Last night, the interior door handle on one of my rear door suddenly stopped working. I pulled the panel off today, but the part I need to see is behind plastic that I'm not sure I can/should remove. Please help.

Thanks!

 

take a pic?

is it just the plastic sheeting? That's removable.

 

the plastic sheet?

 

It is the plastic sheet.

 

it's a moisture barrier, as long as you dont rip it upp too badly...

 

It's a moisture barrier,

You can remove it.

 

It is attached with caulk all around the outside. If I pull that apart, it won't stick again.

 

in past cars, i've ripped out and never re-applied the moisture barrier.

if you want to repair it correctly, might have to re-caulk it/stick it back on, someway. get creative !

 

You can see that the bottom lever in this picture is pulling from the handle. So that end of it seems to be fine. But it has no resistance. So the problem is definitely behind the plastic sheeting, toward the outside of the door.

 

Okay, I cut the caulk so I could pull the plastic up. Unfortunately, the problem is behind the metal of the door. Do I start taking that apart, too? I am fairly adventurous and fearless, but now I am getting concerned. I haven't bought the repair manual for this car.

 

I have a 2006 TL, but am just as adventurous as you!
keep going to find the problem!!
just dont forget where all the screws and bolts go

 

Well, I feel ridiculous now. I happened to notice a little switch on the lower part of the door (not behind the panel) with a little child lock symbol on it. I flipped it up and it turned the child lock off. What do you know? The handle works again! Ugh.

 

sorry we didn't catch that first before you started surgery on your car

 

Oh, well! Now I know how easily that panel comes off!

 

Mr Optimist, i like it

 

It's so easy to accidentally hit that switch when loading/unloading stuff through the doors. I have fallen victim to this myself (luckily someone was with me that knew what it was right away).