I had a good few hours spare to myself yesterday (a rare thing indeed!) so decided to install a pair of component speakers I've had knocking around for ages. Starting with the passenger side I removed the front door card without too much trouble, installed the speaker and then set about putting it all back together again. However, when I went to reconnect the small hook section at the end of the door handle cable I noticed that things seemed a little loose. The cable isn't broken as it still opens the doors when I pull it, but once hooked around the door handle there is very little resistance in the handle and it doesn't pull the cable enough to open the door.

Is there anyway I can sort this problem or does it look like I've got to replace the cable? If so is it a nightmare job because at the moment I can't really see how the new cable fits :(

There's a metal collar on the wire which should clip into a black plastic bit near the hook. If the door handle flaps about and doesn't work, the collar is not clipped in.

or worse still, maybe the lock end of the cable has become disconnected

Thanks guys. Well I'm 99-percent sure that the metal collar is all hooked up as it should be as there is some resistance in the handle.... just not as much as the drivers door handle.

As for the lock end of the cable becoming disconnected I don't think it has as the door still opens when I pull the cable itself. I'm going to have to whip the door card off again on Saturday and investigate again.

When the bowden cable went on my drivers side door the cable had just frayed some threads and stretched underneath the collar rather than totally snapping. Possibly yours has stretched at the lock end. I remember it being a fairly cheap part but a bit of a b*gger to change, I had to use some needle nose pliers to clip it in at the lock end.

Part number is 1U0 837 099 D

When the bowden cable went on my drivers side door the cable had just frayed some threads and stretched underneath the collar rather than totally snapping. Possibly yours has stretched at the lock end. I remember it being a fairly cheap part but a bit of a b*gger to change, I had to use some needle nose pliers to clip it in at the lock end.

Part number is 1U0 837 099 D

This happened in my drivers door.

I bought a replacement cable from the dealer, but have since sourced a few backup cables from my favourite scrap yard. However as the fault from the OP only occurred after they had been inside the door trim I suspect it more likely to be something other than a frayed cable unless they were rather brutal when taking the door trim off and caused damage then.