I have a 01 tribute. My outside drivers door handle broke a couple months ago then two weeks later my passengers outside handle broke so I had to reach up from the back seat to open my front doors. Then today my inside drivers door handle broke. The mazda dealer can order them but not in my matching color they don't make them anymore and the outside handles have to be painted to match. It is looking costly. We are mechanically inclined but need a diagram or something of the way the outside handle hooks up there are some springs and things and the dealer will not assist at all the say we have to bring it in and pay them 185 to fix. Please help
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To fix the inner door handle I followed the advice of tonyp and it worked great. I used a spare screw from an old electrical outlet it is 3/4 inch long with a 1/8 inch diameter. The screw head fits in the top of the plastic mechanism as if it was made for it - no grinding down required. The whole job took twenty minutes. I had tried temporary fixes before with duct tape but the screw fix seems like it will last better than the original or any replacement part and it is free! Thanks Tony.
I too had my driver's side door handle fail recently. I ended up at a local Mazda/Toyota junk yard for a cheap ($25) replacement door handle assembly from another '01 Tribute. As soon as I got it home, the same broken part fell out of it!!!!!
Needless to say, I took it back and they gave me one from an '02 Tribute. It is much sturdier than the '01 part and the piece that broke off the first two is at least twice as wide as the original. Perhaps that will last as long as I own the car! Lesson learned - don't use a junk yard part if it's from another '01 Tribute!
The fix that Tonyp suggested is quite clever and I would have probably tried that if I couldn't find a junk yard part. He was most courteous in exchanging a few emails to help me understand his fix better so I can use it in the future, if necessary. He doesn't even own a Tribute any longer but was kind enough to still offer assistance!
I have been using my thumb for the past two years to push the locking mechanism to open the driver side door on my 01 Tribute. I refused to pay almost $ 200 the stealership when I called for a quote. Until this morning, I was browsing through the forum and came across the broken handle thread and saw the the clever post by tonyp. I tried it and it worked. It took me less than 15 mins for the process.
3 Broken handles
Inner door handle fix
