How to Replace Remove Front Door Panel 2000-05 Mercury Sable

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In this video, we're going to show you to remove and reinstall a door panel on this 2002 Mercury Sable. We're going to work on the front driver's door, but it's pretty much the same as the passenger's door. It's also pretty much the same as any 2000 to 2005 Sable. The tools you'll need for this repair are pretty basic: you'll need an 8mm wrench to disconnect the battery; Phillips screwdrivers both a short one and a longer one; and a door panel clip tool or a putty knife.

Use an 8mm wrench and disconnect the negative battery cable. This helps protect your battery from running down while your doors are open. To remove your door panel, you're going to start by removing a series of screws in the front. There's one here, then there are two down below, two right behind the door pull there, and then there's also two on the back. You'll probably have to use a shorter screwdriver for this one in the front. I'll just hit fast-forward as I remove the rest of them, and they are all Phillips screws.

Now you want to use a door panel clip tool. If you don't have one of these, a household putty knife will do the same thing. Put it in behind, and you slide it down until you come to one of the clips, and then pry it out. There's going to be a clip up higher as well. Mine's coming off pretty easy because it feels like it's probably been off before. The door panel clip tool you'll use the same way. Get it in behind till you come to one of the clips, then pull off. Once you have it loose, then pull it straight out. Pull it up off of your door lock, and then off of your 4 handle here.

Now just reach in behind, each one of these has a little tab you press and disconnect. Down under here, the tab is on the backside, so I'm actually pulling with my finger like that and pulling down. Once those are all unplugged, your door panel comes off.

To reinstall the door panel, you've got pins in certain places. Two up top, there's a couple down here, I'm missing a couple because this has been apart before, but you also have these two larger lineup pins. You want to put your panel in place and reconnect all your harnesses: green one goes there, power mirror goes up here. These two go into the power window switch. Now put your door handle through, and then slide the panel back.

Lift it up, get your door lock pushed through, peek in behind, and line up those large lineup tabs both the front and the back, and then just make sure that your pins are going into the holes. Now put your screws back in, starting with the one in the front here. I'm just going to speed it up here as I put the rest of those screws in. When you tighten them, you want to tighten them nice and firm, but you don't want to over-tighten them. Once you've done this, reconnect your battery and you're all set.
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