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Next comes the hard part. You will be doing this blind, and in cramped quarters, so be prepared for a lot of screwing around. Reach into that hole, find the two rods that connect the door handle and lock cylinder to the latch mechanism itself. The first rod you feel is the one for the door handle. Grab it and lift upwards. This will unlatch the door. I highly recommend wearing long sleeves because the door, inner panel, and trim panel will try to eat your arm alive.
With the door open, unplug the window and lock switches and fully remove the door panel. Next, remove this little plastic plug next to the opening in the inner door panel. If you have dexterous fingers you can do the rest of this job with the inner door panel in place. Just be careful not to drop anything into the door. Leaving the inner panel in place will make the work a bit more difficult, but it will save at least an hour of screwing around with all of the window bits attached to this panel. Also, this inner panel is a vapor barrier, so it is sealed to the door frame itself and that butyl seal will have to be replaced if you rip it off.
This hole allows you to unbolt the security panel inside the door. This simple piece of metal prevents a would be thief from slim-jimming the door. Remove it with a deep socket and extension. Be careful not to drop it or the retaining bolt into the door.
Now would be a good time to either unplug the car battery, or remove the fuse for the locks. The act of removing the lock cylinder will give the power locks fits. Now, it’s time to remove the handle. Two bolts hold the handle in the door. Loosen the forward bolt (it doesn’t come out) and remove the rear bolt. The rear bolt also holds the lock cylinder in place. Twist the lock cylinder until it pops free. Finally, unclip the lock from its connecting rod and remove it.
4 comments
Wish I read this before I got this fucking mess of a car
Our Mazda5 left rear door suffered this failure. What a pain.
Good article, and applies well to my 2014, Mazda five. One point, once you take that lock cylinder out of the door and disable the automatic locks, if you lock the car there’s no other way back in.
Guess what I’m going to be doing after work tonight?
My ’14 mazda 5 door handle has broken at least 5 times in 5 years of ownership. It always breaks in the exact same spot. Such poor design…. going to try to reinforce it this time.