How to Diagnose or Inspect Broken Exterior or Interior Door Handles

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. If you're having trouble with your door handle not working, it may not just be the door handle. It may be some other components.

Here we have an outside door handle. Here we have an inside door handle. Here we have a door latch. Here we have a door rod, and also a cable. Now sometimes with the outside door handle there could be a broken handle or the rod could have popped off right here. So that's something that's good to check. The rod would go through there. The rod could be bent. If the rod's bent, then it's not going to perform its job properly.

Generally, if the rod is bent and that connects to the latch itself, the rod could be bent because the latch is binding up and not working properly. The latch could be broken. This piece could be broken off the latch and it's not opening the door with this piece.

Your inside door handle--same thing. You could have a rod that has popped off and not causing it to open. The lock could be stuck. The cable could be broken or it could be stretched. Or it could have popped out of the groove. It could be many of those things that you're going to want to check before you just order a door handle.

All right, when we open the outside door handle, there is going to be either a rod or a cable that goes to the door latch, and that will release when you open that. On the inside door handle, when you release that, there's going to be a cable or a rod that goes to the door latch, and that's how that releases. Now I'm going to pull the door panel off and we're going to see how it works.

It could be the door cable could be your problem. It could be off the latch right there. The cable could have popped off or broke. Cable connects down to the latch over here. It could have popped off the latch side or on the inside.

So this outside handle is pushing this rod down, or this rod could be bent right here. Or it could be popped off or something else. And if not, it could still be the handle.

So if you check the latch and all the rods and all the connections and the cables, and that's all set, you may need an interior or exterior door handle.

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