My serious Christmas oops

[egrylls]

So it's been pretty cold in Colorado today. This morning I went to open the rear drivers side door and it was frozen shut. I of course was freezing and in no mood to deal with a frozen door, so I yanked too hard and now have a broken exterior doorhandle.

Has anyone ever replace the exterior door handle on the 2006 (or similar model) explorer? The interior handle is the one that's integrated into the front of the rest and it has power windows.

I've pulled the interior door panel on my 06 Mustang and think I might have something similar, but I've never replaced the exterior handle on any vehicle before. I have done lock cylinders and the like, so I am not afraid of making more stupid mistakes and I consider myself to be a fairly solid shadetree mechanic.

Any advice or insight is appreciated. My hour long search through the net has yielded zero results.

 

[edwx]

I could be wrong, but it sounds like a fairly simple repair. Get a Haynes repair manual, and I'm guessing a new door handle, and go for it. Probably need to remove the inside panel and disconnect the exterior handle and remove and replace it.

 

[Pckid212]

Heres a tip for next time... When trying to open a frozen door, open the handle to unlatch the door and then put your fingers in the top of the door and pull from there.

Works everytime

 

[msilver]

its pretty easy ussually i have never done a 06 explorer specifically but its ussually just remove the inner pannel, us screww handle unhook lock mechanism and then just put it all back together with a new handle. biggest tip is test it before u put the pannel back on, test the outside lock and the power lock make sure everything works close the door and make sure it locks right, this way you shouldnt have to remove the pannel twice

 

[ZO6_Vette]

Remove the rear door trim panel. For additional information, refer to Section 501-05 .
Position the watershield aside.
Open the clip and disconnect the exterior rear door handle actuating rod.
Remove the 2 nuts and the exterior rear door handle.
To install, tighten to 9 Nm (80 lb-in).
To install, reverse the removal procedure.

 

[egrylls]

Heres a tip for next time... When trying to open a frozen door, open the handle to unlatch the door and then put your fingers in the top of the door and pull from there.

Works everytime

Last time I did that, I literally tore my fingernail off, so I have sworn off that technique.

But before that, it did work everytime

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

dang that sux big time

 

[egrylls]

I wrote a walkthrough. Z06Vette unfortunately thats not how to do this repair. Also the Haynes guide was a complete waste of money for this. In fact, I intend to complain to them about this.

For those interested, the walkthrough is here http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265286.