Recently I had cause to change my interior door handle cable.
The symptoms of its failure where:
1. lock mechanism not closing preventing the mechanism from closing and keeping the door shut
2. rough operation of the interior door handle prior to failure
Here are my experiences and rather poor pictures of the operation. Sorry but it was cold and I needed it fixed so I didn't spend much time trying to document the job:
Step 1
Follow the Evilution guides to removing the exterior door panel by clicking here
Then, follow the Evilution guide to removing the interior door card by clicking here
Step 2
Follow the Evilution guide to removing the exterior door handle by clicking here and following the guide up to the point where the handle is removed from the door
Step 3
Pull on the interior door handle and (working from underneath it, prise out the metal ball on the end of the door handle cable.
Now this is where I'll get a bit bland in my direction as I couldn't get a picture of it...
With the interior handle detached from the cable, you should see the ball end of the cable presenting upwards towards the rear of the handle from a small square black plastic housing on the end of the insulation on the cable. This black plastic square resides on a plastic curve that brings the cable up towards the handle on the inside of the door without putting stress or kinks in it.
The plastic square actually clips in to the interior door handle to keep the cable in place. You can unclip this end of the cable by GENTLY pushing the black plastic housing to the left towards a recess cut in to the handle. The cable will then fall away inside the door. Job done...at this end.
Step 4
Unclip the cable in the middle of the interior of the door. Its secured to the rest of the door card panel using a press on metal clip that also secures some wiring. KEEP THE CLIP! You'll need it when replacing the new cable.
With the cable hanging loose inside the door secured only to the door lock end, its time to get it off door lock end.
Start by undoing the two Torx bolts securing the lock mechanism from inside the door:
and then the three bolts of the same size (think its T40) that secure the door lock mechanism from the exterior door panel side of the door:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2079/...d4a4088a35.jpg
The lock mechanism will now be sitting loose inside the door but it wont pull away from the door straight away as its tucked in behind a part of the door assembly. Lift the mechanism up within the door until it can't travel any further (constrained by central locking wiring):
You should then be able to gently persuade it out of its resting place within the door.
Bring the mechanism away from the door and expose its rear. Watch out for the central locking wiring! You'll see the following:
Unclip the black insulation at the end of the cable sheath from the locking mechanism. Then, unhook the cable end from the locking mechanism.
You can then pull the cable through into the centre of the door and retrieve both ends and bring it away from the car.
That's the cable out! As it's now 3.54AM and I'm tired, all I'll say is that assembly is pretty much the reverse of steps 1-4 but:
watch out when you are clipping the new cable back in to the interior handle. The black plastic square at the end of the curve that presents to the interior handle clips in to the handle itself. It will break if you attempt to give it too much force while clipping it in. I broke it first time round
When bolting the door mechanism back in to the door, do all the bolts up finger tight first to check that the door lock striker closes smoothly against the locking mechanism. When that's the case, you can go ahead and tighten the bolts up.
Take the opportunity to lube the new cable at both ends with a decent spray lube like some white lithium grease.
The symptoms of its failure where:
1. lock mechanism not closing preventing the mechanism from closing and keeping the door shut
2. rough operation of the interior door handle prior to failure
Here are my experiences and rather poor pictures of the operation. Sorry but it was cold and I needed it fixed so I didn't spend much time trying to document the job:
Step 1
Follow the Evilution guides to removing the exterior door panel by clicking here
Then, follow the Evilution guide to removing the interior door card by clicking here
Step 2
Follow the Evilution guide to removing the exterior door handle by clicking here and following the guide up to the point where the handle is removed from the door
Step 3
Pull on the interior door handle and (working from underneath it, prise out the metal ball on the end of the door handle cable.
Now this is where I'll get a bit bland in my direction as I couldn't get a picture of it...
With the interior handle detached from the cable, you should see the ball end of the cable presenting upwards towards the rear of the handle from a small square black plastic housing on the end of the insulation on the cable. This black plastic square resides on a plastic curve that brings the cable up towards the handle on the inside of the door without putting stress or kinks in it.
The plastic square actually clips in to the interior door handle to keep the cable in place. You can unclip this end of the cable by GENTLY pushing the black plastic housing to the left towards a recess cut in to the handle. The cable will then fall away inside the door. Job done...at this end.
Step 4
Unclip the cable in the middle of the interior of the door. Its secured to the rest of the door card panel using a press on metal clip that also secures some wiring. KEEP THE CLIP! You'll need it when replacing the new cable.
With the cable hanging loose inside the door secured only to the door lock end, its time to get it off door lock end.
Start by undoing the two Torx bolts securing the lock mechanism from inside the door:
and then the three bolts of the same size (think its T40) that secure the door lock mechanism from the exterior door panel side of the door:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2079/...d4a4088a35.jpg
The lock mechanism will now be sitting loose inside the door but it wont pull away from the door straight away as its tucked in behind a part of the door assembly. Lift the mechanism up within the door until it can't travel any further (constrained by central locking wiring):
You should then be able to gently persuade it out of its resting place within the door.
Bring the mechanism away from the door and expose its rear. Watch out for the central locking wiring! You'll see the following:
Unclip the black insulation at the end of the cable sheath from the locking mechanism. Then, unhook the cable end from the locking mechanism.
You can then pull the cable through into the centre of the door and retrieve both ends and bring it away from the car.
That's the cable out! As it's now 3.54AM and I'm tired, all I'll say is that assembly is pretty much the reverse of steps 1-4 but:
watch out when you are clipping the new cable back in to the interior handle. The black plastic square at the end of the curve that presents to the interior handle clips in to the handle itself. It will break if you attempt to give it too much force while clipping it in. I broke it first time round
When bolting the door mechanism back in to the door, do all the bolts up finger tight first to check that the door lock striker closes smoothly against the locking mechanism. When that's the case, you can go ahead and tighten the bolts up.
Take the opportunity to lube the new cable at both ends with a decent spray lube like some white lithium grease.
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