2011 Cadillac Escalade Rear Driver & Passenger Side 2 Piece Exterior Door Handle Set TRQ DHA31416

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In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the rear outside door handles on this 2007 Denali. It's the same process for any 2007 to 2013 Yukon Denali, as well as the SLT, and Tahoe LTZ. It's also probably the same procedure or a similar procedure for rear doors on the Yukon XL, Suburban, as well as the four-door Sierra and Silverados with the LTZ Denali or SLT trims.

Items you'll need include handles from 1AAuto.com, small and regular flat blade screwdrivers, 10mm socket with ratchet and extension, and a door panel clip tool or putty knife.

Disconnect the battery. You want to open up the driver's door, pull the hood release lever, hit the safety hatch, move it to the right, and then lift the hood up, and the battery is near the rear of the engine compartment on the passenger side. There's a 10mm nut on top of the negative battery cable. Loosen that 10mm nut and pull the battery cable up and off, and then put it to the side so it won't contact the terminal again.

Open up either rear door. The procedure is the same for both. You need a small flat blade screwdriver, and you'll pry out that square clip, pry out this panel under here, and I am just using one hand, so it does drop to the ground, one hand holding the camera, one hand working the screwdriver. Then there is also a little panel underneath here that you pry out. Once you have that panel out, it'll expose a 10mm bolt there, and then there's another 10mm bolt to remove down here.

Use a small screwdriver and pull up on the walk knob and pry that clip out, and it comes up and off. I'll fast-forward here as I remove those two 10mm bolts. Use a plastic trim tool or a rag and a flat blade screwdriver, and pry up on the switch panel. You kind of pry up in the center and then you pull it up and it locks. The clips are on the front and the rear. Once you get the center up, you just kind of work it into the front, and then work it into the rear. It comes up and off and then the harness just has a tab on it. You press the tab and unplug it.
Use a rag to protect your paint and a door panel clip tool, or you could use a putty knife, but you work either the tool or the knife in underneath the clip. You'll basically feel that you slide it through and you can feel the plastic clips, and then you pull out and release the clips, and I usually do this for two or three of the clips on the back side. Then you can work your hand underneath and release the rest of the clips.

Once the clips are released, you pull the panel up and off of the window ledge clip. If your door panel has never been off before, the water shield, the white water shield you can see is a black clip holding it to the door panel. There's probably three or four of these little black clips. You can see how you try to use the clip tool or a screwdriver to pry the clip out. Eventually, I just end up grabbing ahold of the clip and the water shield at the same time and pull them out. Again, you'll have to do this probably three or four times if your door panel has never been off before.

We'll need to undo the door handle cable clip. There's two little clips that hold the cable in. I'm just prying with a small screwdriver to release those clips. Here's a better shot of them as they come out. You pull it out and up out of the handle, and then the door panel comes right off. I do find one more of the clips that clip the water shield to the door panel and release it. Carefully pull the water shield back and release the adhesive and expose the inside of the back part of the door. You want to unclip the door lock rod, see the yellow clip right there, reach up with your hand, try and get a good shot here, and you just pull on the outside edge of that clip and release it and pull the rod out.

You want to remove this round rubber grommet. You push from the back side and pull it off, and then there is a bolt up in there as well as another bolt that holds the door panel. 10mm socket, ratchet, and extension, and go right in through and undo those two bolts. Now the handles slide forward and out. You'll want to remove the latch rod from the old handle. Just kind of twist it and pull it up and out. Then install it in to your new handle. Install the new handle, just pull on the protector plastic back, put the rod down in, and then might need to pull the handle out a little bit as far as just the handle part out, but you can slide it up in there, and then you push it on to the door and slide it back to lock it in place.

Reach up and start the bolts in to the back of the handle. You can see it's easy enough to get your hands up in there, and you can even get them up into the back side, too. Start the bolt in and then tighten them up. Tighten them up nice and firm, don't overtighten them. You don't want to strip the thread. Reach in, put that latch rod back in place, and then lock the clip in place. Be sure your door is unlocked. You can test it out.
Install that rubber grommet and press the shield back up in place. To reinstall the door panel, get it close, put the ball of the cable into the door handle, then pull the cable around and clip it in. Move the panel close to the door, make sure that the harness comes up through, and then make sure that the door lock goes up through the hole there, and then you kind of lift the panel up and push the top on and set it down into that window ledge clip, and then you can kind of look in behind, make sure that the clips line up. Once you have everything lined up, then you can reset the clips.

Make sure that you pull the lock knob up and then put the lock trim on there. Set that, make sure you leave it unlocked, and then reinstall the two 10mm bolts that hold the panel in place. I'll fast forward as I do that. When you tighten these, tighten them up firm, you don't want to tighten them, though, and make sure you have the harness pulled up through, put the two trim pieces in place. The upper one, you want to put the rear end first and then snap the front end. It snaps in at the front first on me, so I have to pull it back out, and then put it in correctly. Again, the back towards the back goes in first, and then front snaps in, and then reconnect the harness and snap the switch panel down in place, and then do a little test.

Then reconnect your battery, and then you should be all good to go. Put the negative battery cable back on the post and 10mm socket, ratchet, and extension, then tighten it up.

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