MrFunk

While my car was parked at the airport in VIP parking they had to move it for some reason.
The towing company broke into the car to release the parking brake - which I'm not happy about.
While breaking in they broke the interior door handle in half. Snapped it. They are paying for the repair.
My question is - is it just the handle that needs replacing or is it an entire mechanism? How easy is this repair? Something I should be able to do?

GuthNW

Man, that really sucks. You might find that replacing the handle alone fixes the problem. But I'd think that you won't know what all was impacted until you've actually attempted to fix the problem. If they applied enough force to break your handle there's no telling what other damage might have possibly been done. I'd want to try and fix something like that myself if the handle broke while I was using it. But there's always a chance that some clips or other parts might end up needing to be replaced as well. So in this particular case if you know of a competent shop to carry out the work you might be better off taking your car to them and having the towing company pay the complete bill if they'll agree to such a thing. If you were legally parked and the towing company caused the damage while breaking into your car then I'd think that they should definitely be paying for all costs incurred by you in having the repairs made.

hoobastnk90

This handle looks almost identical to the one on my eg civic as wierd as that sounds and my handle broke and i ended up having to order the mechanism and it was a pretty easy fix took me about half an hour.

Fokker

You will need to replace the mechanism which includes the lock. It's pretty easy, though it takes some maneuvering to get the linkage threaded into the lock switch.

MrFunk

Thanks
The towing company owner called and was very apologetic. They are covering it all so I'll have the shop that worked on the car last do the work. As of now they just ordered the handle and surround but if they dig in and more is damaged they will of course fix it.
What sucks is that they also jacked up my window tint so that will need re-tinting (towing paying that too). PITA cause this is going to waste hours of my time too.

cosmomiller

You need to take a closer look at your car from the undercarriage and exterior. As you may be aware, the only way to tow this car is on a flatbed. Literally towing it (not on a flatbed) can cause damage to whatever they attached to on the car. The amount of force they used to tighten straps can deform suspension components that were not designed for side loads. It may affect handling. In addition, the body could have been scrapped on the pavement. I recall Billman stating he has always noted damage on any S that was towed to his shop even if a flatbed. Most flatbeds will improperly drag the car on the flatbed and in the best case scenario the lips and bumper get scrapped.