Door Handle Not Working

[ServiceGMC]

Hi All.

2012 Sierra SLE

I think I have a hum-dinger of a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I opened the driver's door to get it and noticed something only slightly weird but thought nothing of it. I closed the door. When I put the driver window down, I heard a strange noise. I thought the window mechanism might have broken. (Now, I wish that was the case.) I tried to open the driver door from the inside handle and it would not open. I locked and unlocked the door and still not working. I opened the window and tried to open the door from the outside handle. That's when I discovered that it looks like the outside door handle is not connected to anything.

Now, I figure the fix for this problem starts with taking off the inside door panel to get access to the inside of the door. The REAL problem is that I don't think I can get the inside door panel off without opening the door. BUT ... I cannot think of any way to open the door.

Holy Cow! What do I do?

(Thanks for whatever help you can offer.)

 

[ServiceGMC]

Well, I found my own answer. I called the local dealer and the someone in the Service dept told me that I would just have to pull back as much of the inside door panel as I could and then try to use whatever access that afforded to open the door. So I did that. I was able to detach all of the upper part of the door panel. I had to recline the seatback and move the seat around a little to get as much clearance as possible. But then I realized that I did not know how the door latch mechanism worked. So I then decided to remove the passenger side door panel to learn how to unlatch the door from the inside. I discovered that I could insert an angled tool (I think this tool is most often used for brakes but I also use it for other jobs) into one of the inside access/inspection holes in the door. And I used this tool to pry up on the door latch linkage and ... presto, the door opened. Then I was able to remove the entire inside door panel. Now, I think the actual fix will be to replace the outside door handle.