How to Replace the External Driver's Side Door Handle on a 1997 Toyota Camry

Project specifics: 5 hours, phillips head driver, very small flat head driver, larger flat head driver, 10MM socket driver (must be straight), $2 telescoping magnetic stick, bright light, small hands, low chair or really good knees

A couple months ago, the face of my door handle broke off :/

I'm typically the one to take these types of problems to the shop and have someone else deal with it (and take my money), so I took it over to a collision center and got an estimate: ~$150. They wanted MSRP for the handle itself ($90), plus labour.

Although this was a problem, I could still get in the car by working it very carefully, or just using the passenger side when it was raining. And, exams were coming up. So, I decided to just wait it out.

Actually, I had the inside door handle replaced less than a year ago and I thought that it was time to try my hand at the repair. It couldn't be that difficult, right? Hehe....

I did a Google and found that World Toyota's parts department would sell the handle to me online for about $70. I wound up paying $75 because I went to the dealership and, of course, they had to charge tax. I thought I would save money by going to them because then I could avoid the $10 shipping charge, but they don't keep any parts there, it's all ordered in. Fortunantly, it only took two days for it to arrive. If you haven't bought one yet, I'd try a salvage place. Just get it from a car with the same paintjob :)

The model-specific repair books at Autozone were heatshrunk, so I could not tell if I could use that book as a guide. My brother found a book with instructions for door handles, but I don't know which one it was.

I want to thank About.com for the resource I found there: Do It Yourself: How To Replace The Exterior, Front Door Handle On A 1993 Toyota Camry. It proved very helpful. There were some differences, screw locations on door panel, number of screws on door handle hardware, etc., but the overall method is the same.

There are actually three screws on the very bottom of the door, and there is only one pin on the outer edge of the door. The interior door trim has a single screw behind a tab that must be removed before you can remove it. There is actually another location to which you must apply pressure to pop out the trim, one on top as well as the one on the bottom.

A speaker attached to the the inside front of the door made it a little tricky to remove, requiring a little extra nudging to get it to pop up and off.

Once I was able to remove the bolts that held the door handle, they began falling into the door well. If I did it all over again, I would have stuck my hand inside the door and finished removing the bolts with my fingers. I had to run to Autozone to pick up a magnetic stick to fish them out.

I believe that there were only three bolts, instead of the 4 shown in the About.com article for my Camry model.

Perhaps the most difficult problem that I had was removing the rod. In the end I did not remove it "correctly". I eventually pulled the handle out from the door and used a sharp knife (it was actually a brand new one) to saw away at the molded plastic clip holding it on. The new handle had it's own plastic clip, so there was no harm done by ripping it to shreds.

The second-hardest step to me was getting the lock to fit into place. I had not paid attention when I was unscrewing the bolts and did not see how the lock assembly fit into the handle.

Ultimately, to get the lock to fit back into place, I had to un-screw the door handle and remove it, slide the lock assembly into place and then re-insert the handle, screwing in the bolts so that they tightened the lock into place. The lock actually fits up inside the handle.

I was relieved when no screws were left over at the end! This is typically a problem whenever I remove a laptop case.

For some reason the handle now feels so much more fragile than I realized before!

The interior left rear passenger door won't open from the inside. This has always been a problem, but not as big of an actual issue. I suspect something is broken inside, but after removing the door panel, I realize that I can't get up in there to try to find the problem. I'll have to go to a professional for this one...