Door Handle

Broken Door Handle
The exterior door handles on the VX are small, so it isn't long before the handle snaps out of your hand and slams down. Most of the time, you're just a little shaken. Sometimes, though, the noise is a little different and afterwords, the door no longer opens from the outside!

What's Happened
A rod connects the door handle to the latch mechanism. At the top of this rod, where it attaches to the exterior door handle, is a small plastic clip. Early versions of this clip seemed to be brittle, and shocks would cause parts of them to break off. Once they broke, they would eventually work themselves free. Then, the door handle was no longer attached to the latch.

Temporary Fix

 * Tie-wraps - Some owners have had luck using a tie-wrap to secure a failing clip. All you need to do it situate the wrap such that the rod doesn't fall out of the hole, while not interfering with the operation of the rod.  This fix is temporary at best.

Permanent Fix
* Holder; Rod, Door Right - 8-97037-508-0. $0.73   * Holder; Rod, Door Left  - 8-97037-509-0. $0.88
 * Buy new clips - It might be too early to call this a 'Permanent' fix, since the new clips look and feel identical to the old clips. However, right now it seems to be the best solution.  New clips are specific to a side, are different colors, and even different prices.  They are inexpensive, though, so you might want to grab a few to keep on hand.