Interior Door Panel Broken, Won't Come Off, Suggestions Anyone?
 

I posted this story on a different thread, but I wanted to make a new one so people would see my problem. Here is the other post:

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....508#post277508


So, I have a rattle in my drivers side door when the window is down. If I press on the rear end of the arm rest, the noise will stop. Since I had some free time today, I decided to fix this annoyance. After looking at the instructions in the service manual, I figured I'd get started, since everything looked pretty simple.

So, I went to take off my door panel, and it wasn't five minutes before I ran into problems.

Basically, the first thing you do is pop out the cap and remove the screw that is in the drivers side door pull (not the handle, but the pocket that you use to pull the door closed). Unfortunately, my screw is somehow screwed! It was extremely tight initially, and I was thinking, "Man, the robots that assembled this door sure are strong!" Eventually I got the screw to turn, but it would never get loose. I began to have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. By this time I was getting quite annoyed and finally broke out my power drill and slowly unscrewed the screw, and still, no loosening. I then tried to tighten in again, and nothing, it would just spin. So now I'm basically stuck. I can't get the screw out to take off the F*CKING door panel and fix the rattle.

I was wondering if anyone here remembered what this screw goes into. Is it a self tapping screw into plastic? Does it screw into a little sheetmetal tab? Is there a nut on the back side that it should screw into?

I'm guessing that whatever it screws into is also rotating with the screw, and that's why I'm not making any progress.

Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I'm guessing I could try and drill out the screw, or maybe go to a dealer and have them try to fix it, and just let them deal with it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
D'oh!

Re: Interior Door Panel Broken, Won't Come Off, Suggestions Anyone?
 

If you remove the arm pad, could you possible get access to the bottom of the screw from that direction and some handy work with a pair of small vise grips?

Re: Re: Interior Door Panel Broken, Won't Come Off, Suggestions Anyone?
 

I second that thought!

It's worth a try.

So, how do you get the arm pad off? Unfortunately it doesn't look like that is in the manual.

On another note, I've decided that I really dislike plastic parts, expecially when tabs and sh*t are involved. I'm much more comfortable with metal pieces that screw and unscrew (assuming of course, that the screws actually work)

Thanks for the idea. I'll check it out and post an update.

-D'oh!

Just pull up on it from the back. It is held in by clips.

Allright, time to bust out the crowbar!!

Thanks,
-D'oh!