daniel O'Dair, June 2020

My Peugeot 106 year 2000 drivers door latch is broken and will not stay open I can see the latch bolts in door but do not know how to get to it can u help thanks

jim, March 2015

Hit it hard with a rubber mallet - works a treat.

Robin, December 2014

I have the same problem with the drivers door,cannot open it from outside,so I have so far managed to remove the door trim ,had to take the seat out tho',it took quite a long time to free the arm with WD40 and such like,so I decided to remove the handle complete and work on it outside.......drilled the 2 rivets out and loosened the handle and there is where I am at,I have disconnected the upper control rod from the lock and the handle should have just popped out,no such luck,that handle will not come out.
So is there anything that I have missed or is there a special way of getting it out? Love to hear from you wonderful people asap. Thankyou.

Sandsifter, May 2014

I have had the same problem: 106 from 1996. Using the key, central locking or pulling up the 'button' on the inside of the door wouldn't unlock it. I managed to get the trim off the inside of the door while it was closed (yes, the seat is in the way for getting to one of the screws at the base of the trim but I had enough different tools that I could access it - although it took a half hour to work out how to get that one screw out!). I jiggled and lubricated as much of the lock mechanism as I could but nothing worked until I read the post from Peter (October 2013). The outside door handle moves a flat metal lever and it was the pivot point of this lever that was slightly sticking. Once the lever was pushed through its range of movement the door handle mechanism worked and the door opened. So I've now lubricated the offending part.
Thanks to Peter.
An alternative way to fix this problem (now that I know what it is) would be to remove the outer door handle from the outside by drilling out the two rivets that hold it in place. This should give access to the offending lever and this way you wouldn't have to remove the interior door trim (which is not easy). As long as you have a rivet gun to reattach the door handle........

SJW, March 2014

2 useful tips:

1. It's a pain to remove the trim inside the door if you can't open it. You have to take the seat out in order to access it! Therefore, I've found that by using the palm of my hand and banging just below the lock/handle on the outside of the door rapidly about 20 times, it is often enough to get the mechanism to spring back where it should be so that the door can be unlocked and opened.

2. The offending bit on all 3 doors where I've had this problem is the pivot close to the outside handle. The outside door handle is pulled out for when opening the door, and then springs back. However, the seesaw pivot closest to this handle does not pivot smoothly. Solution (once you've removed the trim is to spray with WD40 and manually pivot back and forth numerous times until it moves smoothly. (The first door that I had this on is still working fine after 2 years.

Peter (106 owner for over 10 years), October 2013

can anyone help when i take the key out of ignition open driver door to get out my passenger door and boot lock i have to then reopen with key and then lock

margaret, July 2013

Wow. Thanks to everyone. I've just sprayed loads of WD40 around the handle and lock of my R reg 106 as the central locking system was caput and could only get in via the passenger door - and now it works!! Absolutely amazing. I was going to call a mechanic tomorrow - have saved so much money thanks to the comments on here.

Anonymous, October 2012

I have the same problem , I have to clamber in and out through the passenger door

ROGER, February 2012

guess what....my peugeot 106 driver side lock has siezed up!!! Have been getting in from the passenger side! What a pain.
Thanks for all your contributions...the question now is...do I take it to a conventional garage, or a scrap dealers or what....not sure who fixes things like locks on cars...didnt think it was a mainstream garage.

Peugeot driver, August 2011

Phil, bit of more advice. The handle that opens the door from the outside gets siezed on the inside of the door over time. So when you open the door, although the handle goes back down on the outside of the door, the lever on the inside which is attached to the rod that goes into the lock mechanism stays up. You'll probably notice not much resistance when you open the handle on the outside. From the inside lubricate the pivot point with wd40 then when its loose get some oil on it.
Colin

colin askew, September 2010

You can open the door quite easily in order to remove the trim. It sounds mad but on the outside repetitivly bang the door next to the lock, under the handle about 15-20 times (quickly, like a strong vibration), then turn the key and pull the handle at the same time. It will miracuously open. I'm due to take the lock out of mine tonight for a closer inspection.

Phil Morris, September 2010

My 106 has done the same on both sides, but I know how to sort it. It would occasionally lock shut but would always open with a wee bit of fiddling about with the key and snib. Then one day it wouldn't open no matter what(spent 3 hours trying to open it without success). The lock would open ok but the door wouldn't budge. I had to take the drivers seat out (easy job, 4 bolts)to get the trim panel off the door. Once you tear off the inner covering you can see the mechanism cover. What you have to do is disconnect the central locking wires and get them out the way. Remove the grey plastic covering that just sits over the lock mechanism which is removed by pulling it down and out. Then you will see the actual mechanism housing, which has a white plastic cover. You have to remove this using tools of persuasion ie screwdriver, snap it off. Dont worry about breaking it, its knackered anyway and will need replaced. This is a really fiddly job which took me about half an hour as it would only snap off in bits. Once this is off use a mirror and torch and you will see the mechanism and how it works by pulling at the levers. What you will have to do is get a screwdriver and push the mechanism up by hand and the door will open. What happens with these locks is the metal inside gets worn and eventually when you use the door handle to open the mechanism, instead of opening the latch, it slides to the side and jams in this position. WD40 might help initially but you are just delaying the inevitable and the door will lock on you again. Just get another from the scrappy.

colin askew, September 2010

I have the same problem with my N reg 106, it was working fine then one day it randomly decided to get stuck locked :S unsure of the problem and i am no mechanic so fixing is completely out of my league. I have a haynes manual and that hasnt helped either! Unsure of what to do now so looks like everyone is sitting in the back from now on! Gunna guve the WD40 a go tho it may help for now!

Karl, December 2007

Hi, clearly a common problem with peugeot 106s, I have the same problem with both driver's side and passenger side front doors on a car I just bought off ebay.

The good news is, you can get the door trim off without having the door open - bit fiddly and there are loads of screws to undo, but it will come off. This gives you a smallish area to work with, but big enough to get your hand in. If you can somehow get the door open it becomes much easier, because then you can get the whole mechanism out and physically see and understand how it all works!

I have fixed my passenger side door simply by good old-fashioned WD40 - try this first! The problem was that when you lifted up the handle, the moving part that moves up to open the door was then not moving down when the handle was released. Having freed this up with copious amounts of WD40 it now works fine.

Am still working on the driver's side door...different problem here, in that when you lift the handle from inside, it knocks down the locking mechanism. It works fine when I pull it out of the car, but not once I've put it all back together!

Anyway, good luck to anyone struggling with this common problem, I am no engineer but hopefully my comments will help somehow, maybe!

Ian, August 2007

I came across this problem with my J reg Peugeot 106. The passenger door lock gave up and refused to open/unlock. After about an hour of fiddling through the measly hole in the door I managed to free it up, I don't know how I did it cause i'd tried everything and all of a sudden a quick jiggle opened it up. I closed the door when i'd finished putting it all back together and hey presto, it jammed again straight away.
Since then the car has been left standing for a few months due to other problems and guess what has happened, the drivers side has done exactly the same thing. Now the only access into the car is through the boot or the window.
I'm desperately trying to find an answer to the problem but nobody as yet has any clue as to how to fix it. Especially with both doors being jammed its even more of a pain to get it sorted.
When attempting the first fix i did manage to get a look at the mechanism by use of a torch and mirror and also a camera/video phone with flash but still couldn't make head nor tail of it. The part of the latch which looks like it should move to open the door didn't seem to be blocked by anything but still didn't move. Good Luck to everyone with this problem.

Jonny Fonzarelli, May 2007

same problem. don't know the answer yet.

pete, April 2007

peugeots are notorious for doing this. my girlfriend's has done exactly the same (again). i've even managed to rip the trim off and still can't see what to do, there's about a 2 square centimetre hole that the lock handle goes into and the rest of what i was hoping would just be trim is infact metal door. sledgehammer next me thinks.

Mark lewis, November 2006

Hi, I have just discovered that I have exactly the same problem with my 106. The door is locked and will not open. I have used some WD40 on it which I think has loosened a bit. I think this may be a garage job. If you go to a reputable garage then they should not charge much. I am starting to wonder if this is a common problem with 106's? I know that you can take the trim off when the door is in an open position. Closed is a lot more frustrating.

Andy wardlow, October 2006