There seems to be loads of information on how to change the hinge on the door handle assembly but very little info on how to remove the whole door handle so I just wanted to share my experience in how to change the whole door handle assembly on a Fiat 500 1.2 58 reg POP, might be wrong but I think these are all the same on the Fiat 500 range.

On my daughter car when you pull the door handle there is a black plastic shaft that connects to the door opening mechanism inside the door, on her Fiat 500 the black plastic shaft had broken so you couldn’t open the door from the outside, (but still able to open from inside the car) reading on the net, this is quite a common fault, so ordered a new door handle complete from Ebay , this was £26.50 delivered and also a genuine Fiat part, this was the offside door (drivers side RHD) It doesn’t come with the barrel lock, so you have to change this from the old door handle.

After I removed the door card I could see that someone had worked on the door handle before as the white sound insulation foam had been cut and then taped back with gaffer tape. After pulling back the foam, I could see that a diy repair had been carried on the small shaft / wire that connects the door handle to the locking mechanism, someone had used some small gauge wire and wrapped it around the shaft, I would guess that the shaft kept popping out hence the diy repair.

It all went fairly straight forward up to this point, removed the diy wire and the 6mm large flange nut on the door handle hinge and the T30 / 6mm bolt on the side, but then spent the next 15 minutes trying to work out how to remove the door handle!!! …………….well once you know it’s quite simple and takes about 30 seconds when you know how it’s done, first put your hand inside the door and pull down on the spring assembly, on the bottom of the handle there are two lugs, you need to pull down on the spring and lift up on the whole door handle at the same time, this will allow the two lugs on the door Handle to lift up above the cutout of the metal sheet of the door, once the two lugs are clear of the door, then pull down on the lock and all the time keep the spring assembly compressed, you can then wiggle the old door handle out.

Being eager I fitted the new door handle but then realised straight away that I hadn’t changed the barrel lock over but now knowing how to remove the handle, it only took about 30 seconds to remove the door handle again

With the barrel lock there is a small clip that holds the barrel in place, first you need to put the ignition / door key into the barrel, then remove the clip with a small flat blade screwdriver, once the barrel is out, you will notice that there is already a clip in place on the new door handle and it’s just a matter of pushing the barrel lock in gently (still with the key inside) it then pushes the clip up slightly and clips back into place once you push in the barrel lock home.

Then it’s just a matter of refitting the small metal shafts that connects the door handle to the door lock assembly, and then refit the screws and bolts etc, in total the whole job took about an hour and I guess the hardest part is removing the old handle, but quite easy once you’ve done it once

Some more pictures..

I've had some nightmares trying to get the damn handle out. I ruined one and had to get a new one but the second one I managed to do it.

Getting the new one in is much much easier than getting the old one out.