2006 Kia Optima: doors won't lock, open or latch

Filed Apr 16, 2018 · Body · 96,000 miles · TX

Driver's side door will not open from either the inside or the outside. This is the second time that this has occurred but I was able to finally get the door open before and disengaged the actuator. As long as no one locked the door, it worked fine, however; mother recently had work done on her car and when they returned it, they locked the door. I've spent numerous hours trying to get the door open so that I can replace the mechanism and actuator but have been unsuccessful. After looking online, this seem to be an ongoing issue with kia, this is a dangerous condition and needs to be looked into. Not sure how little elderly people are expected to safely get out of their vehicles in case of an emergency. (this happened while stationary on a flat, paved road).

Filed Dec 29, 2015 · 121,000 miles · KS

"takata recall" on or about october 16, 2015 I could not get out of my drivers side door...I was locked in. I am unable to unlock the door from the inside, or from the outside with my key. The door will not open and I have to climb across to the passenger side to get in and out. I don't know if it happened while I was driving down the road, or when I stopped.

Filed Nov 11, 2015 · Airbags, Electrical · 152,000 miles · SC

Airbag- we started the car up and the airbag light came on and has not went off (other than when the car is shut down). After research discovered that an airbag failure was part of a recall for this model, but only for optima's manufactured from sept 2005 forward. This one was manufactured a few weeks prior, yet has the same problem. After a google search, the issue can be found on optima's with a manufacture date as far back as april of 2005. The recall needs to be expanded to all 2006 models. Driver door locks- when the door is locked, it will not unlock without a lot of playing with the fob or using key and 'getting lucky' to grab the handle at the correct time while doing so, otherwise it locks back immediately upon pulling the handle. This is a safety issue on 2 levels. 1-if for whatever reason your travels take you through rough neighborhoods, the ability to lock the doors could save your life if you come across the wrong people. However, you can not lock them because if you have an accident and the car catches on fire or you need to escape the vehicle quickly, the door will not unlock so you can open it leaving you trapped in the vehicle. After performing a search on google, this issue seems to be with the lock actuator and is effecting optima's dating back to the 2002-2003 models. Both of these issues seriously need to be dealt with by kia. Either issue is setting up a scenario that will result in the death of the driver, if a severe accident occurs.

Filed Dec 14, 2014 · Locks · 175,000 miles · WV

Door lock will not unlock thus door will not open. Door lock will not unlock with the key on either door nor the automatic or manual door lock. This has resulted in having to exit the vehicle from the passenger door. This is sporadic and not on a regular basis.upon searching the internet this is a very common problem across the kia brand effecting numerous models and years. My main concern is under an emergency, there is no quick/safe way to exit the vehicle.

Filed Oct 1, 2014 · Body, Locks · 40,000 miles · FL

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 kia optima. While attempting to exit the vehicle, the front driver side door failed to unlock from the inside. The contact had to roll down the window and use the exterior door handle in order to unlock the door. The dealer was unable to diagnose the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 40,000.

Filed Feb 18, 2014 · Body, Locks · 60,000 miles · TX

It is a well-known issue with kia optima cars that the door latch is faulty, and after various lengths of time, it will stop unlocking. By no longer unlocking, I mean under any condition. Using a remote, using the key, even sitting in the vehicle pressing the button on the door or manually moving the indicator by the handle. This is a severe safety issue. In the event of a wreck or other emergency situation, it is impossible to exit the driver's side door on my kia optima. No matter what you attempt, the door will not open. When you unlock it using any of the aforementioned methods, the car will automatically re-lock the door as soon as you touch the handle, either interior or exterior. While I can understand normal wear and tear eating away at the component, there is absolutely no reason for the car to default to the lock position in the case of such wear and tear. A simple solution would be to have the latch default to the open position, which will allow persons to exit the vehicle in case of emergency. If this has not already cost individuals their life, I am sure it is only a matter of time. This needs to be corrected immediately, before it costs me my family.

Filed Sep 11, 2013 · Body, Electrical · 100,000 miles · UT

The drivers side door lock will not unlock with the electrical button or manually. The lock only opens half way - pull handle to open - door automatically locks. Can't open door with key from outside. Must enter in passenger side door and climb over. Big danger as driving with children in the car.

Filed Apr 7, 2013 · Electrical, Locks · 118,000 miles · LA

Front drivers side door will not unlock from inside of vehicle. You must use key and toggle lock while holding door nob out in order to unlock door, it may take a while to unlock door while doing this. I have read many responses to others having the same problem with this vehicle. This may be a serious issue if an accident occurs and the door is locked, trapping the driver inside the vehicle.

Filed Mar 11, 2013 · Electrical, Locks · 100,000 miles · PA

The drivers side door lock will not unlock with the electrical button or manually. Manually opened, the lock only opens half way - pull handle to open - door automatically locks. Can't open door with key from outside. Must enter in passenger side door and climb over. Big danger as driving with children in the car.

Filed Feb 9, 2013 · Body, Electrical · 61,300 miles · FL

I was trapped inside the car when the drivers door would not open by activating the inside door handle, the inside door unlock lever or the remote key fob. When I used the door handle nothing happened. When I pressed the inside door unlock lever I could hear the power unlock mechanism activate but the door would not open. Nor would the door open when the remote key fob unlock was pressed even though I could hear the unlock mechanism activate. The door latch would not release and allow the door to open. I had to crawl across the front console to exit the car thru the passenger door. Due to the small size of the car this could easily have been impossible with an injury or for an elderly person. In case of a fire where the only exit was thru the drivers door this would be a fatal component failure. After exiting thru the passenger door I tried to unlock the door with the key but the latch would not release the door. I tried pressing and releasing the remote unlock with and without the key multiple times using multiple combinations of the door handle, door unlock lever and remote key fob, nothing worked. This is a very dangerous situation. The door handle and door key should always function to allow exit from the car.

Filed Feb 26, 2012 · Locks · 70,000 miles · KS

Driver's side door will not unlock from the inside or outside. This is a major safety concern as someone would not be able to exit the vehicle in a timely manner in case of a fire or vehicle accident. I work as a paramedic and have first hand seen people not being able to exit their vehicles during a fire and it was not pleasant. I did an online search to find how to correct this issue and found thousands of similar complaints through all years and models of kia vehicles. Even if you don't have enough to mandate a recall on one particular vehicle, I would hope that you look at the manufacturer as a whole and their unwillingness to correct a system wide manufacturing error in their product. Please feel free to contact me if I can provide any further information. Please do something about this before someone is seriously injured, if no one has been killed by this defect yet...

Filed Feb 9, 2012 · Locks · 213,000 miles · SC

Tl* the contact owns a 2006 kia optima. The contact stated that the front driver's side door would not unlock or open. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer were made aware of the failure. The failure was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 213,000 and the current mileage was 214,000.