Internal door handle C5 X7

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aranciata-oz

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Hi everyone …

I’ve searched online high and low but can’t find a place to source a replacement inner door handle for my MY14 C5 tourer (drivers side).

The handle (not the external lining fascia) has basically cracked due to the heavy door needing to be somewhat lifted by the handle a little everyday, as my car is parked on a side driveway that slopes away on the driver’s side. I hadn’t realised I was putting so much stress on the handle but I should have known.

Or are the wreckers are my best bet?
 

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I have found that the silver panel provides a lot of the door handle strength. I broke mine right through the middle by using it without the silver panel in place while I was troubleshooting a wing mirror problem. I watch a good youtube video before I took mine apart that explained that you need to lift up the silver panel to release the tabs to take it off as any broken tabs reduce the strength of the whole handle.

I managed to glue mine back together by putting layers of expoy over the back of the strengthening ribs aswell as the break and then carefully refitting the silver trim strip days later. I'm treat it very carefully these days but it has survived other drivers using it as well.

Looking as catalogs.ssg.asia, they appear to be sold as a complete door card so trying to purchase a whole door card from a wrecker would be the first option to try. You will need a few spare door fixing clips anyway as some of these always break when you take the door panel off.

Cheers, Ken
 
Thanks @Ken W ! Incidentally, just before reading your input here, I was at Bunnings picking up exactly what you suggested - epoxy putty to shape into the ribs on the back, and possibly strengthening it with what little strips of metal I can find to shape into the epoxy to give it a bit more strength like reinforced concrete (without the tensioning of course). Yeah I'll have a go there and hopefully that will go some way to a solution - I have already glued the thing back with epoxy glue so at least it's in place.

As to the silver panel, yes I should have watched more videos before attempting mine as I did break some of the tabs on the top (consequence of rushing before the kids return home!) - I never stop cursing these engineers/designers who came up with this system ... why oh why ... (hang on I get it ... "esthétique"!!!). Given this silver panel is central to the overall strength of the door handle I'll need to work out how to attach it back firmly ... on the positive side, after the disaster that was the driver's side, I at least had a learning template to not make the same mistake on the passenger side as I removed that door panel too to also replace that speaker.

Speaking of which ... it was nice to finally embark on some work on the car that wasn't repair related - replacing the paper mache door speakers with simple Pioneer 3-ways with a decently high sensitivity (so it doesn't need much head unit power to run well). Of what a difference that has made to the sound quality (vocal clarity especially!!!) even if the RT6 doesn't put out much volume (including at max 30).

Finally, those clips for the door panel - yep in my rush I forgot to use these door pliers to unfasten them from the door and in my yanking of the panel, most clips broke off :-(


At least the clips were easy to find on Amazon:


I'll update you next week how I go with everything ...
 
The Citroen manual pages for internal work all start with a drawing of a set of plastic trim removal tools. Never prise off any plastic bit without them, and as tabs are used everywhere they need to be located first. Most parts and tool shops can supply a kit.

Sometimes you come across a panel that's a real head-scratcher.
 
Greenblood gave a very detailed account of removing a door mirror. What is more generally useful is that he included diagrams of where to prise the various door panels. It shows the tools.

Citroen C5 X7 door wing mirror

My drivers side door mirror had an argument with a steel post on Christmas Eve :cry: Mirror 0 Steel post 1 The top section separated from the lower arm, only held together by the wiring loom, I was able to gaffer tape the two parts together until a replacement was found. . . After some...
www.aussiefrogs.com
 
seasink said:
The Citroen manual pages for internal work all start with a drawing of a set of plastic trim removal tools. Never prise off any plastic bit without them, and as tabs are used everywhere they need to be located first. Most parts and tool shops can supply a kit.

Sometimes you come across a panel that's a real head-scratcher.
Click to expand...
Noted - thanks @seasink. I do have a set of plastic removal tools - I don't have the Citroen manual pages for internal work but I could have (and will now in the future!) exercised a bit of patience and researched more videos before removing a panel for the first time - the issue is more the location of the tabs and which direction/type they are. To be honest, even knowing where those tabs are and how they're pointed, I STILL can't help but think it can be stooooopid design sometimes ....
 
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