Hey y'all, I've got a bit of a problem with my 2003 3.0. I'm guessing many others have come across this same problem. The plastic teeth/gears on my outer door handle have worn away and I can no longer open the driver door from outside. I believe replacing part no. 51-21-7-197-323 will solve my problem. However, I do not want to replace the part if the teeth/gears can instead be repaired. My concern is that the paint on the new handle won't be a perfect match to the rest of the car. That would bug me to no end. If anyone has repaired this piece before or knows of someone or a shop that can do this please inform me. Thanks. I've included some screenshots of the teeth/gears from a post on here talking about this issue.
Outer door handle
- Thread starter X9999
- Start date
I've successfully implemented a repair for this problem on one of my door handles.
My first attempt was to glue a piece of plastic in place and shape it to the profile of the teeth of the brass gear on the handle carrier, this worked initially but the force on the piece snapped it off,
My next attempt was to use epoxy resin but this also broke off, determined not to fork out on new handles I cut the remains of the teeth at an angle and drilled a small hole into the door handle then I hammered a small masonry nail into the hole that is supported by the remaining tooth leaving enough of it out the hole to essentially replace the broken piece of tooth, to reinforce it i drilled a second hole at a right angle to this to wedge another pin with a washer on it to stop the the first pin bending when operating the handle, this opened the door very well and appears to hold up quite well, but to be sure I then covered the whole area in epoxy to secure it and shape the pin into the profile of the tooth, the epoxy sits nicely in the recesses of the handle where the pin was drilled through and appears to anchor it altogether quite well,
This didn't work on my first handle as I drilled the hole to high and the pin bends to much from the force involved, so I had to buy a replacement handle for that side, but six months on and the passenger door handle repair holds up well, it doesn't open as smoothly as the replacement handle with good teeth on, but it's still effortless to open compared to before it eventually broke.
It's definitely worth attempting repair tho as getting a replacement part with a good tooth on it can be a lottery
My first attempt was to glue a piece of plastic in place and shape it to the profile of the teeth of the brass gear on the handle carrier, this worked initially but the force on the piece snapped it off,
My next attempt was to use epoxy resin but this also broke off, determined not to fork out on new handles I cut the remains of the teeth at an angle and drilled a small hole into the door handle then I hammered a small masonry nail into the hole that is supported by the remaining tooth leaving enough of it out the hole to essentially replace the broken piece of tooth, to reinforce it i drilled a second hole at a right angle to this to wedge another pin with a washer on it to stop the the first pin bending when operating the handle, this opened the door very well and appears to hold up quite well, but to be sure I then covered the whole area in epoxy to secure it and shape the pin into the profile of the tooth, the epoxy sits nicely in the recesses of the handle where the pin was drilled through and appears to anchor it altogether quite well,
This didn't work on my first handle as I drilled the hole to high and the pin bends to much from the force involved, so I had to buy a replacement handle for that side, but six months on and the passenger door handle repair holds up well, it doesn't open as smoothly as the replacement handle with good teeth on, but it's still effortless to open compared to before it eventually broke.
It's definitely worth attempting repair tho as getting a replacement part with a good tooth on it can be a lottery
