Have anyone changed an exterior door handle?

[hazedlife]

I recently just broke off the driver side door handle because i thought the door was unlocked; thanks to the first night of frost in the city. when i grabbed to open the door, the handle spring snaped back without the handle.

i think i grabbed it quite hard cause i had a frustrated day at work and the bank just closed. so now i have to fix this...

ive searched the forum and found a some Okay posts, but not thoroughly on how to change it. have anyone done this before and like to tell me the difficulty level of it? i dont want to pay to get this fix cause i need the money. plus i read in a post that it was 220$ quote to fix at a dealer.

[dna59]

Do what I usually do and just go in there and figure it out. lol I'm sure it's not something hard to do on the gen4. I've changed 2 door handles on other cars so far without previously knowing. Take off the door panel and see what all bolts need to come out and waht all needs to come off. Usually it's just the rod to open the door (when you lift the handle), the rod for the lock on the door, and a couple bolts, then you just have to take out the key cyclinder out the old and put it in the new. If i'm wrong someone please correct me, or give a more detailed description for the gen 4. Or you could always take a look and the gen 3 repair manual to get an idea of how it's done.

[hazedlife]

im sure i can figure it out... but i dont want to spend hours on it cause i dont have the time. but thats what im expecting to happen..

[dna59]

I don't think it would take you hours to figure out. It really isn't thatr hard at all. The first time I did it, it took me about an hour to figure out and do everything. I say look at the gen 3 repair manual, I don't think it would be much different from a gen 4. But maybe.

[terrastrife]

if you got various small hand tools (wrenches, drivers etc) you should be able to do it in under 2 hours.

[Mayne Event]

I actually have done mine (gen3) myself just recently. Its VERY easy. pull off the door panel (hardest part about it right there) Pull back the plastic, theres only two or three 7/16 bolts. Ratchet them off, The handle will pop out on the outside of the door then the "cables" that attach the handle to the latch should pop right out of the broken handle ect....its pretty easy to understand from that point. Just put it all back together.