89 SR5 Corolla outside door handle broke

[retiredat44]

89 SR5 Corolla outside door handle / latch broke while I was opening the door, the plastic broke off in my hand. No, I am not that strong, in fact, extremely weak from illness..

I bought a new one on eBay. How much of a hassle is it to put the new outside door handle on? Any instructions on the Internet?

thanx,

[90 GP]

You have to remove the inner door panel to get to the nuts to remove /replace handle. It's not that hard. Remove armrest.Remove screw for trim panel on inner door handle. Remove horseshoe clip on window crank with a clotheshanger with a smal 90 degree bend in it. Use flat blade screwdriver to pop clips around edge of door panel and lift panel up and over top of door frame. Proabably easier to roll down window to remove door panel and wind it back up to get to bolts to remove handle. In addition to nuts holding outdoor handle in place will also need to remove clip holding actuating rod in place to remove/replace handle. Nuts holding handle in place probably 10mm so will need ratchet and extension.

[RED91SR5]

Be carefull, those 10mm bolts are usually rusted or stuck on and the nuts they attach to are only inset in the plastic housing of the handle. They brake off in the plastic all the time. Not an issue since you're replaceing the handles but sometimes reeming on the bolt to get it out will bend the sheet metal brackets the handles attach to. You'll see when you get in there.

[Donald]

Be very careful with the clips at the end of the various pushrods. Those get brittle over time and break easily as you try to release them.

[REN69]

Yep, did that to my old GTS... handle froze so I got pissed and banged it, broke the housing but not the handle. Found one at a wreckers and it was easier to take it off than to put it on, good thing I took everything I needed from the SR5, the plastic holding the nuts on the handle does get brittle and prone to cracking with enough force.

[freakinbox]

yeah that's the issue I had, the handle plastic gets brittle and usually it cracks around the holding nuts and the handle won't sit right or can rip off lol.. but the clips and such I found on mine and on every one I've messed with at the wreckers were fine and could still take one hell of a beating.

[voganni]

Some asshole broke one of the plastic nut sockets on mine whilst breaking into the car before I got it. I used some JB weld and pressed the nutsert back in. Worked good.

[retiredat44]

well, I did R&R the door handle last night. it was a real PITA (because I am in such bad health..) it has a real crap location with metal braces in the way of one half of it on the inside of the door and you can hardly hold and see parts.. slipping the assembly through the door hole ,... the plastic clip thingy on the key lock rod was a cluster*uck. I ended up using the old one, I messed up and didn't put it partly on before in the right order... so the new one was too hard to put on,,, so on went the old one.. the main door latch plastic thingy new one went on with no problem..

anyway... it's done...

there was no rust on anything..

kinda wish there was an actual step-by-step procedure.. for us that hardly ever mess with door parts.. that would save us from doing stupid things, doing things ass-backwards, doing things in the wrong order... it would really help...

but like I said, it's done..

[nizzehult]

I just drilled a 5mm hole from the outside just under the handle (while uplifted) and took a black screw and a washer and a nut from the inside and that was it! Good as new at no cost. Of course the door panel has to be remoed first but it took me just 5 minutes. Try to angle the hole so it will be in the same position as the old nut (from the inside) was before.