This is easy to rectify, isn't it?

Gimme a clue.

 

I can't stand things that rattle on a car....and my driver side door handle was doing that. There is a small spring that breaks...and causes the door handle to rattle. So, I bought a new door handle...now it's like a new car

 

Yup, its that damn spring that fell out on my passenger side.

 

Check if your spring is broken / still even there by pulling on the handle while looking under it, you can see the groove where it is supposed to be.

Does the door handle still spring back closed? That would mean the springs good too.

If everything looks good there, and it is still rattling, I would put my money on the two bolts inside that hold the handle on have loosened up / fallen out and you've got to take the door panel off to check for that.

 

Cool. I'll check these things out.

I found a TGO article about 4th gen handles and wondered if anyone had just gone to the dealer and grabbed some of these for replacement.

Do you have to take the interior door panels off the car to get to the hardware that holds the handle together?

 

Yeah, you do have to remove the door panel to access the mounting hardware for the handle...two nuts and one nylon clip thingy for the rod.

If you go through the trouble of taking the panel off to replace the handle, you might as well help to eliminate other rattles while you are in there. I lubed as many contact points for the various rods as I could find with silicone grease, and covered them all with vacuum hose that I split down the middle and then slid over them. I also found my door structure had two cracks, around the window motor rivets, from stress. Had them MIGed. Had to secure some wiring that was flopping around, too. Lastly, I found that one of the rubber insulators for the window down-travel regulator had broken and fallen off, so I made a new one. All kinds of stuff to do inside those doors!

 

~groan~

Thanks Bull.