Interior door handles

[Jonnymaz]

Hi, quick question that I hope someone can help with.

I am in the process of giving the car a little spruce up and have tried to take off the interior door handles (the ones used for pulling the door shut) to get them professionally rubbed down and repainted.

It looks easy - two bolts with allen keys on each end, but when I removed the bolts the door handle still seemed to be connected to the carbon fibre door panel somehow.

Am I missing something?

Has anyone else removed them?

Thanks

[NZ_M3]

One more bolt - on the other side.
i.e. You have to take the panel off to get to it.

3 bolts in total that hold the handle.

[adrianma]

the door panel needs to come off

that includes 3 bolts, 1 behind the door handle (next to the tweeters), and the 2 on the door handle, the two allen key ones

pull the door panel off carefully

then there are two 2x T20 bolts that hold the door handle to the door panel, one on the top one on the bottom

[NZ_M3]

Originally Posted by adrianma

the door panel needs to come off

that includes 3 bolts, 1 behind the door handle (next to the tweeters), and the 2 on the door handle, the two allen key ones

pull the door panel off carefully

then there are two 2x T20 bolts that hold the door handle to the door panel, one on the top one on the bottom

^ ah that's right ... 2 bolts and 2 screws ... my mistake!

[Jonnymaz]

Thanks for your help. Found the screw behind the handle - T15 I think it was. Took out the screw and the two bolts but the door panel didn't seem to want to budge and I didn't want to force it!

Is it the whole of the inside of the door that comes away, ie including speakers and locking mechanism? Are there clips holding it in place, and are these likely to break!! Do I need to pull in any direction or from any particular place?

I would be gutted if I broke the carbon fibre or something else in the door just to repair some scratches!

Cheers

[Mark CSL]

you take off the 2 Allen bolts from the handel and then remove the cap from inside the pull handle under the cap is a screw remove this

Then from the bottom of the door card pull it away from the door its pull clips that hold it

Once off there is a white part attached to the pull handle remove this from the cable end and remove the bottom speaker wire

hope this helps

[Jonnymaz]

Thanks, yes it does. I guess I just need to take a deep breath and give it a good pull - from the bottom you say.

Do you know if the clips are quite robust or is there a good chance I will end up with a door interior that doesn't fit properly??

Thanks for the help

[outnumbered]

There's lots of pics on the net of removing E46 door cards, CSL is not really any different. I used a trim tool to carefully lever the bottom of the door card away from the door, then once it's unclipped, it kind of unhooks along the top. Easy to do and you won't break anything if you're careful.

[shimmy]

make sure you have the three screws off (handle x2 and behind lever x1) before you pull the. worse case is you break a couple of clips