I just wanted to comment great job and great explaination! My 2011 2500HD Denali, with only/28k miles just broke today.The door handle is on the pass. side & literally hasn't been opened more then 100 times. I plan on fixing it rather then buying another cheaply and poorly made design that will eventually fail again. Shame on GM for not recalling these handles, it is probably one of the most common failures on several makes and models of GM vehicles from all the research I have done. I have an 03 Lexus GX with a very similar design that has 250k on it and no issues! Gotta love Japanese quality and ingenuity over the greedy American companies that outsource everything to save a buck nowadays. On a side note, how long has your American ingenuity of the safety wire held up so far? I bet its still going strong!!! I'll be doing mine tomorrow! Anyway, Thanks again and give your self a pat on the back brother!!
Mitchell D I actually repaired the one on the drivers door several years ago with the wire. It is a daily driver and receives a lot of use every day. I did it while I was waiting for the new one I had ordered to arrive. Now I have two new handles sitting in my garage since I don’t feel like changing them out until they quit again.
Cesar Perez you can sometimes use a pair of needle nose pliers or even a coat hanger to reach in and grab the latch rod then open the door by pushing it down. If not you may be able to still remove the door panel by flipping the seat to access it and once off grabbing the rod to open the door. Worst case you may need to remove the seat to get access to the door panel.
