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Need to replace the driver's door on my girlfriend's 2000 TL. The only one I could find in the same colour locally was from a RIGHT HAND DRIVE model. I know I have to swap the panel to use all the driver side controls (window's, etc).
How much of the guts of the door do I have to swap? Door lock actuator? Door handle? And do I need to be splicing the wires in order to swap the wire bundle that goes to the interior?
Any advice on how to proceed is greatly appreciated.
Need to replace the driver's door on my girlfriend's 2000 TL. The only one I could find in the same colour locally was from a RIGHT HAND DRIVE model. I know I have to swap the panel to use all the driver side controls (window's, etc).
How much of the guts of the door do I have to swap? Door lock actuator? Door handle? And do I need to be splicing the wires in order to swap the wire bundle that goes to the interior?
Any advice on how to proceed is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Not recommended. Even tho the door is same color it will not match. The car will look like a cop car. Lol So painting is require anyway if you want it to look nice. Exception: black color.
If you must... change everything except glass and regulator/motor unit.
Leave your old hinges on the car and mark the bolt heads on door side before taking door off.
The better way is get the correct door and swap it out. If you're lucky the harness unplugs inside the hinge post. If it does then its a hour job to swap doors.
Now take it to the body shop for paint in blending to fender and quarter panel.
Thanks 01acls!
Painting may come later depending on how it looks. Holding the door beside the car looks the same but I know it may be a different story once it's on.
If I could have found one in silver from a left hand drive car I would have gone that way, but this is what I have to work with. I was just wondering about what needs to be jury rigged to make this a driver's door. Guess I'll find out when I pull the old door off and see how everything plugs in… fingers crossed!
Thanks 01acls!
Painting may come later. epending on how it looks. Holding the door beside the car looks the same but I know it may be a different story once it's on.
If I could have found one in silver from a left hand drive car I would have gone that way, but this is what I have to work with. I was just wondering about what needs to be jury rigged to make this a driver's door. Guess I'll find out when I pull the old door off and see how everything plugs in… fingers crossed!
Plugs for regulator, mirror and power door lock should be same. you will have to use your old harness. Be sure to lube everthing on the use door.
Is there any trick to getting the harness out? And is there a way of manually raising the glass? The new (used) door has the glass down so I can't get to a lot of the guts.
Is there any trick to getting the harness out? And is there a way of manually raising the glass? The new (use. door has the glass down so I can't get to a lot of the guts.
Thanks again!
Leave glass down untill after its installed on car bc you can left the door by sticking your arm through the window opening and use your shoulder for support. Best way if no jack. You can move the window by hot wiring the w motor. If not moving reverse polarity.
If you have access to a floor jack, use it to support the door during removal and install. Put a 2x4 on the jack and raise it till it contacts the door edge on the bottum. The wood will prevent damage to the door. Only to support not raise the car.
1. Open door in loosen harness grommets on hinge pillar so harness is ready to be fish out. You may loosen bolts on door side for more clearance. Pull the harness out from car side to see if it unplugs... it may be a plug on the post or sitting inside. Look at the use door for clue if its not cut.
2. Unplug harness wiring to door parts so its free to be fish out. Remove bolts from bottom hinge then top hinge. If no jack then leave one top bolt for support (half way out). Door can hang now... fish the harness out with the door hanging on the car if there's room, if not the at same time as removing door (window down will help a lot at this point if no jack) Support door with shoulder and remove door by unscrewing the last bolt. Actually you don't have to unplug door harness at hinge pillar since you have to use orginal harness. So just fish it out.
Thanks 01acls!
Got the harness fished out and fed into the new (used) door. Got the door mounted on the hinges (I think we're good with the colour too!).
My big hurdle now is that since this door was originally a passenger door from a right hand drive car, I need to swap out the guts. Door actuator and window motor have different connections than the new door. I'm having a hellova time with the lock actuator. I've read through the posts about removing it, but I can't for the life of me find where the two rods clip in either at the top (at the handle) or the bottom (at the actuator). I can't see or feel the clips at all.
Here are pics of the rods attaching to the actuator
And at the handle
I can see the blue clip at the actuator end of the lock rod but the door release rod is threaded at the top and what seems like a metal rivet at the bottom. No clips that I can see.
I did the actuator in my 02 RSX not long ago and don't remember it being anywhere near this frustrating!
Here are pics of the rods attaching to the actuator
And at the handle
I can see the blue clip at the actuator end of the lock rod but the door release rod is threaded at the top and what seems like a metal rivet at the bottom. No clips that I can see.
I did the actuator in my 02 RSX not long ago and don't remember it being anywhere near this frustrating!
Referencing the pic above.
The longer big rod that the door handle moves, lube the top connection with any spray lube. Stick a big/fat tip flat screw driver in between the rod and the handle lever arm and using a twisting motion on the screw driver, pry the rod out of the handle lever arm. Its will require some force. The bigger the screw driver the better, looking for a snug fit.
Lock cylinder rod. Remove the "C" clip at he lock cylinder and rotate the plastic piece so it lines up to remove... it's keyed. Should be no resistance.
So for the door release rod, no clips to remove? Just brute force to separate it from the lever arm? I don't want to break it since I have to install it on the new door and every post has talked about rotating the elusive clips off the rod. Since there's no clips that I can find I guess your method is the way to go. Just want to be sure…
If there is a handle on the use door you can practice on that first.
Baby steps to success! I got the two rods off with the method you described. Thank You!!!
Having some trouble with the door handle, though. I want to change the door handle for two reasons.
1) so that the key will work in the tumbler (we don't have the key to the "new" door)
2) there's a plastic cap piece over the inside end of the tumbler with wires attached that is NOT on the "new" door. I figure it has to do with security so want to swap that out to (hopefully) keep that feature working.
I've removed the two 10mm bolts and everything seems loose, but the tumbler cylinder seems to be stuck in the metal backing plate preventing the handle from sliding out. Is there a trick to getting the tumbler out of the metal plate?
Here's a couple of pics of the back of the tumbler. As I mentioned we don't have the key for the new door. If I can get the tumbler out of the old door the I don't have to save the new one. Is there a way of breaking it out of the backing plate without a key? If not would swapping the plastic tumbler back with the wires onto the new tumbler do the trick? Not sure if whatever that thing is is tumbler specific.
Not sure what you mean by "black rubber band" There's the wire bundle that goes to the plastic back of the tumbler and there's the black rubber sleeve around the tumbler. I can unclip the wire bundle but I don't think that's what you're referring to...
Sorry 01acls but I don't understand what you're referring to. Above and to the right of the tumbler is where the 10mm bolt came out. The black plastic hook piece is part of the outer door handle. That part is loose. I can slide the handle about ¼" towards the front and it feels like it wants to come out, but it looks like the tumbler has to be separated from the metal backing plate first.
Try the 1st pic... matter of minutes. Then 2nd pic.
That part is not part of the door. Can you slide that left or right to release the handle?
The U line represents a large U clip that holds the lock cylinder on. The circle should be the access area. Use a hook or a right angle pick to pull down on the clip. Lock should release.
I got the metal spring that goes around the tumbler out. Still no give. I'll search for the u clip.
In the meantime I swapped the actuator and put the white plastic wired thing on the back of the new tumbler to test it. With the key off I have powered lock and unlock. With the key on though I can't lock. If I push the knob down (manually lock) it just pops back up.
Also, I only have control of the drivers window. Can't operate the other windows from the drivers arm rest switches even though I used the original wire harness. Do I also need to swap the window regulator to get all windows working?
Found the U clip and pulled it off. The tumbler came out easily after that. Although, we decided to stay with the door handle on the used door since it's in much better shape (less corrosion). The key fob works and if the battery dies, then the key still works in the passenger side door lock which also unlocks the rest of the doors. I kept the original door handle and tumbler so if we have to replace it in the future, I'll have the original for that car.
The windows all work from the driver's switches now. Not sure why they weren't before, but they do now so all's well there.
The power locks... ya, didn't even think about having to close the door (or in this case just pushing in the door switch). All four doors lock and unlock as they should.
The hinges lined up pretty well. There's a slight deviation which I can play with once I figure out how to adjust them. Any ideas for that? Haven't even done a search on it yet, so I'm sure there's some info on that somewhere.
Can't thank you enough for all your patient help, 01acls!! If you find yourself in Southern Ontario sometime, send me a PM and I'd be happy to buy you a drink.
NICE! If I'm ever up your way I'm going to hold you to that cold one.
Note: Make sure the fender is a hair higher than the door if you run your hand across the fender to door gap. Otherwise the door might catch the fender when opening and put a crease in it.
Tell me whats wrong with the fit and try and I'll talk you through it?
NICE! If I'm ever up your way I'm going to hold you to that cold one.
Note: Make sure the fender is a hair higher than the door if you run your hand across the fender to door gap. Otherwise the door might catch the fender when opening and put a crease in it.
Tell me whats wrong with the fit and try and I'll talk you through it?
Anytime for that cold one!
The fitment is a strange one. Its fine top, back and bottom. Nice and even and straight. But the front gap is wider at the top than the bottom. I sandwiched two pieces of very thin plasticized paper together and shimmed the bottom hinge on the door side (not the fender side). Seems to have helped a bit, but it's still a tad off. I don't want to mess too much with it since the other three sides are good. It was rubbing the fender just a hair at first but the paper shims have taken care of that, so for functionality we're good. It's just aesthetics at this point.
Found the U clip and pulled it off. The tumbler came out easily after that. Although, we decided to stay with the door handle on the used door since it's in much better shape (less corrosion). The key fob works and if the battery dies, then the key still works in the passenger side door lock which also unlocks the rest of the doors. I kept the original door handle and tumbler so if we have to replace it in the future, I'll have the original for that car.
The windows all work from the driver's switches now. Not sure why they weren't before, but they do now so all's well there.
The power locks... ya, didn't even think about having to close the door (or in this case just pushing in the door switch). All four doors lock and unlock as they should.
The hinges lined up pretty well. There's a slight deviation which I can play with once I figure out how to adjust them. Any ideas for that? Haven't even done a search on it yet, so I'm sure there's some info on that somewhere.
Can't thank you enough for all your patient help, 01acls!! If you find yourself in Southern Ontario sometime, send me a PM and I'd be happy to buy you a drink.
Cheers!!
I am in the same situation. Can't get the lock out of the door. i can't seem to see this clip you are talking about. i see the spring that is the tensioner for the lock action.
but the bottom of the casted circle flange is the die-cast case for the outer lock. it is not a clip.
oooooooh, I think I see what you are saying. Will check tomorrow.
And that ring needs to be fished out while this whole handle is still in position inside the door?
Seems impossible.
Don't know if this is accessible through one of the holes in the door back panel. With a long ice pick.
04-17-2015, 10:42 AM
2000 TL door replacement
