Door Handle Rust and How To Fix It

[Camry2004]

I have a 2004 Camry LE with the rust stains on both rear passenger door handles. It seems this problem is widely reported by many Toyota car owners across the generations. I am a DIY person and decided to do the repair myself. I literally googled for hours for instructions with no success. Here is what I did to fix the rust/stain problem. I hope you find this write up helpful.

Warning: I am not responsible for any personal injury and/or any property damage as a result of following these instructions. You are on your own!

Tools Needed (your situation may vary):
Flathead screwdriver
Philips screwdriver
Torx screwdriver (T27 or T30)
A needle nose plier.
Polishing and rubbing compounds.

Here are the door handles with the rust stains:









I started with the left rear passenger door. It was a long learning process and took me a week to get where I am now. Once I knew how to take things apart, it was really really easy to work on the other door. These instructions are for the right side rear passenger door but can be used for other side as well.

First you need to remove six screws to get the door panel off. Start with this one. Just push the middle of the screw in and pull it off.






There is a screw behind the indoor door handle. Remove the covering with the flat head screwdriver and take the screw out. Don't pull the handle.






Next remove the screw on the power window controller.


Life the power window controller up at the location where the arrow is in the image below. Don't lift the other end. Remove the electrical wiring from the controller. If you need a screwdriver for this part, you are doing something wrong.




Next remove the screw under the controller you just took off.


Finally there are two more screws at the bottom of the door panel. Sorry don't have a picture for them. Remove them.

Now you are ready to take the door panel off. Grab the paper holder or the storage area at the bottom with your hands and gently pull it towards you. Work your way up and completely disengage the panel from the door. DON'T PULL IT OFF YET. You need to unhook the cables behind.



Once the door panel is removed, you should see this metal part. Remove it.


Next gently peel the plastic from the corner just enough to reveal the opening. Remove the latch wiring with the needle nose plier.


Now it's time to remove the latch. Take the three screws off with the torx screwdriver. Then push the latch wiring socket in and slide the latch assembly out through the hole.




You should now see the backside of the door handle. The next step is removing the outside handle. It may require two people. See the image below and note where the red arrow starts. Gently pull the rectangular black thing down until it stops. While holding it, ask your helper to pull the outside door handle out and towards the back of the car. It should come off easy. I did this myself.


Remove the two screws to get the assembly off the door.


You should see the other screw through the latch hole.



Viola!!! There it is!!!!








This pad is from the left rear door.






So the pads were the culprits. Everything else was fine. I applied the polishing compound on the rust stains and wiped it off. Stains came off easy.






Now I am waiting for my OEM pads to arrive. I ordered them through a local Toyota dealer. I will post the pictures after I put them on.

I couldn't get one of the screws from Toyota because there wasn't any part number in their catalog. So I ended up using the old screw after removing the rust with the evapo rust. Here is the door with the handles on.

Right handle:

Before:


After:


Left handle:

Before:


After:


Hope this write up helped someone!

[09YotaLE]

nice job

[SilverBullet]

good job! now if mine ever does this (i sure hope not ) i can fix it. very good detail and lots of pics!

[Camry2004]

I got all my parts except a screw. The dealership says they can't find the part number for the screw in the OEM catalog. I hope someone here can help me on this.

I am looking for these screws, one screw for each side.







The pad below goes on the end of the screw.






Here is the diagram from Toyota for my car's generation. As you can see, the diagram shows one screw but not the other one. So I was googling and came across a similar diagram for 2010 Prius. It showed a screw. I thought the parts are interchangeable and ordered two screws.

Part number: 69296-30010. I am hoping this one will fit the pad I have.




Thanks

[Camry2004]

Well, I decided to use the old screws as they weren't rusted but had rust deposit on them. A friend of mine suggested I put them into Evapo Rust overnight. I did and it worked perfectly. I put the handles back on the car. See the update to my original post.