that sucks...my wifes car was like that. the actuator broke and she couldnt open the driver side door. she got it fixed and cost about $300 with parts and labor. I hear its a common problem on 4G and early 5G sedans

 

Since you can get throught the pass. side door you can probably open it. First, check the inside handle and see if there is tight pull to it like if you were pulling a rod, if not then theres something internal in the moter broken. Check the outside the same way. Like the dearlership said you might have to break the door panel since the dash is in the way, but if you can unscrew some screws and force the back part of the door panal off you might be able to get to the actuater and unscrew it and wa laa the door can open (you might need to take the seat out and thats pertty easy to do when the doors closed because I took my seat out many off times). Try locking and unlocking it if you have keyless entry, also try opening the door when your pushing the look up manualy half way, so that the handle and the lock are both being pulled at the same time, or pushing lock down and the handle out. If its a rod you can get to the inside rod by just unscrewing the handle cover thing and pushing it forward or backward and taking it off, the rod should be conected to the handle. Well I just said a bunch of jiburish, hopefulliy it was of help, if you do end up going crazy wile trying to get it open and the door panal breaks just go get one from a junkyard, whatever you do don't let a dealership do it, thats wasting too much money, when anybody can work on cars if they just try!

 

Ok, I got the door panel off, took the seat out, took off the actuator. Now im stuck, how do you get the lock assembly off or better yet how do you release the hook that grabs the bar. Has anyone had to do this?

 

Should be a screw for the lock to take off. Well since you did all that, I got to ask did you break the door panal?

Now Im not at any lock or anything right now
So my memory is a little fuzzy

But if I were you just start looking at it and figureing it out, its the best way to learn anything, most of the time! Anyways the lock is already broken, so dont wory about breaking the lock (unless you think you can fix the lock), most of the time people come into these forums and its usally some kind of spring thing, anyways japanies should of done a little better on the door locks!

 

Forgot to say, move things around and see what moves, you might just be looking at the lock wrong and it could be something simple. Sound like something serious broke in your door, I have never heard of something that bad, after you got the actuator off!