wtb inner door pulls

[eluther3z3]

Have 96 1.9L Z3 with black interior. The door pull on the driver side just broke and I'm not anxious to spend $125 on a new one. Anyone have a spare they're willing to sell? Part number is 51418398733

[kojohns]

You can likely fix it without buying one... There are generally two ways this handle fails and both have to do with the lower portion of the handle pulling away from the armrest area:

(1) The tiny metal bracket on the backside of the door panel breaks through the fiber board door panel... If this is your problem, a new handle is a waste of money and won't fix the problem

FIX = pull door panel, remove handle, reinforce broken fiber board by pressing the metal bracket into a pool of epoxy or polyurethane glue such as gorilla glue or polyurethane construction adhesive.




(2) The screws strip out from the plastic handle.

FIX = pull door panel, remove handle, fill stripped holes with plastic epoxy and let cure, then drill new pilot holes in the middle. While the panel is out, go ahead and perform the fix defined in (1) for further reinforcement

[eluther3z3]

Thanks for the response, but after I took it apart, the answer was (3) the plastic bracket on the top of the handle that attaches the handle to the door was broken. T super-glued the bracket back on, then used epoxy paste to reinforce the entire area. So far it's worked.