The Range Rover had another small fault develop a couple of weeks ago. One of the rear door’s central locking failed to unlock the door, though it would lock it correctly, requiring the locking lever to be pulled up the last bit of its travel manually to open the door. Curiously, the way the lock mechanism works, the door would open to its anti-burst position with the locking lever in its partially up position, but would not open beyond that second catch (roughly 1/2″ open).
I had suffered this fault before shortly after buying the vehicle nearly a decade ago (damn, time just rushes past!), first on the driver’s door and a fortnight later on the front passenger door. It’s just a broken spring in the lock and is not that uncommon.
Land Rover don’t sell the spring separately because they want you to buy an expensive complete lock assembly. In the past, I was able to buy new springs on eBay, and they may still be available. As I recall, the price was about £3 each, which is dear for a small spring, but it’s considerably cheaper than the £80-90 for a new lock. This time, I had a couple of spare locks in the garage from a broken vehicle, so I just used a spring from one of them.
I won’t duplicate the photos or work method – I have just added a post detailing the repair in the FAQ section. It works properly again, and was another satisfying free fix.
The ebay springs work a treat.