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Author Topic: Rear door handle problem - Solved  (Read 3850 times)

Offline Ripstop

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Rear door handle problem - Solved
« on: June 01, 2019, 05:21:09 pm »
Need some help guys... So I was replacing the rear right window electric winder and not the motor due to age and cable rusting and some crunching sounds as the motor tries to rip a cog. Got a decent deal on a genuine replacement and set aside this morning to do the work. First time on this so took my time looked at some vids and attacked the door. All was going well until I tried to put the handle back.

I can get the door handle in but not the barrel section. I just cannot get the two locating lugs far enough in to catch on the silly little circulating metal ring on the inner face of the latching contraption. I have had the door on and off so many times now because that locating ring either drops off or sticks. I calculated its 10 turns of the screw to go from lock to unlock. Once you go beyond that the rings drops off and its door skin off again  :confused:

Is there a secret to this?

I have tried pulling the handle hard to pull the latching mechanism closer to the door but the ring lugs are just not far enough in.


« Last Edit: June 02, 2019, 12:51:30 pm by Ripstop »
Stage 1 2007 Black Eddy  #1000 - VCDS Hex+Can (Novice coder). H&R springs, newish Bilstein B4's. Gen 3 Steering rack, Helix organic.  The car is *always* work in progress fixing and upgrading things.

Offline terrier

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Re: Rear door handle problem
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2019, 08:17:02 pm »
As long as everything inside is in place All you have to do is remove the black plastic in the right hand pic and repeat what your doing, pulling the handle and screwing  :wink:  Easy does it as the 2 locating legs will(may) snap :happy2:
 EDIT In the left pic you can see a piece of metal in front of the white plastic That metal is what holds the barrel in place
Adjusting it is done with the torx screw inside the door
« Last Edit: June 01, 2019, 08:21:00 pm by terrier »

Offline Ripstop

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Re: Rear door handle problem [Solved]
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2019, 12:50:56 pm »
Hi Terrier,

I am not convinced about that as its there to make a seal and stop paint rubbing so I need to leave it on. However I have now found the answer after I took the door skin off again  :grin: I wont deal with the handle replacement as that's been shown many times before. This should help folks who have a loose barrel because its not been seated properly.

The trick is to first make sure you have the steel ring locking the mousetrap tension bar in place. The second most important thing are the two catch lugs which MUST and I repeat MUST be correctly seated in the door skin handle recess to allow the barrel to seat at the correct depth. This ensures you can lock the barrel in place with the steel ring.

Oh and one other thing... make sure you have the handle pulled open when you are unscrewing the adjuster ring, it keeps it in the tensioned position so the steel lock ring can keep it in place once you remove the whole latch mechanism

Picture 1 shows the correct attitude of the mousetrap door lever tensioner after unlocking the barrel both after removal and prior to replacement back in the door.


Picture 2 and 3 shows the critical plastic locating lugs which must seat correctly in the door skin. It actually takes quite a lot of fiddling to get this right but persevere... it took about 10 mins to get this right.



Picture 4 shows how the steel ring should look when removing and replacing the catch mechanism. Yellow arrows are the barrel locating lugs. Green arrows are the catch plates on the steel ring.


I reckon 10 anticlockwise turns of the drive screw from locked barrel to unlocked barrel and obviously 10 clockwise screws to release the mousetrap and tension the handle again. When you screw the adjuster screw back in you should hear a clunk as the steel locking ring allows the mousetrap to retension the handle. Obviously make sure you have the pigtail wire from the door release in the handle as well.

I reckon it took me 8 times of door skin removal and replace to work this out  :rolleye: I hope this helps any of you with rattling rear door barrels.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2019, 12:55:16 pm by Ripstop »
Stage 1 2007 Black Eddy  #1000 - VCDS Hex+Can (Novice coder). H&R springs, newish Bilstein B4's. Gen 3 Steering rack, Helix organic.  The car is *always* work in progress fixing and upgrading things.

Offline kevster996

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Re: Rear door handle problem - Solved
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2019, 01:36:03 pm »
thx for the detailed explanation - I have this problem after replacing rear door lock module - my barrel fell out the other day! i guess its skin off again :-(
Golf 5 2005, 2.0 TDI 4motion, remapped to 175bhp, lowered on eibach springs, GTI front end, GTI half leather interior

Offline terrier

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Re: Rear door handle problem - Solved
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2019, 08:43:18 pm »
Just in case of confusion I said "black plastic in the right hand pic"  :happy2: Where the thumb is.  This can be removed to allow the barrel to be pushed firmly into place before the torx screw is turned clockwise releasing the mousetrap thingy

Offline kevster996

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Re: Rear door handle problem - Solved
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2019, 04:24:51 pm »
Nice one - I think my plastic locating lugs may be broke or bent but I can check that now! May hav eto try and get one off a breaker or visit TPS down the road...   :happy2:
Golf 5 2005, 2.0 TDI 4motion, remapped to 175bhp, lowered on eibach springs, GTI front end, GTI half leather interior