by peeler » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:41 pm
If you need to remove the door card or panel on your car then take your time and read through these instructions before taking the job on so you have a good idea of how to do this, you may need someone to help you as you take the door panel off as getting the wires disconnected can be hard to do on your own so help is usefull.
Take your time and remember where all the parts go and you should then have no problems.
This is only a guide and some items may vary depending on year so please remember this.
If you are unsure what you are doing then please leave this to someone who has some idea of what they are doing.
Its not a very difficult job to do but it can be a bit fiddly so dont rush and you should find you will do this no problem
1) Take off the tweeter (triangular thing). It is simply clipped on and will come off relatively easily. Pinch inward and pull out.
2) Then proceed to roll down the window ALL THE WAY. This will prevent you from scratching or shattering the window if a tool slips. Next, pop off the window and lock control panel (with a flat-head screw driver) off the door panel (it is simply clipped in with 2 metal tabs on each side to hold it in) to reveal the inside of the door and ONE LARGE SCREW.
3) Start to take off the door panel screws. From what I remember, these are the screws and their locations: (in order) a) Small screw holding in door handle cover. (this removes the protective door handle thing)(the protective thing needs to be removed: simply pull on the handle while slipping the cover out.) b) Large screw under the handle of the door. (this will loosen the whole panel) c) Large screw UNDER the reflector plate on the door. You will have to take off the reflector in order to gain access to this screw. CAUTION: the reflector is VERY fragile and can crack easily. (this will loosen the whole panel) d) Large screw right behind the window controls. (this will disconnect the whole panel from the door itself.
DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE PANEL WITHOUT REMOVING ALL THE SCREWS AND THE PROTECTIVE PLATE!!!
4)Well, first off, the panel will not be able to come off without disconnecting the door control panel. Since you already popped off the window controls, all you need to do is disconnect the adapter that the wires plug into. On the passenger side, this is easy, simply pinch in on the two connectors and pull out. These "ribbons" may need a bit of convincing, but they DO come off. The driver's side electronics are EXTREMELY complex and are EXTREMELY hard to take off, to tell you the truth
I found this easy with two people.
5) Now for the hardest part, taking off the door panel itself. The whole panel is held on by white PLASTIC bolts that are ribbed. These bolts can be pretty annoying, but secure the door quite well. First, I started by the tweeter. There should be a small space where you can fit a hand in and start pulling. DO NOT PULL OR TRY TO PULL ALONG THE TOP OF THE DOOR, START YOUR HAND ON THE TOP BY THE TWEETER AND WORK YOUR WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE TWEETER SIDE (while hand still between the panel and the door itself). THEN START PULLING ONCE YOU ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DOOR PANEL. As you work your hand down the door, you might here a sound of breaking plastic, this is what you are looking for. The ribbed bolts are being pulled out of their holes. Eventually, once a majorority of a side is out, it will make it MUCH MUCH easier to pull the remaining bolts out. Once you get the hang of hearing the bolts come out, and you are able to get a bigger grip on the panel, the whole door will eventually POP off. Now that it is popped, lift the panel up and it then should come off cleanly.
to put the door card on just do this in revers making sure all the wires are connected securely
