Sticky Exterior Door Handles - What to Lube With? (1 Viewer)

[04UZJ100]

As the title says - the exterior door handles on my LX don’t always spring back to their resting position on their own. Years of glacial dust worked it’s way in. What sort of lubricant can I spray on the mechanism from the exterior?

I was thinking about white lithium grease?

 

[umarali]

my 2008 lx is showing same signs on one door. it doesnt bother me too much but smooth function wud def be nice

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

From some past experiences, I’ve started with a PTFE dry lube.

If that didn’t work well for long, I went to SuperLube (superlube is also dielectric, and great for all those connectors).

if that doesn’t handle it long enough, silicon gel from a tube can be globbed on.

then ‘ol faithful white lithium grease has helped.

I feel like each one has its own balance of not attracting too much dust/not lasting long enough. And I’ve switched between them based on my environment and the type and use of the latch. I personably don’t any one perfect on, but I’d love it if someone found on.

 

[finboy]

Using the search function and bumping, are you guys lubing the hinge portion or the side that levers out?

Passenger rear, can’t decide if it’s the rubber catching or the handle propper

 

[bloc]

Using the search function and bumping, are you guys lubing the hinge portion or the side that levers out?

Passenger rear, can’t decide if it’s the rubber catching or the handle propper

View attachment 3569401
View attachment 3569402

On my friend’s LX it was the rubber part.. there is a very small flap that reaches inside the door around where the handle does, and that flap had pulled out letting the black rubber part that is visible pull out slightly. This was binding. We’d reset the little flap a couple times but it always came back out. What fixed it for him was cleaning behind the rubber, resetting the flap, then putting a little RTV between the rubber and door to prevent it pulling away and pulling the flap out. Since then no problems.

I know this is hard to relay via text but if it’s totally baffling let me know and I’ll try to get some pictures.

 

[Cmock13]

Please take some pictures. I'm having the same problem on mine.

 

[bloc]

The little flap that hooks behind the dirty white metal in this picture. On my friend’s LX the larger gasket had pulled out at some point then that flap folded flat against the outside. This made the flap bulge out and catch the handle extension..

So peel the gasket back slightly and see if that flap is still hooked around the back, or smashed flat.

Before the silicon we just re-hooked the flap, but it kept coming back out.

Next idea was clean the area well (as you can see it gets gunk), use an o-ring pick to get the flap in the correct spot, then put a little dab of clear silicon between the larger gasket and painted surface. On both sides actually. I think it’s been a couple years now without issue.

Edit: whoa that picture is way worse than the one I took. I'll try to fix that.

 

[grinchy]

I’ve now got 3 of 4 sticky. All started in the last six months.
I’m thinking I’ll start with superlube.