2006 HHR has been good during its 248000 mile run but now she has locked me out. The driver door will not open. So far I have tried locking and unlocking hundreds of times with the fob, the switch, the key, and pulling up and down on the stalk. It feels like its working. It sounds like it working. Its not working. Pulled the top of the door panel back, squeezed my hand in and physically confirmed things are moving. Disconnected the outside handle by unclipping the yellow clip and detached the cable from the inside handle to make sure they were not bound and keeping it from unlocking. Repeated hundreds of lock and unlock procedures and still wont open. I am assuming physical failure inside the the latch but I need the door open to replace it. I could take the front hinges of the door off but that wont help getting it unlatched. I am considering remote wiring the drivers window, painting it orange, and sliding across the hood before climbing through the window everytime I get in because that's easier than climbing across from the passenger side but I embarrass my kids enough as it is. Has anyone done this before? Any tips or tricks?

 

A locksmith might be of assistance. A body shop would.
Check with your car insurance company, mine has lock out and towing.

 

Thank you for the advise but there will be no shops involved in this repair. My trusty air hammer can easily defeat the latch mechanism from the inside of the door. i was trying to see if a less chaotic approach was known.

 

If you can get hold of the wire in yellow and yank it that might get it to unlatch.
You are probably going to need a new latch mechanism. I doubt it is an electrical or lock problem, there are internal bits that can fail. If you are lucky it is just gummed up grease.

 

Thank you. I had already attempted that. New latch mechanism is on order. When it arrives I am going to attempt to take the screws out of the old one with my old quadrajet adjusting tool and the right bit. Maybe limit the destruction inside the door.