How much do you think it will cost to get a car door handle put back on?

Is there broken metal? Plastic, is it just a broken bolt?

Is it the interior handle or the exterior handle? I’m assuming the interior handle because I think you would have to have super mega muscles to rip off the exterior handle, but you never know.

ITS THE EXTERIOR. Isn’t that crazy?

@XOIIO It’s all plastic. Not a broken bolt….literally like the bottom of the handle that attaches to the door just broke off from itself.

@deni O.K. You’re freakishly strong, but are you handy with those super hands? Or your bf?

Here’s how to do it yourself, if you are. :-) LOL. Good luck! It’s a pretty complicated repair. Those instructions are for the drivers side but I imagine the passenger side isn’t too much different.

I can’t tell you how much it’s going to cost, but from looking at the instructions, I have this very bad feeling that it’s going to be pretty pricy. There’s a lot of disassembly and reassembly involved, of all sorts of parts and mechanisms. The handle parts themselves probably won’t be that much, though I am always astonished at how much parts cost. But it’s a very complicated, labor intensive repair. Labor costs money.

@lillycoyote Fuck!!!!!!!!!!! That’s kind of what I thought. Even though it’s so simple and nonessential, it is kind of a nuisance to open it the way it is now. THere’s a little piece of plastic you can pull, but it’ll probably be really hard in the winter with gloves on…..dammit.

Go to a junk yard and get the whole door. It will probably end up being easier to install the door than just the handle. And if you go to a junk yard cheaper.

@deni Also, I looked into this and though it wasn’t standard, front, side impact airbags were available as optional equipment on the 2000 Camry. Is there an airbag in the front passenger door? That could complicate things, as if they weren’t already complicated enough.

@lillycoyote Ooo. I have no idea….I thought the airbag was in the steering wheel?!??!? Don’t stone me if I’m wrong….if I am, I’ve been completely misinformed for years. Why would it be in the door? That seems bizarrrrrre.

They started making side impact airbags not too long ago. They are meant to protect you if you get T-boned.

@deni Some cars have a lot of airbags. Most have them in the steering wheel and on the passenger side dashboard. Lots of cars, later model ones, airbags in the steering wheel, passenger dashboard and have “side impact” airbags in the doors, in the front or I think even, front and rear. So, you can be be protected it you get sideswiped or T-boned, as @WestRiverrat mentions. Front side impact airbags were optional equipment on the 2000 Camry.

Oh! That makes total sense. I was thinking you meant in the door instead of in front of you. I was like “hm.”

LOL. I thought maybe that’s what you were thinking: “Well, then why not put the airbag in the trunk for all the good one in the passenger side door is going to do you in an accident? Why bother with an airbag at all even? :-)