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I just took my 2010 c300 and I was told it will cost about $1440 for this small piece of junk handle. I was not happy for sure. I have to find someone to get this thing fixed but I am not paying 1440! how outragous. the people at the dealer looked at me like whatever. some other sucker will come back and pay it.
I am so damned sick of rolling down my window and having to open my door from the outside handle! Not to mention, embarrassing haha. Guess what? Same problem with my 2010 c300. And to think I had scheduled the $159 appointment for MB dealer to open the door to see what happened. Like they don't already know. Cancelled that $1500 appointment and am going to attempt repair myself. Hell, I may event document it for YouTube to to give back. If it works out ill post the link. Btw, this happened to me at a drive up ATM machine. Had the window down and elbow over the door lock and couldn't reach. Attempted to open door with same arm while elbow was still over the door lock and snap! Kinda felt I was an idiot until I read just how weak the design of the inside latch is. Thanks everyone.
ya I was sick of rolling the window to open the door too. I took it to MB of stevens creek in san jose, CA and they want to charge me for Tirm Drive, screws, bolts , ornament and few hours of labor at 200/hour (I should go work there if they pay their people $200/hour).
and $15 later and about 3 hours of amateur work with a friend and we got it working like a charm. good luck to you. it was not bad but I am somewhat mechanically challenged :-).
Last edited by blanche_n; 07-20-2015 at 12:27 AM.
Reason: dont worry about breaking the panel-retainer little screw-like (near top left edge of panel), it can be replaced for $2.
do you have a link to video for panel removal. I just had the same damn problem happen to me. This should really be a safety issue. What if this happened to one of my kids when they are in a wreck or someone tries to car jack them.
but I skipped the step for door handle grabber, for my model we don't have to remove that. also I don't think we need to remove the door stopper screw either.
get from Oreilley or car shop a plastic tool to pop the panel open (it is like $12) the rest I got from home depot.. I dont like metal tools as the whole interior is plastic as you will see.
the only sticky part was the one screw-like near the door open/close button. I broke it because I dont want to get special tool . it is called panel retainer. everyone sells it.
good luck..
hope this helps someone - dealer wanted $650 for the whole panel and junkyards wanted $300 so we embarked on this adventure too. The 2-washer thing didn't work out for us since we couldn't slide the peg through it all, so we came up with this:
Seems to hold pretty well so far.
As for the door panel removal, the above video is slightly different for the C300. Used this instead: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4y.../view?ths=true (the black plastic peg (rivet) in pic 3 can indeed be re-used - pop it back out into 2 pieces with a screwdriver from the top or bottom hole).
Also you should have this set as it is a cheap investment going forward:
I went on You Tube and find your video how to open the door panel. My C300 2010 took literally 5 min to open up very easy! My mechanic said 1 hr yeah OK ! Once opened i saw where the handle was broken see attaced pics. Get yourself a 2 part epoxy and make the fix keeping in mind there is a little white swivel where the cable connects to the handle that needs to move. Not a big deal just take your time. The fix will be stronger then the origional handle!! $1200 !!! Yeah kiss my A$$!!! Total cost for MY fix $4.53
If the other side breaks no problem. I cant believe MB has no options for small pieces what happens when the window switch stops working have to buy the whole doop panel!!! These cars are great but give me a break!!
The driver side handle broke on my 2010 C300 after around 50,000 miles. It sheared near the pivot point unlike several of the earlier posts that broke where the cable attaches to the handle. I was able to use a 2 part epoxy to reattach it then followed that with an application of Q bond for additional strength. I sanded all four sides of the handle to scarify the surface before applying the Q bond and it seems to be holding. This appears to be a good product and is easy to apply. There is a chemical reaction that creates what looks like a weld at the joint.
I used the washer idea which worked great but I placed the washer on the bottom and the wire/plastic "white lamp shade" part attached to the exterior door going North from the bottom through the washer. Unfortunately, I did not disconnect the door originally so I found once I popped the door panel back on that I was maybe 2mm south of where the metal mechanism needed to be in order to properly open. So I attempted to take off the interior door panel and the door handle with the super glued washer over the "white lamp shade" plastic part attached to the wire and the door plastic interior handle came off but the metal washer is stuck on the plastic lamp shade part attached to the exterior door lock wiring. Well its gets better I asked my husband for help as I wasnt strong enough to use the metal wire clippers and he bent the washer onto and into (severly) the plastic lamp shade part. The small white plastic lamp shade part is no longer salvageable and the metal washer is now ground into to Im not sure how far but I dont think the metal end attached directly to the door lock wire is damaged. Do you know where I can buy that little plastic white part? Also, will I break anything if I take the plastic part off? One of the top three pieces has been ripped off as well. It needs to be replaced but I dont want any further damage to that area. Help?!?!?! Thank you. (See post above by someone else for view of little white plastic lamp shade part)
Last edited by Kristen Kroon; 12-05-2016 at 10:29 PM.
Just wanted to say thank you for posting this fix. I just used it to fix my 2010 C300 drivers door. Total cost for my fix was $20CDN. Took the panel off, brought it in out of the cold. Used JB Weld Plastic Bond, let it set overnight and put it back together. Thank you for saving me $1200 plus dollars.
Zip ties work at least for as long as I did my cheap fix
This literally took me 5 minutes to fix on my W204 C63 AMG with only 25¢ cost to me. I literally took the two torx screws out pulled off the panel, disconnected the two harnesses and used 2 high strength zip ties and some super glue to hold them in place. Good as new. Hope this helps others who don't wanna spend $1500 on a new panel when you spent 60k on a nice car that has plastic holding it's handles that clearly will not last
I have seen the handle being for sale for about a year now.
It does require bit of work to replace it.
Definitely better then ordering a color matching panel from the dealer. https://www.ieworksusa.com/collections/interior-handles
Here's a good one. Not only have I had the door handle snap and had to repair it myself, I've now had the wire cable that attaches to the handle also snap.... seems like no matter what i try my c350 just wants to make me cry!
To anyone that may need to buy a drivers side door. I have one for a 2014 C300. It is black. It has never been out of the box. The dealer charged me $811. I would like to get $525 for it. If interested please reply and we can exchange information by private email.