Has anybody tried other brand than OEM for replacing door handle.

[andrewwynn]

It's definitely a challenge to get things put together! A for effort. That's a good price, when I did my first repair the best price I saw was $85 for knock off. Also I had some spring steel 16ga wire on hand so gave it a try

The trick to replicate my repair is:

1) must get the thing clamped together with vice grips freeing up both hands.

2) find my video how to use three hands to get the spring in place. I think I literally used my chin to hold the screwdriver some times

3) the steel zip tie must go around twice through the catch

4) a shim under the zip tie to provide the final tension.

It's definitely not simple but it's doable. Feels very satisfying to pull it off.

I do recommend buying the party r from FCP before taking the door apart in case you can't repair it. I have had to replace about 2/10 that I've worked on. (usually because the part broke off that holds the handle).

I would be interested in your "core" to do future repairs if you didn't toss it out.

4/8 of mine and wife's are refurbished.

If you have one left and one right on hand you can fix any door by swapping the cable which is different front to back.

[oldskewel]

I replaced all 4 of mine with Febi, which fit well, and are all working fine after a few years so far. I then donated my 4 old ones to the AndrewWynn Wisconsin Research Labs and BMW Parts Retirement Home .

All 4 of mine had cracked at the common u-pivot thing, with one of them partially cracked through, so the U had started to open up, but the other side was hanging in there.

I did the stainless steel zip tie reinforcement on the two front ones, before they had broken. I don't think I followed the tips mentioned above, so there is more than one way to skin this cat. Mine was certainly easier to do since I was doing it on a not-yet-failed unit, as a preventive reinforcement.

One thing I did do was to remove the little steel ball in the zip tie that provides the locking mechanism - I pried it open enough to remove the ball, did all the installation wrestling (not easy), then once I had it together and wanted the zip tie to lock, I put the ball back in place, crimped a little to keep it there and called it done.

[80stech]

I'm thinking that maybe the swinging weight is there to keep the door from opening with the weight of the handle itself with impact and/or the air bag going off.