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The other day my wife pulled broke the door handle while trying to exit the driver's seat. She can be a bit heavy handed but I've watched for her pulling on it to close the door - she doesn't do it. I suppose each one breaks in its own unique way.
Anyhoo I found a L/R PAIR of METAL replacements on Ebay for less than $27. Seemed like a good Idea to put the passenger side in stock, since the driver's side alone was about $18.
These are NOT the Dorman "assemblies," just the handle, a spring, a metal pin, and a circlip the size of a lentil. The metal is rather heavy, even thicker than the plastic.
Good thing I bought the pair, because I lost the first circlip.
Pretty easy, overall. Seems like the assembly would be a lot more unnecessary work.
While replacing a door handle, I decided to look into the window switches that were failing to lower the rear windows, hoping that cleaning the contacts would solve the problem. (Up worked fine, coulda been worse, right?)
Having the door panel off made it easier to figure out how to remove the switch assembly, but it turns out it could have been easily removed with the panel in place; it just snaps in. You need to lift the back first, though.
I managed to pry the door switch assy from the bezel and open it up. Was happy to find that the buttons appeared to be made of copper.
Scrubbed the contacts on the green board and the buttons with a pink pearl, dusted away every crumb, then dusted some more. Crumbs are bad around contacts. (Edit - I also gave each contact a quick wipe with 91% isopropyl on a q-tip, and was carful not to touch after that.) Put it all together and everything worked!
The mirrors were working fine so I didn't mess with those switches. (Did successfully clean the mirror switch contacts on a 2008 once upon a time, though.)
OK, now I can safely reinstall the door panel, right? Done. Now what? How come the lock button doesn't do anything? Oh, crap, forgot to plug it back in. So I had the same panel off twice in one day. Now I'm an expert.
Last edited by PulpFriction; 11-06-2019 at 07:25 AM.
Reason: Housekeeping
Nice write up, thank you for the photo’s and your time to share your method of repairing the switches and the handle.
Today, we ride out to the mighty Niagara River to check out the scow , it moved on Halloween, after sitting for 101 years, it run aground in 1918.
It’s a tourist attraction , with some history!
This is the best contact cleaner/restorer ive found.
Its what professional musicians and sound people use to maintain their equipment. Worked great on our window switches. https://caig.com/deoxit-gold-g-series/
This is the scow in it’s new location the hole in the hull on the left is the one that held it in place in rocks for 101 years This is the location of the rocks the scow was stuck on since 1918
This is the scow in it’s new location the hole in the hull on the left is the one that held it in place in rocks for 101 years This is the location of the rocks the scow was stuck on since 1918
I read about that barge moving :O I'll have to go back up there to see it :) Been years since I have been to the falls !
Today, an 1 or 2 of snow and I have an appointment for the Terrain with the dealership, yuck , it has been in the garage since October 7th.
yesterday we drove out to Long Point in Lake Erie, we saw several flocks of Trumpeter Swans ready to fly south .
I’m ready now but we won’t be headed south until April.
This is the scow in it’s new location the hole in the hull on the left is the one that held it in place in rocks for 101 years This is the location of the rocks the scow was stuck on since 1918
11-04-2019, 10:33 PM
So I had the same panel off twice in one day. Now I'm an expert.
