What's up with my door latch? (1998 S70)

I have a 1998 S70 w/ 74K miles on it that I love but gives me fits
every now and then.

The door latch on the passenger side suddenly stopped working last
night - you can open it from the outside but not the inside. Is this
a common situation for 850's and early s70's??

Thanks for any and all tips and advice.

David
Alabama

 

Make sure you check the position of the child lock switch... On the older
Volvo's there isn't much of a possibility of catching it on clothing and
switching it over, but I haven't really looked at how they do it on the
newer ones, so I figure it's worth a look, as it would cause the exact
situation you have described... If it's an electrrical switch doing the job
then it could have failed.

 

On the 850s, S70s (and every other Volvo I've owned), only the
REAR doors have had child safety lock switches. Not the passenger
side door.

Well, I don't know. By a sample size of two - it hasn't happened on
our cars.

 

Try taking the interior panel off to take a look. You'll need a torx
screwdriver, T25 I think, and a very wide flat screwdriver or something
similar to pry the panel off the plastic clips that hold it on. (You can
find those at the auto parts store.)

The inside handle pulls on a cable (like the brake cable on a bike), and
that cable is attached to a combined latch/lock/power lock unit. That part
costs about $200 (not counting labor) so hopefully your problem is only that
the cable popped off of the door handle and you can just put it back on.

It should take you less than one hour.

 

He didn't mention front or back door tho...

 

Hi, me again. Thanks for the replies. Been travelling for work so I
haven't been able to follow up. Here's more information:

- It's most definitely NOT the child safety lock.
- The cable is not broken because the door open handle won't budge.

As always, thanks for all pertinant information.

David
Alabama
98 S70 75K

 

It actually might be related to the cable. I've installed two of these (one
each front door), and when I didn't have one set up just right, the door
handle wouldn't move properly either.

Take the inside panel off the door and look at it again. Hopefully
something simple came loose and you can fix that by hand instead of buying
the new part.

If you do have to buy the new part, I would be cautious of a used
replacement in this case, since that seems to be a weakpoint of the car.