Outer door latch plastic ring broke Options

[era vulgaris]

So suddenly yesterday I could no longer open my passenger door from the outside. I took the outside handle off and found that the plastic ring broke, that pushes on the lever to activate the latch.

First of all, it seems idiotic to make a part like this out of plastic! But that aside, can I replace just the plastic part, or do I need to buy an entire outside handle?

[Rob-O]

I just replaced mine. It lasted for two door openings then broke again. Something else must be wrong with mine.

Probably the inner door latch needs to be removed, cleaned and re-lubricated. When the inner door latch gets gummed up (that grease is 40 or so years old) the latch doesn't want to move/release. That plastic piece pushes a portion of the inner latch to release the door. So if that inner latch is gummed up, you opening the door handle just squashes the plastic part and can snap it.