I’d unsuccessfully searched and searched for a way to replace my driver’s side interior door handle on my 2007 Solstice. The official response is to replace the entire interior door panel…expensive! I’m frugal, refused to give up, and was finally able to solve the problem, albeit with a bit of MacGyver’ing. I hope that this post helps at least a few of you with the same problem.
First, this solution is not for replacing the entire housed interior door handle mechanism. Rather, this post is only for replacement of the door handle itself, which in my case, showed peeling chrome/plastic. This is a cheap part and looked even cheaper due to chrome/plastic chipping in my otherwise fairly pristine car (see pic).
I bought a complete door handle mechanism replacement, listed as the proper replacement for a similar year Pontiac G5. The entire mechanism cost under $20.00 (see pic). I knew that I needed only the door handle itself, and not the entire mechanism. My other option was a “correct” door handle replacement via eBay at a cost of $55.00. Again, I’m frugal, and knew that I could take apart the new mechanism to get the door handle part that I needed.
Onward.
Disconnect the door panel from the door as indicated in other YouTube videos or other articles you can find on the web. If you’re stuck and cannot find a good explanation for how to do this, let me know, and I’ll help to connect you with that answer as well. You’ll need to disconnect the wiring clips for the side-view mirrors, the electric door locks, and the power windows. Also, you’ll need to disconnect the cable for the door handle mechanism itself. Note that the clip for the power windows is a bit tricky. I found a small retaining clip that needed to be removed before the actual clip could be squeezed and unplugged. The cable for the door handle mechanism took a second or two to figure out as well. A plastic piece slides up and away from the mechanism, allowing the cable to be freed. Go slowly, and you’ll figure it out.
Now that you’ve got the door panel off the car, you’ll easily be able to access the door handle from the interior of the panel. This is where it gets tricky, MacGyver’y (new word). The door handle is held in place with a plastic dowel, expansion clip at one end to hold it in place. The dowel holds the handle and the spring. To remove the dowel, squeeze the expansion section at the bottom of the dowel, and work to push it up through the top of the entire mechanism. You’ll find that there isn’t enough room in the panel to actual remove the dowel. That is, the top of the door panel curves inward, and the angled panel section that rests in the top of the door to hold the panel in place is in the way, making it impossible to remove the dowel. I bravely cut enough of the angled section (visible on the interior of the panel only) away to allow the dowel to be freed (a 1/4 to 1/2" wide piece cut away only). You then also have to gently and carefully bend the entire plastic panel enough to be able to remove the dowel. This requires caution and bravery. With my wife’s help (4 hands are a necessity), we pulled it off!
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Reverse the order, using your new (G5) door handle, and your rig will look as good as new! I even used the metal dowel and new spring that came with the G5 mechanism, rather than re-using the old Solstice plastic dowel and older (weaker) spring.
Altogether, it took me 2 hours or so to make this fix. It looks great! I’m glad to chat with anybody to offer more thoughts on this effort.
Happy driving!
