Just replaced the driver interior door handle on my 2010 Fusion. Poor design. Easy to replace and saved myself $115 for 30 minutes worth of work. Check out the Fusion forum at the link before for the simple walk-through. When I spoke to the parts counter guy, he told me that he has already sold 29 handles by mid-year. http://www.fordfusionclub.com/showthread.php?t=363175&page=2
Thin plastic lever used to actuate latch snaps off. Interesting how they did it, but no reinforcement, and using plastic leads to premature failure, and a potentially dangerous situation not being able to open the door from the inside.
So the pull handle actually stress cracks and breaks after not much usage? I wonder if the design on my Edge is the same....?
What happened to the time when they actually tested car parts like a million times to see how they held up? Oh right, they need equipment and people to do that. A waste of money. Guess it's cheaper to be sued and have a million recalls. The only reason I've ever replaced the handles on my old cars was because they corroded and got pits. They all still worked. But they weren't plastic either.
Hell, I've had metal ones break. But that's why that combo window smasher hammer/belt cutter was invented. And, as always, in a non-emergency situation, you roll the window down and unlatch the door from the outside.
Unless you have power windows and the power system is compromised in the accident. Krash, it looked to be a clean break. The shape of the "lever" part of the arm is flat and stays in the same plane. I could easily see how it would look like it shouldn't be an issue on paper, but the frequency of failures I'm guessing will only climb as these vehicles get older. My vehicle has about 75,000 miles on it which is pretty early for this type of failure in my opinion. But, couple that with the fact that my commute is 23 miles one-way, and it is WAY early. 29 failures in less than 6 months out of one dealership, in a moderately populated area. I wonder how many times these have had to be replaced over the last couple years across the country, and still no recall??? Cat, they will only have a recall when the bean counters decide the potential lawsuits will be more expensive than the recall. Every day that passes, a few more cars are off the road due to miles or accidents and the cost of a recall drops. Anyhow, if you find you are having issues with your lock and door doesn't want to open, this is probably your problem as the piece that breaks off moves up and obstructs the lock mechanism.
That's why you have the hammer/cutter, for emergency situations. A collision could jam one or both doors. In normal circumstances, that's why you'd roll the window down.
