CFOinC204

Hello all,

New to the Benz world after 9 years with Bimmer's. My lease was up and with the full make over not out till late 2013, I did not want to lease a new car this year just to be driving an old car next year. Benz has come a very long way and I am loving the car. I just completed my first upgrade, I could not believe how ugly/cheap the factory door lock/pins....

I scanned Ebay for a new set and wasn't sold on any of the options... I would not put AMG pins on a non AMG. I ordered these for twenty bucks and could not be happier with the end product. Great quality and 10 minutes to install. www.formymercedes.com Highly recommend them.

AV1

Congrats on the new car and worthwhile 1st mod, I've done the same on mine

Even if they were AMG pins, it's almost impossible to see the AMG logo on them anyway as it's so small and if you have lots of AMG extra options on the interior anyway, AMG door pins wouldn't stand out of place

bhcubed

I just ordered a set of these for myself. Just a quick question though, do they just screw off by hand or did you have to use a wrench or something?

Thanks,
Bill

CFOinC204

Hi Bill,

The only thing required is a pliers and a thin towel to wrap the original pin to protect it from the pliers. Unlock the doors and roll down the windows - it's easier to unscrew the pins if you're not bumping the window.

Lay a thin cloth over the door pin, double it up if you're not sure it's thick enough to protect the pin.

Grasp the pin with the pliers from the side and twist counter-clockwise (lefty loosey). It will take 4-5 'hard' turns before you can finish with your fingers. Continue turning until the pin turns off the top of the inner screw.

Drop the replacement pins onto the top of the original screw post now exposed in the door frame. You can reattach it by hand and tighten until it no longer turns.

Finish the tightening with ~1 more complete rotation with the pliers (again using the towel to protect the door pin).

AV1

If I may add to the above, it will depend on the individual door pins both in your vehicle and from one vehicle to another, ie. it depends on how hard they were fitted or fastened from factory.

In my case the drivers side definitely required the above procedure with tools to remove, the passenger side was easily removed by hand only, I then replaced both by hand without needing to tighten with any tools.

I've also read from some other people that this was also the case, the majority I've seen though did require tools (pliers) to remove, if that's the case follow the procedure above by CFOinC204

bhcubed

Thanks for the info guys.

anonymousmoose

Sometimes the tiny mods make a good difference. I had a Holden (GM) car and upgraded the door handles from plastic to chrome... gave the cabin nice feel.

AV1

Completely agree, the door pins small as they are make a noticeable difference to the door interior finish compared to the black plastic pins.

Speaking of the above I had an old Holden (Opel) Calibra and colour coded the exterior door handles and it looked miles better compared to the plain black hard plastic finish

On our MB's exterior door handles I also like the better look of the chrome trimmings added to them as part of the keyless or comfort access package, it adds a nice touch of class to the door handles

CFOinC204

This is the first vehicle I've ever changed the door pins on, it is amazing how such a small part could bother me that much. I guess it's safe to say
we're pretty lucky if this is what we are complaining about. lol

UCSD_C350

My girlfriend recently picked up a coupe and the first thing she complained about were the door pins (coming from an A4 which has no door pins).

Definitely will be picking these up for hers and mine and hopingto score some points in the process

AV1

LOL sounds good.

It will definitely fix up the look your wanting in that area

bhcubed

Thanks to CFOinC204 for originally posting this. I got my set in the mail yesterday, and installed them today. I definitely had to use pliers to get the stock ones off, and the driver's side was on a little tighter than the passenger's side too. I found that wrapping the pliers themselves rather than the lock pin gave me a better grip, and caused less damage. I mangled the driver's side up pretty good, lol. I also noticed that the thread that the door pins screws onto is kind of flimsy and wiggled around quite a bit in the hole. Is that normal? The new lock pins definitely look way better than the stock ones. Very fast shipping by the way from www.formymercedes.com .

AV1

AFAIK that should not be normal - probably a case of aftermarket brands not made to tight OEM specs maybe ??

The ones I used are AMG units and they threaded on perfectly, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts I didn't have to use any tools to get them on perfectly.

Not to worry though as long as they're now on, all's good

pparker1213

Here's a warning for anyone trying this - Apparently I squeezed to hard on the pin. I grabbed it with pliers while it was wrapped as others suggested and turned it 2-3 times. Let go and tried by hand and still tight. Then I noticed it was falling down into the hole. I did get a hold of it and pull it up but it seems that somehow the rod has either broken or become disconnected for whatever it connects to. I believe it is disconnected after looking at a .pdf of the door panel removal found on this site.
The door lock no longer works and the rod is twisted funny. I decided to stop trying to turn it off.

I moved to the driver's door and took a razor knife and carefully cut a line the length of the existing pin. Then pried it apart a little and loosened it enough to unscrew by hand. That one is installed and working fine but the passenger one is going to require a trip to the body shop for someone else to remove the door panel and reattach the rod.

Lesson learned here. A $20 cosmetic addition is going to cost me more than I anticipated. Maybe should have left well enough alone.