Decided today to tackle the rear door handles. From looking at my car I feel the problem can be threefold,
(1) The gap between the handle and the lever that holds the wire to the lock,
(2) The length of the wire from the lock to the lever
(3) The amount of flex in the door handle itself.
Certainly in my case both doors had a huge gap between the handle and the lever. On one side a real "bodge" had been done with insulating tape. I cut plastic to fit on the lever to narrow the gap and bonded it on. This worked on one side to cure the problem, however on the other side this did not cure it and I had to shorten the wire to the lock. This cured that side but I still find there is a lot of flexing in the handle itself. Handle has to be lifted at the extreme back to ensure door opens each time, lifting towards the front shows how much flexing there is in the handle design.
A few photos, 1st shows the previous repair, 2nd the gap, 3rd the plastic bonded on, 4th the new gap. Hope this helps someone

I have a similar photo (which I now won't post).

I've fitted a replacement handle assembly and I noted the difference between old and new. As you have found, the old has a huge gap between the handle and the cable seat. I thought it would be an easy repair to superglue a pad onto the cable seat. This would replicate the fit on the new handle assembly.

I don't understand why it didn't work for you on one side compared with the other. Any reduction in this gap must allow the handle to work earlier in its arc of movement. Is the pad material you've chosen just compressing?

Hi, I bought my first grande punto 06 plate Saturday just gone, I have the problem which has already been established above where my back two doors don't open unless I really make a struggle and pull them from the rear corner closest to the boot. I'm only 17 and need help on how to fix the doors easiest way possible with saving as much money as possible,
Any help available guys?

Cheers!

I've had a similar issue with the NS Rear door handle when I bought the car last November. I know it needs doing but haven't got round to it yet as I don't use the rear door to get in and out .

It's good to see the issue illustrated and explained however, many thanks OP.

Humour

OldEngineer said:

I have a similar photo (which I now won't post).


I don't understand why it didn't work for you on one side compared with the other. Any reduction in this gap must allow the handle to work earlier in its arc of movement. Is the pad material you've chosen just compressing?

Click to expand...

If you read my post you would see that I also had to shorten the wire on one side, that's why it wasn't working! Irrespective of the gap if the wire is too long it won't work. I used hard plastic so it would work, a compressible piece of plastic would be as much use as "an ashtray on a motorbike", anyway the actuating arm from the handle has to slide on the surface of the other part therefore it has to be hard to allow it to slide. The problem, as I have already posted, can be threefold, the flexing in the handle itself is a pure rubbish design to start with. Was your replacement handle a modified one? I'd like to see the new handle, what is the modification does anyone know?

Perhaps I'm not making myself clear.
The replacement (modified) 'unit' is made up of two parts. The handle part (the exterior handle including an inner lever) and the cable pull unit (the inner part that the cable connects)

The 'cable pull unit' has a seat that the lever on the 'handle part' pushes. This is shown very well in your second picture with the problem gap.

The replacement assembly looks identical except this gap is removed. From examining the modified part I concluded that the 'handle part' is modified.

The effect of this change is 1) it's harder to put back because there is now no wriggle room as you tip it in and 2) as you insert it there is a pre-loading effect on the cable as the nuts tighten.

The flexing of the handle is a bit of a red herring. From what I observed the handle does not distort or bend. It has rotation bearings at each end with a return spring in between. Grabbing the handle at the back helps because the reaction to the return spring pushes the handle in and further down on the cable unit.

So, in my view, a large pad inserted could do the same.

And (after re reading your post) the cable is not too long. Nothing in the modified part changes the length of the cable. So I wouldn't do anything to it.

[The flexing of the handle is a bit of a red herring. From what I observed the handle does not distort or bend. It has rotation bearings at each end with a return spring in between. Grabbing the handle at the back helps because the reaction to the return spring pushes the handle in and further down on the cable unit.

So, in my view, a large pad inserted could do the same.[/QUOTE]

Surely that means the handle is flexing! if it works by holding it near the rear but not if you lift from the front then the handle is flexing or whatever other term you care to use!, the rotational force is not being transferred equally from the outer handle to the inner unit.

OldEngineer said:

And (after re reading your post) the cable is not too long. Nothing in the modified part changes the length of the cable. So I wouldn't do anything to it.

Click to expand...

If the cable was not too long why did my mod not work? I put it all back together and watched when the handle was lifted, the wire was not being pulled enough to release the catch. It worked when I shortened it! therefore the cable WAS too long, it was only a small amount but nevertheless enough to prevent it opening. As I have already said I believe the problem can be either,
1 the gap between the two parts of the handle,
2 the length of the actuating wire or
3 the "flexing" of the handle or a combination of all 3.

Certainly in my case the gap was excessive on both handles, so I removed it, this only cured one handle, the other required a small amount of slack to be removed from the wire. Having said that both handles work better if lifted from the extreme rear, surely that mean that the handle flexes along it's length when lifted. I'm not an engineer, just a practical amateur expert backstreet mechanic!

Perhaps it did work for you but so we don't confuse anybody else...

The modified handle does nothing to the cable length. It fixes the problem by changing the geometry.

And, from my observations, the handle does not bend. It just moves in its locating lugs and you can get a benefit by operating at its rear end so that this movement twists it against the return spring and the tolerances then help you.

I never suggested that doing any mod to the handle changes the length of the cable, I had to shorten the cable about 3mm to get it to work, obviously in the case of one of my doors a modified handle would not have been the panacea to cure all ills, you could lift the handle all you like but if the stroke of the lift is not enough to release the catch the only solution in my view is to shorten the cable. Again I am still of the belief that the design is very poor and that there is far too much flexing in the handle itself, if it works when lifted from the rear but not from the front surely it means the movement is not being transferred evenly along the length of the handle to the lever which incidentally is at the rear of the handle, whether this is because of the return spring or the actuating lever is irrelevant. A more robust handle and less clearance between the outer handle and inner lever would improve matters. Are the modified handles any more robust? Anyhow I hope this discussion will help somebody fix the problem.

Hopefully there is enough above to give guidance to others on an easy repair.

digger58 said:

Decided today to tackle the rear door handles. From looking at my car I feel the problem can be threefold,
(1) The gap between the handle and the lever that holds the wire to the lock,
(2) The length of the wire from the lock to the lever
(3) The amount of flex in the door handle itself.
Certainly in my case both doors had a huge gap between the handle and the lever. On one side a real "bodge" had been done with insulating tape. I cut plastic to fit on the lever to narrow the gap and bonded it on. This worked on one side to cure the problem, however on the other side this did not cure it and I had to shorten the wire to the lock. This cured that side but I still find there is a lot of flexing in the handle itself. Handle has to be lifted at the extreme back to ensure door opens each time, lifting towards the front shows how much flexing there is in the handle design.
A few photos, 1st shows the previous repair, 2nd the gap, 3rd the plastic bonded on, 4th the new gap. Hope this helps someone

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your information I have found it very useful I have had quite a few grande punto with this rear door problem and I had one fail the MOT today because of it ? thanks to your help I think I fixed it well I've closed the gap anyway super glued some plastic to close the gap ( used filler spreader cut to size) seens to work but as you say very poor design and works much better still for the rear hope this isn't going to be a problem for the re test. I personally think a lot of the problem is the front part of the handle doesn't do anything only the back pushing down not both I phone fiat dealer then had no recorded of a modified handle would be nice to know were you got the modified handle from mite need to buy on if my super glue doesn't hold for long thank for help craig ????

Hi, Glad it helped, I never got a modified handle, "Old Engineer" refers to this in his post so I can't comment. It is a terribly poor design as it is and I stand over what I said about the length of the actuating wire, no matter what you do to the gap between the plastic parts if the wire is too long it won't work QED! The plastic handle does flex, that's why it works better when you lift the back rather than the front of the handle, then again you can't explain that to an engineer!

digger58 said:

Hi, Glad it helped, I never got a modified handle, "Old Engineer" refers to this in his post so I can't comment. It is a terribly poor design as it is and I stand over what I said about the length of the actuating wire, no matter what you do to the gap between the plastic parts if the wire is too long it won't work QED! The plastic handle does flex, that's why it works better when you lift the back rather than the front of the handle, then again you can't explain that to an engineer!

Click to expand...

yeah past mot so im happy didn't need to shorten the wire just closed the gap and work, yeah i seen it was the other person had the handle but fiat dont know any thing about a modified handle would be nice to know if it was modified or just new handle you could see on mine where the plastic had been scored away for lack of a better word. thanks for all your help :worship:

Fiat upgraded the rear door handles with new part numbers that superseded the old ones. Better material and slightly different construction.


I don't know when that became production but mine (2006 1.2 Active) had them replaced by the dealer free of charge some years ago.


Usually the trick to opening the rear doors is to hold the handle at the end where it's attached rather than the open end which just flexes.


Useful guide here: https://www.fiatforum.com/grande-pu...o-replacement-external-rear-door-handles.html