Both Door Handles On Their Way Out

R

Ruofdez

Member
 Southampton
I’ve only had the car for a few weeks and thought the doors seemed tricky to open. The handles require full travel and only just undo the doors requiring IMO too much pressure, that’s going to break something over time.

The other day it was parked in the sun and it was much worse, almost to the point where I couldn’t open the door. My worry is that I may soon not be able to get in the car by any means. My car doesn’t have the feature programmed whereby the windows drop with the key so I can’t even open them from the inside.

Looks as though it’s a difficult job without specialist tools and often caused by a stretched cable which would make sense of the fact it’s worse in high temps. Does anyone have any experience with the issue or have any advice?

Photos relating to the issue in other threads have all stopped working so not too sure where to begin on this. Would really like to avoid going to a dealer as I can see this being very expensive.

Thanks.
 
Hi couple of links below will help and show you what your looking at inside the door. And what Bowden cable looks like.

you will need to take door card off and Air bag, but make sure you disconnect battery prior to taking airbag out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9vtuni3_cc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcCRnG_bSVU

I tried this on my drivers door and it worked for a while but now back to square one.

Think there are a couple of threads on here to that may give more info.
 
ibasniper said:
I tried this on my drivers door and it worked for a while but now back to square one.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the info, helps to understand it a bit better. How long did the fix last for you and what’s your plan to sort it now?
 
After installing a new cable it was better but not by much, it then lasted a couple of weeks. I then added a washer at the end of the bowden cable to make it seem shorted then it really is, and this worked untill i hit a hot day then i was back to square one. To be honest, i'm thinking is could be where the handle meets the carrier just inside the door. I'm thinking when it gets warm maybe something is expanding and slipping (due to age) next stage is to bite the bullet and buy a new door handle and carrier and try that. Only bit after that is the door lock @ £150.26 :( . Cant see it being that as nothing looks wrong and internal handle works fine.
 
If you push the door inwards first, it opens relatively easily. I know this because everytime I park my drivers side in the sun, I have the same issue.

In the shade and on cold days, it's not a problem.
 
Thank you both.

Does seem like it’s a relatively common problem though more unusual to affect both doors like mine. I’ll give the ‘holding the door in’ trick a go later as it’s sat in the sun so will be a good test. At the moment I’ve found pulling up on the handle from the back of it does the trick but a bit close for comfort!

Would be nice to fix it but looks as though it’s not a well documented issue.
 
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