Hey guys, I cant seem to figure this out. my passenger exterior door handle does not return most of the time, or if it does, it only goes 80% of the way, a few times Ive had to wait for my gf to get in the car and close the door for her and push the handle down at the same time it closes.

ive tried wd-40 on everything I can see moving from the outside. I just got my windows tinted yesterday actually (problem was pre-existing) so I cant just pull the panel off.

Is this problem common or indicative of something I can lube from the outside?

 

Why fix it? Holding and closing the door for your gf is the gentleman thing to do.. LOL

If I'm not mistaking, which happens a lot, there is a little spring on the handle. It's probably worn out. Or the two parts of the handle connecting are dirty. The oly way to get to this is by removing the door panel....

If you are worried about scratching your tinted window just do the following:

Spray some non aggressive lube on the top inside of your window. Roll it fully down. The window and the rubber on the panel just touch half an inch high and lesser then half in length. Putting lube between matching surfaces will almost insure a scratch free removal.
Then roll the window up, remove the handle, pull it apart, clean it and install a new spring (from your local hardware shop).
For installing the panel, just lube the window again, roll it down and install the panel.
After you're done, just clean the window.

Hope this helps you out

 

A simple spring you say.

Weird that it would happen on the passenger side and not the drivers first. Hate to pull the panel off, 24 year old plastic and that door handle aswell, hate to mess with them, but Ive never been under the passenger panel so I guess Ill make an afternoon of it.