ebay CRAP chinese door handles, adjusting striker arm

After years of dicking with my el cheapo ebay door handles....I think I've figured out the problem...

I'm pretty sure VW no longer makes B4 door handles and all that is available are the cheap CRAP brand (Chinese replacement auto parts)...

I replaced my pax handle years ago only to find they work like crap since the arm that pushes down on the door release is poorly aligned and just misses the release tab...I tried solving the problem by slipping a piece of fuel hose over the plastic pad to make it big enough to strike the opening mechanism....well it works ok for a while but tends to fall of or note quite reach after a while...frustrated yanking eventually breaks the door handle...

Put another cheap door handle...same problem...the arm that pushes door the release tab is always mis-aligned when compared to OEM VW...they apparently are all like that...

anyway I suddenly noticed that the metal is fairly soft on the Chinese handles...I decided to clamp the base of the arm in my bench vice and tried to re-bend the striking end to match the OEM handles...some trial an error and it suddenly works just like it should...

time will tell if the metal doesn't break from my re-alignment but for now it appears you can "tweak" the CRAP ebay handles to work correctly...

Why not buy used OE handles?

Can the lever on the striker box be bent, for better contact? It seems like it’d be pretty bendable, yet strong.

-Todd

used OEM handles don't seem to pop up too often on ebay (my go-to place for hard to find used parts) and any used handle is probably getting fatigued anyway

and the brand new Chinese stuff was like $15 bucks or something insanely cheap like that...

I think I tried bending the striker box thing once but decided it was too hard...I'd rather mess up a cheap replaceable door handle than ruin the OEM latch...

fortunately all the other doors are still OEM

Bumping for the topic of cheap-ass door handles.

I finished destroying my front passenger's door handle, so I just swapped the rear right handle up there and bought a cheap one for the rear door. I never use the key on that side anyway.

The eBay Bulgarian handle showed up after almost two weeks, and it's definitely crappy. The little plastic striker pin missed the door-open lever entirely, so I drilled and tapped an M4 hole beside the one already there and put in a cap screw. It actually works now, but I should have gone even further over. It's also complicated because I have to remove the door panel and depress the lever while putting the handle in place, otherwise I can't stick the screw out far enough for it to actually open the door.

Photo for the interested.



It's rough as hell and I have to push the handle back in when I'm done, but it cost $16 and does work. Somewhat.

Makes you wish you would have stock piled about 50 driver's door handles when these cars were new(ish), doesn't it?

Frustrating.