Ever since we’ve had the eSpace we’ve never been able to open the rear doors from the inside. At first we thought perhaps the child-lock was stuck in the ‘on’ position, but on closer inspection the fault was in fact down to very shoddy French design.
Upon removing the door trim a complex and impressive array of mechanical rods and pulleys are revealed, which are connected to each of the door handles (there’s the main one plus one near the top of the door for passengers in the boot area). However no one seems to have the told the French designers the old adage, ‘you’re only as strong as your weakest link’ because despite deciding to use metal for 99% of the mechanism, they’ve elected to use weak plastic for the remaining 1%, the bit responsible for joining the bars to the handles. And guess what, amazingly in the intervening 15 years since it left the factory the plastic bits on all four handles has snapped! Who’d have thought it…
Spurred on by fixing the electric windows (see earlier post) set about ‘extending’ the metal rods using a series of cable ties (widely revered as the strongest material ever made!) so that you can operate the door latch from inside. I hope to get some pictures to help explain, but essentially you pull down on a the end of cable tie which is protruding into the cabin from below the door handles, while at the same time leaning on the door. Something which you do instinctively when using a handle but is surprising difficult when pulling on a cable tie, rather like trying to rub you stomach and pat your head at the same time!
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