How do repair the rear door latch on1998 Honda Civic lx 4 door where rear door can be opened from the inside but not the outside?

Answer 1

This car is equipped with a safety lever on both rear doors. They are meant so children cannot open the doors from the inside. Open the door and look for the child safety lever. It is sometimes hit by accident and that sets the door on safe mode. Just slide the lever opposite to where it is and that should take care of your problem.

AnswerUsually, there's a rod that connects from the door latch mechanism over to the exterior door handle, which is just held in place with the same type of plastic retainers that hold doorlock and doorlatch bars to the interior door handle. Getting to it's a bit tricky, tho. Make sure the window's all the way up, then remove the door panel - procedure: Remove the cover from the front lower armrest (tight, but just pops off)to expose two screws. Remove these, as well as the one inside the interior doorlatch cup, just behind a small cover piece. Detach the interior handle from the two bars, and remove. Pop the door panel free starting at one of the bottom corners, working your way to the top. Lift the panel up once it's free to get it off the window seal.

Now, look inside the door, near the outside. You'll probably see the inner workings of the outside door handle. Try moving the handle from the outside, and look for a plastic bar that moves with the handle with a hole in it. See it? Well, there should be a metal bar attached to it. Check over above the doorlatch assembly deep in the back of the door (it's way back there!), and you'll probably find the offending bar just flopping around. You'll need either a magnet rod or some seriously flexible fingers to reach it, but go get it. Should have a 90 degree elbow at the end of it, bout an inch's worth protruding from there. That end is what needs to be connected to the door handle's plastic arm.

If you're lucky, there will still be a plastic retaining latch seated in the hole in the door handle's arm. If so, reinsert the metal bar there, clip it back in place, and you're done. More likely, it's either missing or broken (which is why you're fixing it in the first place). Run by your friendly neighborhood Honda dealer and grab a replacement.

If anything is different than what I've described, then you're in for a headache... as to investigate or remove either the handle or doorlatch assembly would require removing the entire window assembly, as well as some of the door itself. If adventurous, go for it. Otherwise, pay a shop a visit.