5d Stilo rear door dismantling.

Rear door dismantling.

This guide will show the rear door’s main parts, how to solve problems like squeaks and locking issues, window tint and mounting of a new speaker.

You can take the whole door off if you prefer. Unscrew the strap and disconnect the multiplug from the B pillar and unbolt the door. Beware; it is heavy – and not necessary.

Tools will be described along, as I’ll provide suggestions only.

Remove the doorcard.

1. Get the window lever off. Pry a flat screwdriver or similar in between the lever and door. You will see a clip there that needs to be pushed out. Catch it with a pair of pliers and pull it out. The lever and trim can now be pulled off. Refit the clip to the lever, as this is vital for fitting afterwards.

2. Remove the plastic trims that cover screws in position A, B and D.

3. Unbolt the 3 hex bolts from position A, B and C. All 3 are different, so note their positions. Shims (two bolts have the same length) won’t allow you do refit them in the wrong place, so they are idiot proof.

4. Unscrew 3 screws from position D, E and F.

5. There are 3 typical Fiat plastic poppers that still hold the doorcard. Pull the card from bottom and towards you. Look underneath and you will se them. Feel with your hand inside and try to push them out. They should come out with the doorcard. Use pliers if you get stuck as they sit tight. When all 3 have come loose it will still hang at the window liner. Make sure all poppers are fit to the doorcard after removal. On most of the pictures they are stuck in the inner doorcard though.

6. Pull it out slightly from underneath and hammer it upwards with your palm. Start with the side of the hinges. It will loosen pretty fast. Take care around the locking lever.

7. The doorcard will still be attached to the wire from the inside door handle. It is difficult to describe the procedure, but very straight forward when you see it. The wire is secured to a plastic hook and loosely fit in a hole there. Remove the doorcard.

If your rear door inner handle suddenly stops working during winter – and feels very sloppy, the wire has popped off when the lock has frozen. It’s smart though, as nothing gets destroyed.

If you are removing the speaker only, jump to no. 34.

Remove the inner doorcard – the metal sheet.

8. Open the circular black plastic cover in the middle of the doorcard. Refit the window lever (remove the clip described in no. 1 first) and move the window until you see the white window holder. The window itself will have a hole where it is fit.

9. Use some wooden tool to push the white plastic clip out of the hole. Pull the window up with your hands and secure it to the door frame top with duct tape.

If you are removing the window only, jump to no. 16.

10. Disconnect the multiplug from the B pillar and push it inside the door.

11. Push the two plastic sticks G and H inside the door (you’ll find them) and push the poppers into the door. These are fiddly to refit…

12. Unbolt all bolts that hold the inner door card to the door frame.

13. Push the door handle’s wire grommet through the hole, and tweak the doorcard upwards, taking care of the locking lever, its grommet and the wire.

14. Disconnect the plug and wire that attaches to the door lock. Remove the inner doorcard.

15. Find the two plastic sticks in the door frame from no. 11.

Necessary maintenance within the door frame.

• The door check strap has a little roller that squeaks and corrodes, so a little lube here will keep it smooth. Look inside while moving the door to watch its function. Use some industrial grease and WD40.

• The door has very little sound proofing, so adding some might help for sound quality. Use high quality, or they will fall off and rattle inside the door.
• Outer door handle can now be changed if broken.
• Maintenance to the door locking mechanism can be done. There have been issues with the deadlock function, and the lock can now be removed.
• The window lever mechanism is attached to the inner door card from the inside, but can now easily be removed or maintained.
• Need a new powder coating, rust removal or fix a dent? Now is the time.

After taking care of whatever step above, refit the doorcard in this order: 14, 13, 10, 11 and 12. Make sure every grommet fits tight in their respective holes.

Jump to last paragraph to refit main doorcard, or follow the guide to remove and tint your window or change your speaker.

Window removal.

Make sure you have followed no. 8 and 9.

16. Remove the inner weather seal from the door frame. Make a note of its direction.

17. Remove the outer weather seal / trim. Just grab one end, gently pulling it upwards.

18. Use the window lever to lower the mechanism all the way down.

19. Remove the duct tape and lever the window down with your hands.

20. There is a plastic runner in the B pillar side of the door frame. You can either push the window down and force the runner out of its position with “angle force”, or pull it up and force the runner out the same way. Be patient and don’t use too much force as it might break. I actually had a little notch in the lining, so it was easy to get it out of its track.

21. Pull the window up and out. It is a tight fit, but when you find the perfect position, it will just slide straight up.
You now have access to the upper plastic trim of the door if you need to do some work on the door frame itself, like powder coating etc.

If you are done, refit the window in this order: 21, 20 (just pop the plastic runner in), 18, 9, 8, 17 and 16.

Jump to last paragraph to refit main doorcard, or no. 34 to remove speaker.

Window tint.

22. Clean the glass with some window cleaning solvent, and put it on a flat surface, making sure the concave side is facing upwards, as tint is meant to be put on the inside.

23. Get a glass scrape – you probably have one for your ceramic stove top. Scrape the FIAT silk screen. It’s the black logo with some glass security information. You can’t remove it, just flatten and matten it. Else it will show up with air around it after tinting. Scrape the rest of the window to remove stuck particles.

24. Use some acetone or similar to clean the window thoroughly.

25. Make a guide for the window tint from cardboard. Cut it a couple of millimeters smaller than the window itself.

26. Cut two layers of tint from the guide. Mirrored of each other to fit left and right window.

27. Use a microfiber cloth to dryclean the window again, so it is dust free.

28. Spray a solution of water and “whatever you do your dishes with by hand” to the window – called the “mixture”.

29. Remove the plastic protective layer of the precut tint and spray the glue side with the same mixture.

30. Place the tint on the window with the glue side down. Spray some mixture on the plain side.

31. Use a grout float tool from the last time you mounted tiles at your bathroom. Not the big ones, but a small one made from pretty hard rubber. Working from the centre and out, remove all excess mixture from between the tint and glass. All air bubbles must be removed. After working for some minutes the tint will stick.

32. Let the window and tint dry, and carefully wipe it with some paper tissue. Make sure the tint sticks nice to the window. Place it carefully in a nice and warm, dry place overnight.

33. Use some transparent nail varnish on the top edge, to prevent the tint from cracking when levering the window up and down into the weather seal.
When done, refit the window in this order: 21, 20 (just pop the plastic runner in), 18, 9, 8, 17 and 16.

Jump to last paragraph to refit main doorcard.

Speaker removal.

34. Disconnect the speaker cable from the speaker spider. I’ve got no other idea what to call it.

35. Unscrew the spider, 4 screws, and bring the unit inside.

36. Cut the wires from the spider to the speaker coil.

37. Cut out the speaker membrane with a Stanley knife.

38. Use a Fein Multimaster or similar to cut the speaker free from the spider. Throw the speaker away, never to bee seen again. Make a note of its extremely cheap construction.

39. Use the Fein Multimaster to remove the flange of the spider, making room for another speaker.

40. Fit a new speaker, and fix it the way you feel is safe.

41. Solder new wires from the speaker coil to the spider.

42. Refit the spider to the inner doorcard and attach the speaker plug and cable.

I have had the opportunity to destroy 2 left rear speakers without having any idea of why. They were driven by the OEM unit, and without excess volume. After some searching I found the polarity to be wrong – in the plug itself, probably connected by an Italian engineer after some vino rosso.

It’s easy to check the polarity of preinstalled wires:

• Face both speakers, left and right to each other. They must face completely, no space between. Hold the magnets.
• Get a friend, as it is tricky with just two hands.
• Switch + and – wires on each speaker until you reach the combination that produces most bass.
• To check polarity of a speaker itself, use an 1.5 volt battery and connect it with wires to the terminals. If the speaker pops out, you have found + and –.

Refit the main doorcard in this order: 7 to 1. The clip on the window lever must be present when fitting the lever. Just smack it in – just make sure it is in a position you’d like it to be when the window is closed fully.

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