Petza914

[Don, thought you might want to add this to the Cayenne DIY subforum.]

If either your inner or outer door handle won't open the door, here's a DIY on how to investigate one of the more common issues and potentially repair it.

Open the door and from the end, remove this plastic cap (photo of front driver's door).


DO EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS WITH THE DOOR OPEN - DON'T CLOSE THE DOOR

under the top portion of the cap is a screw like this (photo from rear driver's door for simplicity)



Notice the tab that sticks down over the screw. There is another one of these behind the screw and they are connected to a sort of metal loop that goes around the lock cylinder.

Once you've loosened that screw, from the outside of the door, wiggle this end piece up and down as you pull it toward you until it slides out.


Once that's removed, you'll see this cable with a plastic end on it and with a little screwdriver you can pry it out of the grooves where you see it inserted, and there is some adjustability here, depending on where in the groove group you insert the plug.




If you can open the door from the outside by pressing on the door near the striker plate while pulling the outside door handle, the cable is probably too tight. When its too tight, it doesn't allow for the assembly to have enough travel where it will reset the catch to open the door a second time, so you may get it to open once, but not a second time. If this is what's happening, pry the little plastic piece out of the grooves and move it back a couple slots, then press it back into the grooves. DON'T CLOSE THE DOOR because if you've moved it the wrong way, neither the inside nor outside handle may work now.

Instead, use your fingers on the door latch mechanism to close the catch, like this. Move it up until you hear two clicks (first click position is shown in the photo).


Now back to the outer door handle area. With your right hand index finger in the hole in the door where the lock cylinder goes, hold that black plastic piece in the grooves and pull the outside door handle. If you don't hold it in, it will pop out when you pull the handle. Did it release the catch you manually closed in the previous step?

If yes, try it a few more times and then do the same test pulling the inner door handle release too. If both of those are working, do the same tests after locking the door with the lock button, then unlocking it. If everything seems to be working as it should then while keeping your finger on the black plastic thing, close the door and do the same tests again. (To test the inner handle while keeping the plastic thing held in with your finger, the window will need to be open)

If all is good, you've found a good position for the black plastic thing in the grooves and can slide the lock cylinder back in then tighten the clamp from the end of the door, then reinstall the plastic cap. Remember, one tab goes under the screw and the other above it. The lock cylinder is what keeps the plastic thing securely in the grooves.

If things aren't working correctly, try a different position of the plastic thing in the grooves and rerun all the tests, as maybe the cable was too loose and pulling the outside door handle didn't move it enough to open the door.

Now that you understand how it works you can fiddle with it until you get it right.

As part of my widebody project with color change, when the body shop put the car back together I had to do this on both Driver's side doors as they had the cables too tight (too far toward the outside in the grooves).

Good luck and hope it helps.

deilenberger

Done.. https://rennlist.com/forums/cayenne-...rable-fix.html

Thanks MUCH!

porsche2004

Hi, i have a 2004 Cayenne Base and was having problems with my front passenger door. Thanks a million petza914, followed your instructions and they worked out perfectly.

Petza914

Great news and glad the info helped you.

porsche2004

Guess what? The door has jammed again and this time it wont open from the banging the lock cylinder :

Petza914

If it worked until you locked the door and then didn't afterwards, the cable adjustment is still too tight. It might take some time, but I bet with pressing and tapping on it you'll get it to open again. Once you do, do all additional testing by leaving the door open and manually actuating the catch on the door. Validate that both the inside handle and outside handle work multiple times both with the doors not being locked and with the doors being locked. It's easier to get the door open by putting the window down and using the inside handle because you can be pushing from outside while pulling the inside release handle rather than pulling the outside release handle while you're trying to also push on the door.

Mine has worked perfectly since fixing it with the cable adjustment last year.

oldskewel

On setting that cable position to adjust tension ... too tight leads to this problem. Too loose is really not a problem.

If it's too loose, the very worst that could (possibly, theoretically) happen would be that the outer door handle would not work, meaning you need to open the door using the inner handle and then re-adjust.

If it's too tight, the mechanism does not have the slack it needs to reset, and it can't unlatch until that happens, whether pulled from the inner handle or the outer one.

So if there is any doubt at all, set the cable looser rather than tighter.

Great pics in this DIY. Would have really helped me when I had this problem on the rear left door in my 2004 S. Exact same everything, except of course there is not key cylinder in that door. And my problem did not happen out of the blue. It was following replacement of the door lock actuator, when I foolishly thought tighter would be better than looser.

greglionb

I have a 2008 Cayenne S and have noticed that I always have to pull the handle twice to get it to open. Is that always the case or is it a sign that I am headed for this problem?

Thanks!

Petza914

Are you having to do that from inside the car or outside the car? If from inside, that's normal if the door is locked. The first pull unlocks it and the second pull opens it. If from outside, that's not normal.

greglionb

I guess I noticed it when I was opening from the inside, will have to try it from outside and see.

99sxxx

Ok I'm stuck on step 1

Is it the bottom (larger) screw or the top (smaller) screw that releases the cap by the door handle? I've loosened the lower one and it didn't seem to release the cap, still on pretty tight.

If it's the upper screw, what size is that torx?? It's the smallest one I've ever seen and it's smaller than my smallest bit, so I'll have to go hunting for that size.

Petza914

I'm not near the car right now, but the one you need to loosen is the one that has the the little metal prong sticking down in front of the screw head. That assembly is like a loop that goes around the lock cylinder. One tab should be behind the head and the other small tab in front of it. Tightening the screw pinches the lock cylinder to secure it in place. If you loosened the correct screw, you need to do more wiggling of the outer piece of the handle. Don't loosen it to where the screw falls out or the two pieces come apart as one may drop into the bottom of the door.

99sxxx

Thanks. I loosed the screw with the tab sticking in front of it but it didn't have any effect on the handle cap. If that's the right screw, I'll have to wiggle it much harder. It's also quite cold here, so that may have an impact. Good tip about not dropping the screw - that would leave me in a world of hurt trying to retrieve that screw from the bottom of the door panel.

Interestingly, just loosening that screw must have loosened the assembly enough that the handles are working now (good thing, because I ran out of time and needed to go pick up the kids). Once I can get the cap off, it'll probably need to move one or two notches.

In my case, the door was repainted last summer. As it got colder in winter, the cable must have shrunk just enough to not release the latch.

Petza914

Sounds like your analysis is accurate.

To help others, here's a picture of the front door. It's the lower, larger one you want to loosen.

thadm

I wish I would have found this a couple of months ago.
I wound up figuring out the fix on my own, but not after my wife had to climb over the console to get out one day. She wasn't happy!
That was what motivated me to finding the fix to the intermittent problem that, of course, stopped being intermittent all at once.