2008 Gmc 2500hd..this Sucks!

[cajunman]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

[pm26]

Your best bet is to find a good used panel from a wrecking yard. Are you sure that panel is $ 600 new? Maybe that quote is the retail price and it includes 2 hours of labor at $ 100/hour to install it? You can easily do this yourself. And you can get the panel cheaper than at retail price. My local dealer gives me at least 20% off retail on all GM parts.

[cajunman]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

 

 

Update, The dealership called the gm rep. and they decided to cover the cost of replacing the panel. I'm extremely happy about that!!! But i'm still not happy about the engineering that went into the inner door handle that you have to replace the whole inside panel and not just the inner door handle. Sure hope it doesn't break again.

[old-chevy-dude]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

 

 

Update, The dealership called the gm rep. and they decided to cover the cost of replacing the panel. I'm extremely happy about that!!! But i'm still not happy about the engineering that went into the inner door handle that you have to replace the whole inside panel and not just the inner door handle. Sure hope it doesn't break again.

 

 

 

nice of the dealer to step up..

 

however you can buy just the interior door handle:

 

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/2008/gmc/...atch_cable.html

 

 

GM might not service it separately , however the aftermarket world does.

[cajunman]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

 

 

Update, The dealership called the gm rep. and they decided to cover the cost of replacing the panel. I'm extremely happy about that!!! But i'm still not happy about the engineering that went into the inner door handle that you have to replace the whole inside panel and not just the inner door handle. Sure hope it doesn't break again.

 

 

 

nice of the dealer to step up..

 

however you can buy just the interior door handle:

 

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/2008/gmc/...atch_cable.html

 

 

GM might not service it separately , however the aftermarket world does.

 

 

 

Sorry, perhaps i didn't explain the problem correctly. The problem is not the handle itself, but the inside mechanism that opens it. In the old days you had metal rods that operated the linkage to open the door, on the newer trucks it is now a cable system. You have a cable with a ball on the end of it, and it fits into a cradle on the inside door handle mechanism, the cradle that holds that little cable ball is made out of cheap pot metal, and that is what broke. The problem is you can't replace the mechanism as it is held to the inside door panel not by screws or bolts, but by 4 plastic 1 inch long tits that are melted down to hold the handle mechanism in place. so even if you cut the melted plastic tits off and got the mechanism out, there would be no way to reinstall a new one, hence that is why the whole door panel needs to be replaced to correct the problem. Thanks for trying to help though

[old-chevy-dude]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

 

 

Update, The dealership called the gm rep. and they decided to cover the cost of replacing the panel. I'm extremely happy about that!!! But i'm still not happy about the engineering that went into the inner door handle that you have to replace the whole inside panel and not just the inner door handle. Sure hope it doesn't break again.

 

 

 

nice of the dealer to step up..

 

however you can buy just the interior door handle:

 

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/2008/gmc/...atch_cable.html

 

 

GM might not service it separately , however the aftermarket world does.

 

 

 

Sorry, perhaps i didn't explain the problem correctly. The problem is not the handle itself, but the inside mechanism that opens it. In the old days you had metal rods that operated the linkage to open the door, on the newer trucks it is now a cable system. You have a cable with a ball on the end of it, and it fits into a cradle on the inside door handle mechanism, the cradle that holds that little cable ball is made out of cheap pot metal, and that is what broke. The problem is you can't replace the mechanism as it is held to the inside door panel not by screws or bolts, but by 4 plastic 1 inch long tits that are melted down to hold the handle mechanism in place. so even if you cut the melted plastic tits off and got the mechanism out, there would be no way to reinstall a new one, hence that is why the whole door panel needs to be replaced to correct the problem. Thanks for trying to help though

 

 

 

sure you can replace it.. cut the ends of the stupid tits off and use shallow self tapping screws into the posts the tits were melted from..

 

it is done all the time customizing door panels for show sound systems, or to paint them, or suede wrap them, or whatever..

 

 

I understand your point, and I agree it is a stupid design and cheap materical, but I was taught to think outside the box and that anything is repairable.

[cajunman]

MY inside drivers door handle broke yesterday. Took it to the dealership today and they told me the whole inside door panel needs to be replaced at a cost of over $600.00 seems they just can't replace the door handle the whole inside panel is needed to fix this. My gripe is this, the truck is 6 months out of warranty, and it is obivious the part where the cable ball fits into the inner door handle was made out of cheap pot metal that broke. I had a 1995 gmc truck before and the inner door handle broke and the part only cost like $30.00 bucks to fix. So they are telling me that in 16years, they still can't design a inner door handle that won't break when opening your door. Sorry for the rant, but i had to get it off my chest. Also a heads up to anyone else whose door handle may break. Is there anyone i cant contact at gm to talk to them about my problem?

 

 

Update, The dealership called the gm rep. and they decided to cover the cost of replacing the panel. I'm extremely happy about that!!! But i'm still not happy about the engineering that went into the inner door handle that you have to replace the whole inside panel and not just the inner door handle. Sure hope it doesn't break again.

 

 

 

nice of the dealer to step up..

 

however you can buy just the interior door handle:

 

http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/2008/gmc/...atch_cable.html

 

 

GM might not service it separately , however the aftermarket world does.

 

 

 

Sorry, perhaps i didn't explain the problem correctly. The problem is not the handle itself, but the inside mechanism that opens it. In the old days you had metal rods that operated the linkage to open the door, on the newer trucks it is now a cable system. You have a cable with a ball on the end of it, and it fits into a cradle on the inside door handle mechanism, the cradle that holds that little cable ball is made out of cheap pot metal, and that is what broke. The problem is you can't replace the mechanism as it is held to the inside door panel not by screws or bolts, but by 4 plastic 1 inch long tits that are melted down to hold the handle mechanism in place. so even if you cut the melted plastic tits off and got the mechanism out, there would be no way to reinstall a new one, hence that is why the whole door panel needs to be replaced to correct the problem. Thanks for trying to help though

 

 

 

sure you can replace it.. cut the ends of the stupid tits off and use shallow self tapping screws into the posts the tits were melted from..

 

it is done all the time customizing door panels for show sound systems, or to paint them, or suede wrap them, or whatever..

 

 

I understand your point, and I agree it is a stupid design and cheap materical, but I was taught to think outside the box and that anything is repairable.

 

 

Thanks for your input. Believe me if they wouldn't of replaced the panel for free, i was gonna try and find a way to rig it to work. No way was i gonna give them $600.00 FOR A DOOR PANEL.