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In this video, we're going to show you how to replace an outside door handle. This is a 2003 Honda Civic. It pretty much should be the same for any 2001-2005 Civic 2 door. We show you the driver's side, but the passenger side is a similar procedure. Items you'll need include a new door handle from 1AAuto.com, flat blade screwdrivers in both large and smaller, Phillips screwdriver, 10 millimeter socket and ratchet or a wrench would work, bent tip pick tool and needle nosed pliers.
10 millimeter wrench, loosen the negative battery cable terminal and disconnect the negative battery cable.
Start out, there's a screw in here and two screws behind here. To get this screw, you pull up on this trap door. Pry the top and pull down to expose two Philips screws here. All right, you pry up on the front of this panel, pull it up and out, and on the harness there's a little tab. Press the tab to disconnect.
Then up on the door handle, pull out, there's a little clip right here. Push the clip off. Pull the lock up and out. Two screws, one here and one here. Remove those. Unplug. Now we're going to remove this top quarter turn. Let it hang to the side, and then there are clips that go into the door that you need to release all the way around. You want to put your fingers in underneath and pull firmly. This door panel's been apart before, so it came apart pretty easily, but you want to release them on the bottom and then up top here. Up top here, and then the panel should pull up off the window ledge and off.
There are two plugs that hold your water shield on here, and there's one here. You can see somebody's already ripped the shield around that. You want to avoid doing that. Needle nosed pliers, just grab hold in the middle and avoid stretching it or tearing it. 10 millimeter socket, ratchet and extension, and we'll fast-forward as I remove those two bolts. With those bolts out, the window lifts right up and out.
Remove the 10 millimeter bolt that holds the bottom of the window track. Then reach in behind, pull the window track down slightly, and you should be able to move it out of the way. We'll move the clip that holds the latch rod. Use a flat blade screwdriver to start it, and then you can probably reach up in there with your thumb. You may need the flat blade screwdriver again to come in here and pry the rod out.
There are two 10 millimeter nuts: one here and one over here. Best way to get to this one is with an extension right through here. We do want to loosen up those two nuts first. We'll just loosen them up, and then we want to push down from the top. You can just see the top of the clip peeking up right there. You're going to use your screwdriver and push down on the clip a little bit. You get the clip to move, and then you're going to come in with your bent tip all in the bottom and pull the clip down. Push down on the clip from the top. Bring in your bent tip from the bottom and if the stars align correctly, pull it down and then reach the screwdriver up in there and pry out. You can push the lock right out.
Remove the two 10 millimeter nuts the rest of the way. The plate will come out. The clip's hanging down, so just pull the clip off or out, and then your handle comes right out. If you can imagine, the screwdriver comes in from the top. Push on the clip some. You can see here as you push on that clip that gives you a little bit of room on the back side, so you come up from the bottom, work your hook tool in there, and then pull down and, ideally, you actually don't want to pull it out all the way. The clip is designed so that you can see the legs are holding in here. Once you just pull it down about an eighth of an inch, the clip spreads out to release the lock.
You can see over here is the original handle from the vehicle painted blue, and we have three options from 1A Auto. You can paint this black handle to match, or you could just install it as it is to fix your problem. Then we have the chromed handle itself. You could paint the black to match, or again install it as it is, and then we have the all chrome version. This vehicle, the original handle is good, so we're just going to be reinstalling it on the vehicle.
To reinstall the handle, put it up in place. Provide some upward pressure and put it right in. Put the plate back up in place and start the nuts on. Take the lock, push it back in place, and make sure it clicks. Reinstall the latch rod, put the clip down. If necessary, always bring in a screwdriver from the top. Tighten up the two 10 millimeter nuts, and we'll fast-forward as I do that. Put this back in place. Put your channel back in place and it should slide right up and in and replace the 10 millimeter bolt tight. Window back in.
Put the front down in and then tilt it backwards. Bring the front up, make sure it goes into the weather strip in the front, and make sure it goes correctly into the back and it slides nice and easy. Put the 2 bolts back in that mount the window to the regulator. I just load them into the socket first and then carefully put them in. If you drop them down, it's pretty easy to reach in there. We can fast-forward as we tighten those up.
Okay, battery connected, key on, just do a quick test with the window in place. Everything's working well. Put your water shield back in place. Pull the harnesses through there and use your two push clips, one in the front here. We use a little extra duct tape to hold it up. I'm not going to take the push clip, I'm just going to pinch the shield in there, push the clip in, and then secure it around the edges. Make sure this is out of the way, bring your panel up. Make sure the small harness goes through your door handle hole, and then the larger harness needs to go through the power windows. Lift it up. Make sure that the harness for the speaker doesn't get caught. Push it towards the window and down onto the ledge starting in the front. Get your lock to come through.
Make sure your lock comes through, push it down on the window ledge and it should be right in place and reinstall the clips. This clip right here has been put in incorrectly too many times, so I have to actually guide it into the hole. There's the hole. Reinstall your upper trim panel here.
Reinstall the two screws for the door pull. We'll fast-forward as I do that. Reconnect your power window switch and then the back goes down in first in place. Then reconnect your door lock switch. Put the latch rod back in place then spin the clip around, push it in. Put that back in place. Just fast-forward as we put those fasteners back in place, then put that trim panel back in place. Put this last screw back in place, then flip the trap door down.
Reconnect your negative battery cable and tighten with a 10 millimeter wrench.
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