Removal and refitting the exterior door handles and / or lock barrel

This is not the easiest of jobs, and the passenger door handle is much easier to do. It's fiddly and you need dexterous hands and fingers, ideally an 8mm or 2 BA nut screw driver or equivalent, a small torch, and several hours with nothing better to do !

Remove the interior door trim.

Peel back the corner of the plastic sheet to allow access to the door latch.

If you are only wanting to replace the lock barrel, this can be done at this stage, without removing the exterior handle itself.

Access is poor, so you will probably find that you need to raise the door window to the full extent, or lower it to the full extent, dependant upon which stage you are at.

Unclip the lock link rod at the top end from the lock. It is held in place by a plastic clip, and should pull out towards you. The second photograph shows it refitted to the lock after the lock itself has been removed



Release the plastic clip securing the bottom end of the door handle link rod to the latch assembly and move the rod out of the way.



Release the spring clip from the lock. It is behind the plate attached to the lock barrel. This can be done without withdrawing it, but by getting hold of the ends of the clip and rotating the clip through about 45 degrees.

Withdraw the lock into the car. Replacement is the reverse.

Working throughthe two access holes, undo the two hex headed bolts that secure the door handle to the door. If they drop they will end up in the bottom of the door, or as in my case, the right hand one fell behind a small flange plate (see photo) and it took me the best part of an hour to find it!



There are two clips on the inner lower edge of the door handle itself. Release these. They are part of the casting and be warned, they are fragile. One of mine was already broken before I, not understanding how weak they were, managed to break the second one. If you look at the broken piece in the photo you can the central part of the clip that locates in the slots in the door panel. they only need gentle pushing upwards to release them.


You should now be able to gently push the handle out from the inside, rotating it upwards to allow the top hinges to clear the opening.



Refitting is the reverse, but if you are putting the same handle back in, it is worth greasing the two faces of the inside levers where the hinge mechanism operates the opening lever......operate the handle you and will see where I mean.

Take car not to damage the door paint as you refit the handle.