Door internals
The internal door lever ceased to function one day, meaning passengers had to open the window and reach for the outside handle. It was obvious that something had disconnected, but access was too limited to reach it through the vent (under the armrest / shelf) or the door handle aperture. I had to take the panel off.
It was held by the inside glass seal, which just lifted up to remove, by a tab near the mirror, by the door lock button (just lifts over) and a strip of adhesive around the front, bottom, and rear edges. Also needed to be removed were the door lever surround (one screw), the mirror adjuster rubber and the electric window switch (prise up and disconnect). The glue looked like a strip of industrial grade Blu-tack, the tacky putty stuff to hold notes onto walls? It gave way to some steady pulling and prising and mostly remained in place ready to stick back again.
You can see the grey goo around the edges, and the disconnected door wire. The end of the wire is a simple right angle bend. It pushes into a plastic bush which should have a "keeper" clip moulded into it. Rotating the bush swings the clip over the wire to stop it falling out. The clip on mine had cracked right through, not much chance of repairing such a thin part properly. A simple repair though was to put a cable tie around the wire, I don't believe it will slip off.
Done!
While I was "in there" I had a look at the window mechanism as well. The passenger side had always been a bit sluggish to go up and down, I thought it could be dirty contacts or a tired motor. The switch had a very slightly dull connector but not much. The contacts were cleaned as on the switch page though they again didn't look bad. I took the motor out to check the brushes and commutator. Hardly worn, though I cleaned the comm. anyway. The motor came apart easily, unplug, 2 screws out, and wind the rotor out as it has a worm gear on it.
(pictures soon)
What DID make the biggest difference was to grease the cable, pulley and slider which lifts the glass, and I also sprayed some furniture polish into the glass silent channels. When I lifted the glass by hand (no rotor in the motor) it was clear there was quite a lot of friction. I also sprayed the channels on the driver's door.
Door panel refitting. Most of the original adhesive stayed in place, and where it had stretched into strings it was squashed back quite neatly. Some areas however had got dirt and water into, leaving the material hardened and degraded. In others the paint had come away, making it difficult to clean up the sticky surface. I scraped off the several inches of dead adhesive and just before refitting the panel, put some dots of polyurethane sealant in the gaps. These should stick well, and I hope will not prevent removal of the panel should it ever need to come off again.
Aixam