How to Replace Rear Exterior Door Handle 2002-10 Mercury Mountaineer
Created on: 2014-10-08
How to repair, install, fix, change or replace a broken or snapped off Exterior / Outside door handle on 02, 03, 04, 05 Ford Explorer or Mercury Mountaineer.
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step 1 :Removing the Door Panel
- Pry off the door handle bezel
- Pry up the window switch panel
- Disconnect the window switch wiring harnesses
- Remove the 7mm bolt in the door pull
- Remove the 7mm bolt on the bottom of the door panel
- Pry out the door panel
- Lift the door panel up and off
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step 2 :Removing the Outside Door Handle
- Carefully peel back the water shield with a razor
- Pry off the yellow clip from the lock rod with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the two 11mm nuts from the door handle
- Pull out the door handle
- If the stud remains in the door, remove it with vise grip pliers
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step 3 :Installing the Outside Door Handle
- Remove the lock rod from the old door handle
- Clip the lock rod onto the door handle
- Slide the door handle into place, starting at the front
- Fasten the two 11mm nuts onto the door handle
- Push the lock rod into the yellow clip with a pick and lock it in place
- Test the lock rod
- Put the water shield into place
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step 4 :Reinstalling the Door Panel
- Lift the door panel into place
- Push in the door panel clips
- Insert the 7mm bolt to the bottom of the door panel
- Insert the 7mm bolt in the door pull
- Connect the window switch wiring harness
- Push in the window switch panel
- Push in the door handle bezel
Tools needed
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Razor Blade / Gasket Scraper
Flat Blade Screwdriver
7mm Socket
Ratchet
11mm Socket
Pick
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we're going to show you how to replace a rear exterior door handle on this 2003 Mercury Mountaineer and it's a similar process on these Mountaineers from 2002 to 2010, as well as on the Explorers in the same years and we show on the driver's side but the passenger side is the same procedure. The items you'll need for this are a new rear exterior door handle from 1AAuto.com, a flat blade screw driver and a 7 and 11 millimeter socket and ratchet.
Start off by prying out on the bottom of this panel and then pulling out to release the clips. Then slide it towards the front of the car and off the door handle. Now roll this panel out while pulling up on the front. Slide it forward and then just push the tab on this harness and disconnect it. Then remove this 7mm bolt and this 7mm bolt right here. Now lift your door panel up and out and your door panel's free.
Peel back your water shield in this top corner, and you can see Mike uses a razor blade to help separate the adhesive. Using a flat blade screwdriver pry this clip open and then pull the door handle rod free. To give you more room while you're trying to remove the exterior door handle, we recommend you just lift up this yellow clip on the back of the interior door handle and pull your lock rod free.
Two nuts hold the door handle. One you can access through here, which is this one here and then there's one way back as well. We'll just fast forward as Mike removes both of those. Now open your door handle while pulling it free from the door and by opening it, you're helping that lever at the top to just fit out of the door as you can see. You can push it down with your hand once you get it out far enough and the door handle pulls free.
You may or may not run into this. It's happened on two doors with this vehicle but the stud stayed in there. So we're just going to take a good set of locking pliers, lock on, and, because it's a little easier I'm going to reach through here. I'm holding the nut on the other end with a wrench and turning the stud for the door handle out.
At 1A Auto, our replacement door handles come in black which you can just mount on there and it will be a perfectly good replacement. You could also paint to match. You could be as crude as just going to a hardware store and getting a can of spray paint that closely matches and doing it that way. If you want a better match, go to an automotive part store that has a paint department, they can help you match the paint and put it in an air-charged can and refinish the handle. You would want to remove the gasket when you refinish it. Another option that we have at 1A Auto is, we do sell chrome replacement door handles okay and so this will be add a little bling. Get one for all four doors and put them on there and they're going to mount just like the original. Our original door handle's fine so we're just going to put it back in but all you need to do is take this rod and pull it out, put it into your new door handle, back in, put the rod down in. Put the front in first and then you kind of pull your door handle open and push this rod down in. Okay, and watch the studs to see that they go through the door. Now the handle's on. Actually you're just going to start this one on by hand first. We'll fast forward as he tightens up both those 11 millimeter nuts.
You want to make sure that your door is in the unlocked position. Back is locked and this way is unlocked. Then, you want to hold your lock/unlock switch here, because that's unlocked and that's locked. Hold it in the unlock position, pull it forward to make sure it's unlocked, put it into your clip, and then just lock the clip down. Reclip the door handle rod and just close the yellow clip over it. Push your water shield back into place.
The door panel is held in by all these hooks, so if you take the water shield off for any reason, just make sure that everything is lined up so the hooks can go in easily. You can actually kind of hook the bottom ones on first. Just push the panel up, you may have to move it up a little bit, make sure it goes against the door all the way, and slide it down. Now replace those two 7mm bolts and tighten them up. The top one helps if you feed it back into place with an extension. Reconnect the harness and this tab slides in first. Take this panel and just slide it behind your door handle. Push those tabs back into place. Push the clips back in on the front.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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