door latch problem

[birddog23]

I heard of this forum about a week ago from my grandson and want to thank you both for helping me.
My '85 Audi 5000s is now used just for errands and I don't want to spend more on it. For years I have been driving it without functioning outside latches to the front doors, solving that problem by pulling a cord attached to the latch handle from an open back door. A week ago the inside latch became useless when I tried to open it sitting in the driver's seat. I managed to exit out of the other front door.
A locksmith quoted 50 to 150 dollars to get it open. I found your site as well as a thread on an '84 Audi with a similar problem. I unscrewed the locking tab but could not reach into the hole with needle nose pliers as it suggested, so decided to put the tab back and accidentally locked all four doors. I then unlocked them and thought.why not try the latch? The door opened from the inside! I have driven it for several days without incident, but last evening the inside latch went floppy again. I merely depressed the locking tab and then unlocked it and the latch worked.
Thanks for helping me find this solution and I hope it becomes helpful for others as well.