Heavy frost this morning, and tried to open the rear offside door. Unfortunately the door was frozen in place resulting in pulling the operating lever past its stop so it is now loose and no longer operates the catch. It looks like I should be able to ease it back in, but has anyone any experience of removing or refitting the outer handle mechanism?

Cant help with that, But I found spraying some Adsil onto a cloth them wiping the door seal rubbers with it eased that problem.

Have you tried pushing the handle back in? 
A few months ago, I serviced the drivers side (front left) locking mechanism.  This included removing the lock cylinder, door handle, door trim, window, carrier assembly, inside door control, lock mechanism and bowden cables.
I experienced that the handle easily snapped back into the inside door control mechanism.

I find using Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care wiped onto the door seals using a dish washing sponge, then wiped off with a microfibre cloth, stops them from freezing. (we get frost most mornings from October to March and I set off for work at 0400)

I also spray it directly onto the rubber 'bumpers' on the bottom of the doors and the protective sleeves on the door hinges.

Edited 14 December, 201510 yr by Guest

Thanks for the good advice to avoid this happening again, I will treat the seals. Not as though this is unusual in winter in Scotland (although it has been this year)!

 

175GDY, ideally that's what I would have done, but because of the pressure of time I got my local dealer to fix it by doing as you say, stripping from the inside .

Remember to lubricate the bowden cables with ATF oil.

40c yesterday

42c today and tomorrow

Could we do a trade, perhaps?.

+11c here tonight. And I still don't believe in manmade global warming :peek: