Stuck door

I need help. I just bought a 1996 Tacoma V6 4WD Xtra Cab and struggling with the drivers side door when opening it from the outside. When opening it from the inside it has no issues opening. When trying to open from the outside it sticks and won’t open until I lift the door up or have to “hip check” the door while lifting up to open the door from the outside. Any help or experience with this would be very helpful

 

Welcome to TW…you took the door panel off and checked the outside handle?

 

I haven’t yet but ordered a new exterior handle as a possible ish cheap fix. Just didn’t know if anyone had experience with this before

 

I've had the plastic on the outer handle break a few times over the years. When that happened to me, door still opens from the inside but not at all from the outside. I was able to pull the exterior handle and confirm it was broken before ordering a replacement though.

 

Good chance the clips inside the door holding the different rod latch points has come off or split to pieces...
the different auto stores sell those clips in a variety pack.....

Dorman HELP! Door Lock Knob Kit 75474 | O'Reilly Auto Parts (oreillyauto.com)





Toyota Tacoma Snap - 6975920090 - Genuine Toyota Part







Toyota Tacoma Snap - 6975920080 - Genuine Toyota Part

 

The place where the linkage attaches on the outside handle could be worn or cracked, not allowing the rod inside the door to release the latch. Removing the inside door panel makes it easy to inspect the handle linkage, or replace the handle.

My passenger side door takes more effort to open, I need to pull that door panel to check it out.