Thank you very much for the post. Great pictures as well.

I just fixed my door last night. We had a heavy rainfall followed by a deep freeze and I could only get into my car from the back doors. I believe the problem is the door handle carrier. Picture

Water penetrates from the outer cable due to a nipple which has a flat top. The newer assembly has a rounded nipple which you can see in the picture. When I took mine apart the assembly was in perfect condition and my car is 10 years old. I smeared the end with grease, so we'll see if that fixes the problem. If not, I'll have to replace it or try to find a new cover.

One other thing, I looked at some after market replacement parts and most of them still have the flat top nipple. The only I saw that doesn't is one made from EZ.

EZ Door handle carrier