Trapped! (aka Broken Car Door Handle)

One recent morning, I arrived at my office for work, and when I tried to open my car door, I heard a strange noise, and the door remained shut.  Lovely. The handle would move quite freely and easily, but it would not open my door. I tried to lock and unlock it from the inside but to no avail.  Fortunately, I wasn’t wearing a skirt, so I “gracefully” climbed over my front passenger seat, climbed out of my car, and went around to the driver’s side.   Once there, I could successfully open the door. This verified that the door as a whole wasn’t messed up, just the inside handle. Granted, I could not lock the door from the outside.  I climbed back in, played some proverbial reindeer games, was in and out of the car a few times (after calling my handy husband, Steve, he smartly suggested that instead of climbing over the passenger seat, I could just open my window and open the door by reaching out) but could not figure out how to get a handle to work nor how to lock the door once I was outside.  I was optimistic that no one was going to steal my car from a parking lot (I feel that I work in a safe neighborhood, and the police station is literally down the street from the building), yet I still moved it a bit closer to the office building just to hedge my bet.  

Just because my husband does not have enough things to keep himself busy (pure sarcasm), he was “on the case” as to how to fix my car door.   He knew that the problem was an inside handle issue, so he ordered a new one from Amazon. While awaiting that piece, he was able to figure out how to successfully lock the door, and even discovered a method (on Youtube) which allowed me to open the door from the inside.  After a little practice, I did get more efficient at letting myself out of the car by pulling both the handle (about halfway) and the door lock lever (as if it were the door handle). I no longer had to open my window or climb over seats to exit my vehicle!

Steve then found the all important “how to fix my problem” YouTube video (These days you can find a guide to doing almost anything on YouTube).  This involved removing the inside door panel. Although I knew that it would look bad while the work was being done, I was optimistic that all would work out in the end.  (In previous years, I had found many more, larger portions of my car on the front lawn during major “fix-it” projects, including the center console, the shifter, suspension/brake parts, etc.)  I promised myself that I would stay calm as my husband showed me how to start pulling pieces of my car apart.  

The process first involved unscrewing several bolts and then releasing some clips that held the inside door panel onto the door.  Once the panel was loose, it was simply a matter of disconnecting the electrical connectors for the door locks and windows and the panel was out of the way.  Next, we unbolted the broken door handle/lock assembly from the car door, and removed the cable connecting it to the door latch. Once it was free, we were able to see the plastic piece that had broken from the strain of opening the door over the last nine years.  Luckily, the replacement door handle/lock assembly was less than $20, and looked like an exact match to the original part. Here is the video that was used as a guide. I was unable to get photos of the entire process (because my husband’s hands and body were often in the way…the nerve). I want to show at least some of the steps so you can see how YouTube video information can be applied to someone who doesn’t know enough about the process to actually make the YouTube video. I admit that I was an active observer of the process; I did not actually take part in the disassembly/reassembly.

It took almost no time to connect the new part, re-mount it to the door, and pop the door panel back on to the door (after reconnecting the electrical plugs for the locks and windows). If you want more visuals of what you just read, I will refer you back to the video where you can see the process more completely (kudos to the guy who made the video!).  From start to finish, the entire job took less than fifteen minutes (caveat–my husband did have some idea in advance as to what he was doing), and the door was back to 100%! One of the lessons both he and I keep learning about repairs like this is that most of the time, the repair is nowhere near as difficult as it initially seems.  By “following the bouncing ball,” I can be much more self-sufficient than I ever imagined!