I had removed my driver door panel before and replaced it without a problem, but this time after replacing the window motor the plastic trim piece around the door handle/speaker does not want to stay on. It is missing one of the wider tabs and one of the small ones, but it was missing those before and it snapped back in place OK. This time the cutouts in the door panel did not want to lay quite flat between the handle and speaker so I loosened the door panel screws and tried to shift it a little and when that didn't help I carefully trimmed the panel just a little where it was pushing up on the tips between the handle and speaker and it lay flatter, but the plastic trim piece still seems to push back out and won't stay down against the panel. Anyone had this happen to them?
I thought, OK I'll just get a new trim piece with all the tabs intact, but these little plastic pieces are nearly $100 each! I am considering removing the whole panel again and trying to reposition the door handle slightly, but that seems a little hit and miss. Any suggestions? I still have the passenger door window motor to replace and while that door panel has also been off before and the handle trim was not a problem to snap back on, I am hoping I don't have the same problem as with the driver door.

 

They break very easily. I have the same issue with my driver's door. Hot glue worked for a while.

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Salvage Yard is probably cheapest, there are a few on eBay right now, car-part.com is a good search engine for salvage, also people part thier cars out all the time in the marketplace here

 

There is a local U-Pull-It, but they seldom have any Minis. I am thinking I may pull the door card again and try putting the trim on it before re-installing so perhaps it will line up better. I guess I could try gluing it before putting it back on. I am wondering now why all the instructions tell you to remove the trim before removing the door card since there are no screws under the trim. Maybe so it won't fall off by itself?

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions. When I tried to put the trim piece back on, it felt like something was pushing it back out; I can't quite get my head around how/why that would be after I got the door card to lay flat. I did tighten the three screws holding the door handle mechanism to a pretty good hand tight, so perhaps it is down tighter than it was before. I'm not sure how that affects the trim tabs latching into the door card since the catches on the tabs are on the outside, but I'll try loosening the mechanism up and/or putting some washers behind to space it out some. I'll also check to see if the handle is bent. Actually the passenger side handle is more susceptible to being bent when my wife forgets you have to pull the handle twice to open the door. (still not clear on why BMW did that.)