dangermobile (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dangermobile) wrote,@ 2007-03-29 21:23:00 |
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Getting a Handle on the Situation
So, there's a bit of a continuation to my story of the broken window. I noticed a while ago that something in my passenger door had started to rattle (more than the other rattles in the car), and that there was a gap on the trim piece where the door handle went. I just assumed that they had failed to secure all of the clips when they put my door back together, and it took me a while to get around to fixing it. On Saturday I finally gave in and took the trim piece off and had a look. It turns out that a large tab on the door handle assembly had been cut off.
I suppose I could just ignore this, since I'm planning on getting rid of the car soon anyway, or I could take it back to the body shop. But I figure the part is cheap and they'd probably dock me on a trade-in if I didn't fix it. And I didn't do the body shop because it's so inconvenient to go all the way down there, and they'd probably challenge my claims since it's been so long since they had my car.
Anyway, so I went to the local Ford dealer to buy the part, and they didn't have it in stock, which continues my perfect streak of the dealer never having the part I want in stock. Although all the other times the part was for a car that was over a dozen years old, and as far as I can tell my car uses the same part as the currently produced version. I didn't get the part until Wednesday, and when I tried to remove the old part I found I couldn't get it disconnected from the cable without damaging the handle or the cable. So I took a saw to the handle. I speculated to one of my coworkers that maybe they did that to cut down on the sale of recycled parts, but he didn't think they bothered thinking about anything past when the car leaves the dealer lot. He's probably right, at least for Ford.
I plugged in the new handle and put the door back together, and the trim gap is gone and I couldn't hear the rattle this morning. I still can't unlock it from the outside, but if a new door handle didn't fix that, the solution involves far too much door disassembly for me to bother.
Overall, +1 for making it so I only have to remove a trim panel instead of the whole inside panel, and -10 for everything else about the door handle.
So, there's a bit of a continuation to my story of the broken window. I noticed a while ago that something in my passenger door had started to rattle (more than the other rattles in the car), and that there was a gap on the trim piece where the door handle went. I just assumed that they had failed to secure all of the clips when they put my door back together, and it took me a while to get around to fixing it. On Saturday I finally gave in and took the trim piece off and had a look. It turns out that a large tab on the door handle assembly had been cut off.
I suppose I could just ignore this, since I'm planning on getting rid of the car soon anyway, or I could take it back to the body shop. But I figure the part is cheap and they'd probably dock me on a trade-in if I didn't fix it. And I didn't do the body shop because it's so inconvenient to go all the way down there, and they'd probably challenge my claims since it's been so long since they had my car.
Anyway, so I went to the local Ford dealer to buy the part, and they didn't have it in stock, which continues my perfect streak of the dealer never having the part I want in stock. Although all the other times the part was for a car that was over a dozen years old, and as far as I can tell my car uses the same part as the currently produced version. I didn't get the part until Wednesday, and when I tried to remove the old part I found I couldn't get it disconnected from the cable without damaging the handle or the cable. So I took a saw to the handle. I speculated to one of my coworkers that maybe they did that to cut down on the sale of recycled parts, but he didn't think they bothered thinking about anything past when the car leaves the dealer lot. He's probably right, at least for Ford.
I plugged in the new handle and put the door back together, and the trim gap is gone and I couldn't hear the rattle this morning. I still can't unlock it from the outside, but if a new door handle didn't fix that, the solution involves far too much door disassembly for me to bother.
Overall, +1 for making it so I only have to remove a trim panel instead of the whole inside panel, and -10 for everything else about the door handle.
