During a recent cold snap my doors were stuck shut. Yes, I should have lubricated the door slides and seals during fall but I didn't, and now I'm paying the price. As a result of this stickiness the left rear door handle broke off in my hand when I went to open the door and I'm finding that sourcing a replacement is a bit of a challenge.
From what I understand, the door handle is the same from 2008 to 2018 (or whenever the car went out of production). I have a 2012 in Copper Red Mica (32V), the only year in which that color was offered on the second generation Mazda5. I'd prefer to source a replacement handle already in the correct color as I have not had the best of luck repainting things like this. I've contacted sellers via eBay that have wrecked cars, and I've put out feelers on car-parts.com, all without success. Salvage yards in my area don't have suitable vehicles from which to grab the part. There are some vehicles out there in the wild that would be good parts donors but I'm nowhere near Salinas CA, Vancouver WA or Fort Worth TX being in STL.
Has anyone had any luck gluing the handle back together? I'm assuming that the broken plastic component is rattling around somewhere inside of my door. I'm a little hesitant to pull it apart at this time since many of the instructions I've seen suggest that the best way to work on the sliding door is to physically remove it from the car. I would look at the service manual but I have no idea where I placed it, and am going off recommendations from YouTube videos.
From what I understand, the door handle is the same from 2008 to 2018 (or whenever the car went out of production). I have a 2012 in Copper Red Mica (32V), the only year in which that color was offered on the second generation Mazda5. I'd prefer to source a replacement handle already in the correct color as I have not had the best of luck repainting things like this. I've contacted sellers via eBay that have wrecked cars, and I've put out feelers on car-parts.com, all without success. Salvage yards in my area don't have suitable vehicles from which to grab the part. There are some vehicles out there in the wild that would be good parts donors but I'm nowhere near Salinas CA, Vancouver WA or Fort Worth TX being in STL.
Has anyone had any luck gluing the handle back together? I'm assuming that the broken plastic component is rattling around somewhere inside of my door. I'm a little hesitant to pull it apart at this time since many of the instructions I've seen suggest that the best way to work on the sliding door is to physically remove it from the car. I would look at the service manual but I have no idea where I placed it, and am going off recommendations from YouTube videos.
