For a while it was hit miss and sometimes it would lock and other times not.
Mazda 5 sliding door won t open.
The outside handle literally came off in my hand.
Finally it just quit doing anything when either the key fob lock and unlock or the internal front door lock and unlock buttons where hit.
I managed to get the inside door handle cover off from the front.
If you warm up the car in a warm garage or run with heat on high for an hour or more the locking mechanism will work again.
This issue here can be due to an internal mechanical fault with the door latch as most sliding doors use a latch at the rear of the door that can bind and cause this here try to clean the latch and lubricate it and the door latch striker and see if it then operates properly clean and lubricate the tracks as well for the sliding door if this does not correct this fault here let me know so we can continue.
Repeat weekly in cold weather for optimal results.
A temporary fix is to spray grease into the rear locking mechanism in door not the latch on the van body and saturate it so that the latch mechanism stays slippery.
Opening door on mazda5 when child lock is engaged and outside handle is broken.