Porsche 944 Door Handle Broken - Unable to Open Door

A common fault with the Porsche 944 is that the door handle mechanism can break so that the door won't open from outside any more. There is a metal piece that holds the ball joint in place that breaks and therefore stops the door from opening outside the car but it can still be done from inside.

The replacement part is around £12 from a Porsche dealer and slightly more from Ebay. I've added a video to YouTube showing the layout of the inside of the door lock mechanism but the steps needed are fairly straightforward.

• Remove door card
• Remove window regulator mechanism leaving one bolt to pivot
• Drop window glass to give access to guide rail
• Remove window guide rail to give access to rear of the door handle
• Identify which part of lock has failed
• Remove door handle using single screw on edge of door frame

Once you have the parts removed it's a fairly easy process to remove the door handle and fit the new ball joint mechanism or refit a loose part that has become detached. It might sound like seriously involved job to remove the door mechanism and window but it's actually reasonably quick to do and reassemble once you've seen how it works. I've done it and refitted in the space of around 2 hours.