How to remove 360 door handles? cleaning sticky parts

Hi David,

I know this post is a few days old so I wanted to help revive it for you.

For your door handles, you will need to remove the leather cover (arm rest piece) behind the handle. You will need to pull it from the back corner and lift up.

Once up you will notice a thin rod with a few adjustment threaded nuts. I believe they are 9mm. You will need to disconnect these 3 pieces (Two rods one adjustment nut approx. 1" and two lock nuts) This rod adjusts the inner door lock button.

You will then need to lift the door handle all the way up and remove the screw holding down the base of the handle. Once this is done the handle will be loose.

On the back of the door handle itself inside the arm rest access you will also see the door handle cable; the cable end is an L shape that aligns into a plastic cable clip the clip itself snaps onto the L shape on the cable end (MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SNAP THIS PIECE)

Once you remove the cable you will need to remove the Micro switch, the switch is held on by a “U” Shaped tension clip, (DO NOT LOOSE THIS CLIP) once the clip is off you can remove the micro switch. Keep the micro switch taped to the upper part of the door so the harness does not slip behind the door cover.

When this is all done the handle will slide right out for refinishing.


"note" On the coating, do not make it too thick or it can stick when reinstalled back into the doors pull handle.

On the AC Rings, I would recommend buying a Nylon interior pry bar tool set. Stay away from metal tools.

On mine, I pulled the entire unit out, once started it comes out fairly easy.

The rings are two pieces an inner ring and outer ring, so once you remove the entire ring off the housing you can separate the two rings and clean them using goof off or oven cleaner. (BE CAREFULL NOT TO CRACK THE RINGS) The cleaner will completely strip the rubberized coating down to the plastic. Also keep in mind that once the first few layers of rubber coating come off it may seem like you are down to the plastic and in fact there may be a small layer of coating left. Use your finger nail and scratch it, if it leaves a mark then you still have coating on it. The plastic will not scratch with you fingernail.

On the driver’s side switch panel, depending on model there are different switches. The small panel itself is easily removed with the Nylon pry bar. Once removed the switches are held in with metal clips each connected to a plug and harness so be careful not to damage the plug or wiring. Mark each switch plug so you know which plug goes to what switch. The LED is screwed in with a few small phillips screws.
I do not recommend removing the switch cover off of the switch itself. I learned this the hard way and destroyed my sport switch. There is two tiny springs with two tiny pieces of plastic that align the cover to the switch, you lose these you may as well throw it away. You can carefully clean each switch and cover with a nice rag and goof off. These pieces are the hardest to clean in my opinion so be patient.

I Hope this info helps, if you have any questions you can email or PM me.

If you are uncomfortable with cleaning and refinishing any of these pieces then I would contact www.stickynomore.com and have them do it for you.

Chris.

 

David,

That's a good question; I have yet to tackle that part. I will do it this week and try to get pictures of the process. Unless another member here has done it and can chime in. If you don't get to it before I do I will post my findings for you.

And Congrats on getting married. Make sure shes the one, we only get married a few times LOL just kidding!

Chris

 

Thanks for all the info above.
I decided to remove my door handles and spray them with matt black cellulose and the first one looks great so onto the driver's side next.
I'd like to make some observations:
1) taking the door handle apart for painting is the easy bit; putting it back together is another story as the springs are really fiddly
2) no mention is made above of the door pull as the plastic surround on the door handle assembly cannot be removed without taking this off, a bit of a pain, so I'm just going to clean this part in situ.
All in all though very helpful advice. Thanks