i need to take off the exterior passenger side door handle..the bar that pulls the catch that opens it is broken i think and i can't get to it and the bolts that are on the inside of the door are not visible and virtually impossible to get off. has anyone had experience doing anything like this? any info would be apreciated.

 

It's not as bad as it seems. Once the interior door panel is removed, you can see the nuts that hold the handle on and the rods for the opening and locking mechanism. I popped the rods off first then I proceeded to remove the two retaining nuts. It takes a bit of patience, but I promise you, it does come out.

Installation is the reverse of removal.

 

Jimmy is right, and it is not difficult at all. Now just remember to un-plug the car alarm conector form the door lock.

 

the key to getting the nuts off is to remove one with the window up (i believe the inner one) and the other with the window down (the outer one). believe me when i tell you, this isn't fun if you have electric windows.

Just be patient and work slowly.

 

You must disconnet the rods first then remove the bolts, the key is the window as mentioned before, you must roll it up for one screw and have it rolled down for the other screw. You must also use a ratchet with an extension to get to them there pretty deep. After taht dont forget to unplug the wire connected to the door cuz you cant pull it out without slowing removing the wire that is connected to the door handle.

Hey on a side note, I live in Milford and your the first person on this forum that ive seen that lives really close to me, thats pretty cool Franklin is like 10 minuts away from here

 

wow milford huh, thats pretty cool, noone lives near me on this forum at all except you haha

 

just another tip if your haven’t got it out by now. take the bottom out first and at the same time pull the handle open, it gives you a little more room to get the bottom out.

is this your first?

i broke 3 now. 2 driver side and one passenger.

i got the last 2 from mazda cuz if i break them a 1 year i can take them back.

 

Man, no ****, they are easy as **** to break, im about to damn shave mine off.... hell yeah.

 

yes this is the first one i broke and im pissed...why the hell would a door handle break for NO reason?????

 

Well my dad was driving my car at the time, i think it was just so cold the soft metal of the door handle just split.

Oh and if you haven't popped the rods off yet here's another tip that i learned the hard way. Mark on the rod where it meets the catch on the door handle, this will make adjustments alot easier later on. I didn't do this, put the whole door back together and found the rod was barely pulling the latch to open the door. if that makes any sense.

I left it alone since i didn't want to take that apart again. I'm buying a new door handle soon anyways so i can fix it later.

 

"yes this is the first one i broke and im pissed...why the hell would a door handle break for NO reason?????"

poor ******* design of the handle. all the load from opening the door is concentrated on one point.....and it always breaks.

must have been Mazda's evil plot to make some extra money.......

 

Is switching the locks hard? I just bought two used handles that come with the locks already removed, was hoping to put mine from the broken handles into the "new" used handles. Also, I was wondering if theres any better lubricant than WD-40 to use on the moving parts pre-install. WD-40 always seems to work great, but doesnt seem to last all that long.

 

It took me about 20 mins to figure out how to take the handle out with no instructions. It was fairly easy, just cramped and annoying. Just like the guys said earlier, leave the window up and take off the right nut ( looking at it as if your in the car ) then roll the window down and shove the wrench down through the window and have your hand ready to recieve ( ). Door handles are a bitch, and certainly easy to break into as our cars are one of the easiest cars out there to break into. When I get a paint job I'm definetly shaving those off.