Quanntum

Driver side door of my '83 944 locked itself shut and the key mechanism does not work. When I insert the key I am able to turn it both to the left and the right with no friction at all and no effect on the lock. Tried lifting the interior door lock and that wouldn't budge either. It appears to have happened while I was driving as I noticed it after I returned home and couldn't open my door and had to crawl out to the passenger door. I can't remove the door card because it is locked shut and I don't have any ideas at the moment besides brute forcing it open and potentially breaking something else. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks.

Cloud9...68

I have the exact same issue with my '92 968. Given the age of these cars, this is bound to become a common problem. In your case, being an early car, you should be able to pop the lock with a Slim Jim. It gets much harder on later 944's and 968's, because Porsche installed a plate inside the door to discourage the use of Slim Jims and similar devices. I believe there are youtube videos (or at least descriptions) showing how to open a 944 door that has a broken latch mechanism. Good luck.

mytrplseven

Sounds like the linkage from the outer door handle has failed. I had this issue and got a piece of 1/16 inch by one inch wide steel from Home Depot and slid it inside the outer glass, pointing towards the door latch mechanism inside and hit it with a hammer sufficient to knock the mechanism to come apart and then the door is unlocked. After that I replaced the door handle link with new ones and no more issues.