Having a problem with my driver's side door lock not working - Can't move the lock button up or down. I took the latch out and found the problem is this little white piece which blocks the latch from moving. Why?

If I manually move that piece out of the way, it works fine. I'm tempted to take some snips and hack it off, but, obviously, it's there for a reason.

Any ideas how it's supposed to work? What's wrong?

Unlocked - that small white piece prevents the mechanism from moving into the locked position.



Locked - if I move that white piece out of the way, the lock works fine.

 

Well, I need the car in the morning, so I had to make a decision. After a long period of careful analysis and some discussion among myselves, I decided that little white thing to be an extraneous, unnecessary part and did some careful surgery to remove it. Everything works fine now.

As for getting the inner door handle to work... Wow! What a PITA! It was like I needed to adjust the cable a bit, but it's not adjustable.