XC60 2012 Interior Door Handle Issue

[rgjusa]

Hi, long time lurker, first time poster. I have a 2012 XC60 D5 SE LUX and yesterday the drivers side interior door handle stopped working and gets stuck slightly open. I have removed the door panel and can see two problems I think.

1) the door handle itself has what looks like a hinge pin that seats in two cavities, but mine flops about as it looks like the hinge pin has somehow moved up and it is only locating in one of the cavities, ie it is only secured at one end. I could not see an easy way to unscrew or remove the door handle in its entirety as it does not look like screws that hold it in, just some sort of plastic blob things (technical I know) and I am reluctant to start breaking those. Is there a way to somehow get to the top of the hinge pin to push it down? Is this a common problem? To stop it flopping so much I packed between the handle and the casing with a washer so the handle travels ok but this is just temporary.

2) Putting it all back together the cable that attaches to the interior door handle has a metal t-bar round thing at the end of the cable which doesn't quite locate with the handle pickup thing when you pull it. It seems rather puny and the fact that the door handle is not 100% held by the hinge pin might be enough for the cable to keep popping off of it. From pictures I have seen of cables they seem to have made the t-bar round bit thicker to presumably overcome this issue. Are there any tried and tested ways to keep this in place? Tie wraps, wire, washers, packing it out somehow?

Thanks in advance.

[Deck1ng]

There is a UTube vid, of a xc60 front door lock being replaced. Might be worth taking a look as it covered removal of the door handle to complete the lock swap. The vid was a passenger side door but I suppose you would just copy in mirror image.

[rgjusa]

Originally Posted by Deck1ng

There is a UTube vid, of a xc60 front door lock being replaced. Might be worth taking a look as it covered removal of the door handle to complete the lock swap. The vid was a passenger side door but I suppose you would just copy in mirror image.

OK, I think this might be the one that you are referring to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd7JNhUrD1g and although this is a different model year to mine the insides look the same. I am a bit wary about breaking off those clip things but will take the door panel off again and have another look to see what's what. Ta.

[rgjusa]

So, today I am hoping that I have fixed the issue, and I thought I would post the hopeful solution here. There were two issues: firstly the hinge pin had only located at one end. I was hoping that fixing the hinge pin might also fix the cable/handle issue too but I really was not expecting it to as it seems a very weak and ill conceived design for this year.

(So, I would like to have put the images inline but I have no clue how to as it asks me for a URL so I will refer to the picture numbers:

1) this shows the hinge pin and how it has risen in the yellow and is not visible in the red circles
2) I managed to get a pick like instrument above the hingebtween and between the white casing/frame and door handle and push it down so you can now see the top
3) you can now see that the hinge pin is fully through in the yellow circle

It was very easy to push through. No more wobbly handle.

I'll continue the next bit in the next post as the 5 attachment limit is a bit restrictive for this.

[rgjusa]

The next issue was the cable t-bar end. It was not catching consistently in the scoop of the door handle so my McGyver solution was to pack it out so I looked for a suitable piece of tube.

1) this shows the t-bar cable end or whatever it is called, it's just such a crap way of designing this that it astounds me, anyways....
2) I had this 6mm straight connector hanging around so modified it slightly using a hacksaw, Dremel, and Emery cloth
3) I Dremel'd a slot on it so it would slide over the cable and fit snugly in the metal door handle scoop whilst still travelling its full range to open the door
4) Side view
5) Underneath view

So, a bit of faffing around, I do not know how long it will last but if it does fail I will think of something else. The only thing I haven't done is glue the blue piece on as I did not feel 100% confident in doing that. But I know how to get the door off now so it is not an issue if it breaks or falls off. I have a mate that does 3D printing and might think about something more exotic. But for now I am very happy.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone in the future as I doubt I will be the only one that faces this.