peterp

My driver's side interior door handle cable broke on the end that attaches to the interior door handle. I have the door panel off, the cable detached from the interior door handle side, and a new cable in hand, but it's not clear to me how to remove the cable on the "latch" side.

Has anybody replaced this cable and can you provide some advice on how to remove the old cable and install the new one on the "latch" side?

peterp

Below are photos of what I am talking about. The second photo shows the end that I don't know how to remove. The last photo is of the replacement cable.

longrowe

There is a good write up on the Pelican site with an excellent pic of the latch mechanism.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...nd_Handles.htm

Looks like you might need to pull the whole latch out to be able to wiggle the cable out of it's holder.

peterp

Awesome!!! Thanks for the help. I had looked in the service manual and couldn't find anything except for a vague reference to the cable, but I forgot about checking Pelican. Wish I had bought the cable at Pelican, I like to support those who supply information.

I was confused about the size of the door latch bolts when I tried removing the latch before learning about the Pelican article from your post -- my T40 Torx socket was too small and T45 was too large, but I see from this thread that it is actually a Triple Square bolt instead of Torx (https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...bolt-size.html -- this thread is for 997, but assuming 996 is the same). The Pelican article mentions triple square, but not the size. I think it's probably 6mm from that thread. Will report back on that when I have a chance to do the work.

jslevin

PeterP,
Yes the door latch bolts are triple square. I did not see this and used a Torx driver which fit but promptly stripped one of the bolt heads. Bought a set of drivers on Amazon


Also, VW sells these bolts at a fraction of the price of the Porsche Part

peterp

Thanks, I will definitely get this set. Amazon has the sockets listed individually also, but seems like it will be useful to have the entire set in case it's used elsewhere. I had never heard of this type of fastener before, not sure why an allen bolt couldn't have been used.

peterp

Thanks for all the feedback. The Amazon sockets worked great. Definitely do not try to use Torx, I tried very lightly before I realized it was a different bolt type and the splines were still a little messed up, though I was able to get that bolt out with the proper wrench.

The Pelican pictures/instructions were helpful. The only deviation was that I had to remove a fourth 10mm bolt (the lower left of the airbag frame) to get the plate off. Once the plate and door lock bolts were out, I was able to wriggle out the door lock mechanism far enough to release the end of the door handle cable. The cable end on the door lock side comes out by rotating the cable 90 degrees from its normal angle, and then you can just pull it up so it just slides out the top of the table keeper. It's simple enough to remove and install that you can do it easily even when you have only partial access and a partial view to it.

I also found this video below which covers door lock removal and it was helpful. You don't need to remove the outside door handle just to replace the interior door pull cable, you can get to it just by loosening the locking mechanism.