Chaps,
These X350 jags keep your mind active – another new skill learned today – stripping down the rear door.
Went to open the rear drivers side door this morning and the handle pulled out as normal but it didn’t open the car, then it wouldn’t go back in. Opened the door using the inner catch and it was OK, closed the door but the exterior handle was just moving in and out slightly but not doing anything, and not going back in.
Stripped the door panels off, (there are two of them, inner and outer) access to the rear of the lock is difficult, but I managed to see that as you pull open the outer door handle a plastic post attached to the outer handle should catch on a metal lever, mine had pulled past the lever. With some swearing and sore fingers I managed to re-engage the post and lever and demonstrate that the door handle was working again. Re-assembly is the reverse of disassembly etc… How long before it pulls past again though? It seems to be on the edge of pulling past every time you use it, it could do with the end of the plastic post being slightly larger to give the lever a little more to catch on to.
Fixed for now, if it goes again I may have to re-engineer it, but to do that I will have to actually remove the exterior door handle from the door, the service manual is a bit vague about that process.
Here endeth todays lesson
Graham