Hi guys!

 

I think I need some serious advice.

 

After a dull story where I damaged the connector to my door lock (after a bad attempt to remove it for easy access to change a failed window regulator) I bought a new door lock and a couple of days ago I pulled the project of replacing it. Worked out fine, except that my exterior door handle is now kind of sloppy, i.e. it won't retract smoothly after being pulled (door opened). It sort of stays a couple of millimeters out, which obviously looks kind of lame, even though it's fully functioning.

 

 

Anyways, I've read tons of threads on this forum, and found someone with an Mk1 Octy that has had a similar issue, but since this is a different model I thought I'd rather pull a new thread. Now, I just stumbled upon this interesting thread in the Mk2 Octy forum, and this seems indeed to be related to what I'm up against. Does anyone here have real life experience with this?

 

I feel certain that the lower of the two T20 screws is the bandit in all this. The upper screw serves a very primitive mission; holding the lock barrel physically in place, whereas I'm honestly not 100% about the function of the lower screw. I've read that it rotates a "cage" that has a gap that should line up with the lock barrel for it to be removed, and that you need to be careful not to rewind this screw fully. Well,  today I have been out trying to further investigate what has gone wrong. I noticed that I can remove the lock barrel even if the lower Torx screw is fully tightened. This made me suspicious.

 

On the passenger side the handle retracts normal, and lock barrel is stuck if I rewind only the upper screw. Now, I wanted to see what differed the two doors, so I turned the lower T20 screw on each side, looking with a flashlight into where the lock barrel goes. On the (working) passenger side I saw some small metal piece moving (rotating) back and forth when I turned the screw. I guess this is what people refer to as a "cage". I put my finger inside the hole and tried feeling the shape of this metal thing that moved.

 

Oooops, I felt that it suddenly was all lose in there. Damn it, how stupid of me. All odds pointed towards this piece falling down into the door any second. However, somehow I managed to fish it out with my fingers.  Here it is.

 

 

Now, can ANYONE tell me what the heck this piece of metal is? How important is it, really?

 

I thought that perhaps now this door handle would be as messed up as the driver's side, but it wasn't. It was still retracting fine. What could be the problem then? I decided to take a look on the handle, so I popped the Bowden cable off and removed the handle from the door. It seemed just fine. I then put it back on, and guess what? Yeah, now this (passenger side) was exactly as stupid as the driver's side door.

 

Now, once again I'm prone to look into that Mk2 Octavia thread, where @neilcaldwell states that "bottom screw adjusts the collar tension", which (if it's the same on my Fabia) leads me to believe that we could be on to something here.

 

Once again, ANY clue would be much appreacited here.

 

Finally, guys, please take a look on this exploded view on the lock/handle assembly that I found. It's really illustrative, but I can't seem to figure out what part the metal thing on my photo above is. Anyone with better eyes?

 

Cheers!

Your Bowden cable needs moving away from the door (closer to you if facing it). The metal clip, no idea on that I'm afraid.

I really wish it was that simple, but I'm afraid it's not.

The only thing I'm aware of is you need to tighten the torx bolt with the door handle pulled out,like it would be if your opening the door.

Big thanks for your quick responses, guys. Much appreciated!

 

Now, I have read about the importance of having handle pulled out while tightening/loosening that screw.

Actually, I may have been sloppy with with precaution during my project, and this may be the reason why things are falling apart now. I honestly don't know.

 

Anyways, Google is indeed my friend, and I think I just found some photos (in some online spare part catalog) that may be of great help here.

Look at this here guys, doesn't it look exactly like the metal thing in my photo above?

 

If so, it's no doubt that I [once again] will need to take apart trim, window regulator and everything in between just to get to the internal side of the handle.

Still, I'm trying to figure out exactly how this mechanism works, i.e. with the handle snapping into place when tightening the mentioned screw, etc.

 

I presume that I have somehow messed up this function as right now.

Guys, I've got some great news!

Like stated above, I had prepared myself for disassembling the entire door again.

 

However, after studying that catalog item for some time on the screen, it got more clear to me how this "cage" thing actually works. Mechanics and stuff always gets so much easier for me when I have some sort of steady visual on what's going on under the bonnet, so to speak. So, this helped a lot. Now, I went out (with a flashlight) to see if I could find a clue by just staring into the hole of the lock barrel, having the fresh visual of that exterior handle back plate in my mind. Said and done, I easily removed lock barrel (which in my case is only held by the upper screw) and aimed the flashlight into the hole. Then I noticed something interesting.

 

Unfortunately, I had my cellphone (camera) inside (charging), so I missed the opportunity of taking a picture, but I'll try and explain it to you with words. In specific, the piece of the handle that is pressed in near the lock barrel, it has some shape, and inside of the empty hole I saw a "catch", pretty deep in the hole. I stuck my finger in there and managed to touch the catch. I then noticed that I could in fact pull it towards me, using only my finger. This was very awesome. At this position, I couldn't get the catch shape of the handle to "hook" behind that catch inside the hole, but I then moved it aside a little notch (the same way as when you've just unplugged wire and are about to release the entire handle from the door) and then I could actually (using only my middle finger) get the handle piece to hook onto the catch inside the lock house.

 

The handle now immediately went all the way in. I was thrilled. I reinstalled the lock barrel and fastened it using my screw, and it worked a charm. I went over to the passenger side and ran the same deal. Both handles now works perfectly. Oh, I had earlier managed to unscrew the upper T20 screw (the one just running through, and holding the lock) so it's now inside the door. Fortunately, I found a screw in an assorted box that I have at home with more or less the exact same size (M5 x 9mm) but PH2/slot instead of Torx, so I replaced it.

 

 

I have a bit of OCD when it comes to symmetry of things, so I actually voluntarily unscrewed the same screw on the other side of the car, and replaced this with a PH2/slot screw as well. Perhaps a little neurotic, hehe. Anyways, I wonder if that guy in the Octy Mk1 forum have solved his issue by now. Perhaps I'll hit him a PM later on, if not.

 

Once again, big thanks for everything!

Maybe it would a good thing if you did a project thread in the relevant project Forum with pictures so that we can all visualise this if it ever happens to us??

 

Glad you got it sorted though....

I've had to do this exact same thing earlier this year. What a PITA job it was! Even with the door completely apart I still struggled to get that little gold thing to stay in the correct place when fitting it all together. I reckon I was at it for about 2 hours

Glad you got it sorted