looking for some help.. 2006 300c . the chrome exterior door pulls are breaking. 1 in the rear broke last year now the drivers door..... they have not broken 'clean' off .. wanna fix this.. any advice .. did a search but i suck .. lol. went to ebay and it looks like its just the pull itself and im guessing i need an assemby or inside hardware.. any one?
broken exterior door handles
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hmm. not sure what u mean. i would take a picture but cant zoom into that little area..
3 of the 4 door handles on my 2006C have broken. They handles are plastic and they SUCK. My 2-1/2 year old daughter just broke the most recent victim. The part of the handle that is fixed to the door (not the latch part that goes through the door) is what breaks, so the handle flops around when you open it now. I really like the car, but the cheap-o trim really ticks me off. Really Chrysler? A door handle held to the car by a thin, cheap piece of plastic? Really? A 2-1/2 year old girl can break it?
I found some places on the internet that sell replacement handles relatively inexpensive - around $40. All you have to do is remove the inside door panel and unscrew 2 screws. A weekend mechanic can get it done in under 1 hour. Not the biggest deal, but extremely frustrating to have to keep replacing door handles. At least I can say this: I have 114,000 miles on it, and I have never replaced the original brakes (I do live in CA) and the motor still seems plenty strong, so if I have to replace a $40 door handle every now and then, I guess that's the price to pay for a good motor.
I found some places on the internet that sell replacement handles relatively inexpensive - around $40. All you have to do is remove the inside door panel and unscrew 2 screws. A weekend mechanic can get it done in under 1 hour. Not the biggest deal, but extremely frustrating to have to keep replacing door handles. At least I can say this: I have 114,000 miles on it, and I have never replaced the original brakes (I do live in CA) and the motor still seems plenty strong, so if I have to replace a $40 door handle every now and then, I guess that's the price to pay for a good motor.
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28 Posts
Probably not much help now, but I had the same problem on my driver side rear door. My seven year old daughter broke it within a month of buying it (used). The part that broke for me (and most others I've seen in my research) is the plastic on the hinged end of the handle. The plastic is relatively thin-walled and hollow. The hollow part is the good thing; it is what allowed me to repair my handle without replacing it. Here's how.
What I did is very similar to the description in this thread. The difference is I used some drywall screws instead of aluminum rod. The coarse thread gives the epoxy an excellent surface to adhere to. I zipped off the head of the screw with my dremel so that all that was left were the threads. I then filled in the hole in the hinge left in the door with epoxy. I coated the other end of the screw with epoxy, and lined up the hole on the handle side of the hinge. I slid the two parts together and let the epoxy do its thing.
Now, don't get impatient like me. The epoxy sets up relatively quickly, but It doesn't fully harden (depending on the epoxy) for 24 hours. I didn't fully read the directions about the cure time, and I kept pulling the handle apart too soon... Once I read the directions, I assembled the handle, waited 24 hours and voila, the handle works as good as new. There is absolutely NO way to tell that it ever broke, and I was able to do the entire repair on the car...no disassembly required.
I actually believe, due to this repair, that this door handle is now MORE durable than the remaining handles because it is more fully reinforced.
Good luck.
What I did is very similar to the description in this thread. The difference is I used some drywall screws instead of aluminum rod. The coarse thread gives the epoxy an excellent surface to adhere to. I zipped off the head of the screw with my dremel so that all that was left were the threads. I then filled in the hole in the hinge left in the door with epoxy. I coated the other end of the screw with epoxy, and lined up the hole on the handle side of the hinge. I slid the two parts together and let the epoxy do its thing.
Now, don't get impatient like me. The epoxy sets up relatively quickly, but It doesn't fully harden (depending on the epoxy) for 24 hours. I didn't fully read the directions about the cure time, and I kept pulling the handle apart too soon... Once I read the directions, I assembled the handle, waited 24 hours and voila, the handle works as good as new. There is absolutely NO way to tell that it ever broke, and I was able to do the entire repair on the car...no disassembly required.
I actually believe, due to this repair, that this door handle is now MORE durable than the remaining handles because it is more fully reinforced.
Good luck.
sounds like everyone should pull off their handles and fill them with epoxy... makes sense to me.
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28 Posts
I've done this on three of my four handles now. All of them broke in the same spot at the plastic hinge. Two of the door handles were broken by small children (not a very strong part, huh?). Understand, the repair I'm suggesting does not require removing the handle. The handle has enough play to do the repair on the car. I simply put some masking tape down to keep the epoxy off the paint. Not one part needed to be removed.
All three handles I've repaired are working great, and the first repair is over three years old now. I used a simple two part epoxy from autozone. You know, the kind that comes in the syringe that you dispense then mix.
All three handles I've repaired are working great, and the first repair is over three years old now. I used a simple two part epoxy from autozone. You know, the kind that comes in the syringe that you dispense then mix.
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53 Posts
Folks. A little more information on my handle repair. I actual bought the handle through eBay and totally replaced it. Mine also broke at the hinge. As I said in my completion post. The replacement was pretty easy except for some interesting design decisions by Chyrsler.
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