How To: Driver's door panel and exterior door handle removal (Gen 1)

[MRE]

So I did quite a bit of searching and didn't find any videos of someone doing this, so I made my own as a guide for the next DIY-er that chooses this particular adventure. All the other videos I found were A) not the drivers door (so didn't address the flashlight mount) and B) stopped at having the interior panel removed.

As for "Why?," my door handle had stopped retracting when locked, although when I tried to demo the issue in the video it of course DOES retract. Beyond that, I'm out of warranty and have seen forum posts reporting between $750 and more than a grand to have this fixed! The Dude does not abide... For now, I've simply disabled the auto-presentation, as I'm waiting for the replacement handle to arrive, which I bought from an online salvage for ~$200. When it gets here, I plan to re-record the full process in order to provide a more thorough tutorial. Apologies in advance for poor video quality and some missing steps (I provide a link in the video description to another video that will fill in some gaps).

You can find the video at the following link, but I'll also give a brief written version, below.



Fumbling through this my first time took me maybe 2 hours to remove and reinstall. I'd guess that I can do the full tear down and reassembly in about an hour now that I know what I'm doing. In either scenario, I'm going to say it was worth it to save $500 to $700 dollars, not to mention the weeks of waiting for an SC appointment and the hours I would have lost in the back and forth. Without further ado:

Tools:

1. Vehicle trim/panel pry tools (plastic)
2. T-20 torx driver
3. 10mm socket
4. 8mm socket
5. Ratchet and extension
6. Razor or other cutting tool
7. masking tape (Use this to protect the finish on your door handle. Tape over the handle before proceeding.)

Section 1: Door panel removal

1. Carefully remove the (with pry tools):
   1. The guard/cup behind the interior door handle
   2. The "leather" wrapped trim piece from the lower portion of the arm rest (start at rear of door)
   3. Rubber mat from bottom of door pocket
2. Remove the 5 BLACK t-20 torx screws which you now have access to. Note, there are some silver ones, none of these need to come out.
3. Starting at the top rear of the door, using a wide pry tool work your way around the perimeter of the door panel popping out the panel fasteners (the lower portion comes off quite easily.
4. Roll down the window and beginning at the rear, pull (or push) the top of the door panel straight out (into the vehicle if you imagine the door closed). There are metal clips holding this in place, you won't break them but they will likely take more force than you're expecting.
5. The door panel is now attached only by an electrical connection and the cable from the interior handle to the latch..
   ROLL THE WINDOW BACK UP
6. Unhook the electrical connection by pushing down the tab
7. Using needle nosed plyers (or similar) get ahold of the metal cable, rotate to perpendicular with the door panel and move down to remove the cable from the handle.
8. Walk the cable housing out from the clip holding it in place and then set the door panel aside somewhere safe and out of the way.

Section 2: Gain access to the exterior handle

1. Remove the metal cross-member which serves primarily as a mounting location for the door panel. It is secured with 2 10mm bolts and several 8mm.
   1. Note, you will also need to remove the white plastic mount at the rear of the door which overlaps this cross member.
2. Remove the rear-mostwhite plastic panel/insert. This is secured with a silicone adhesive.
   1. I used plastic pry tools to get this started. Once I could get a grip by hand, pull with a gentle but firm and consistent force with one hand while using a cutting tool to 'encourage' the silicone to separate more quickly.
3. There are also 2 round yellow stickers/tape covering access holes which you'll need to remove. There are two addition stickers (the upper most) which do not need removed. With the panel off (and after reading below) it should be obvious which.

Section 3: Removing the exterior handle

1. Before removing the 3 fasteners for the handle, unplug the electrical connection at the front of the handle assembly (it's just easier when it isn't lose inside the door)
2. With your ratchet and extension, remove the two nuts at the rear of the handle (accessed via the holes the tape was covering), and one nut on the front of the handle (accessed through the opening where the white plastic was).
3. With the fasteners removed the handle can be pulled (or pushed) into the door cavity and slide down for easier access to the remaining connection of wire (there are 2 zip-tie fasteners holding the wire you unplugged in step 1, and one zip-tie helping to secure the cable between the handle and the latch. I used snips and cut each of these).
4. Remove the door cable from the handle. I did this by hand, but needle nose plyers would probably make it easier.
5. You can now walk the handle assembly out by sliding it down and toward the front (you need to get below the window motor to have enough clearance to slide it out of the opening left by the panel we removed earlier.

To reassemble.. just read that backwards! In my experience, the silicone had more than enough stick to just push the panel back into place. The cross-member also presses against it, so I'm really not concerned about it going anywhere. That said, the right thing to do would probably be to use some interior adhesive or RTV during reassembly.

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[MRE]

Oh no...just realized the image didn't load in the video. Ignore the black screen where I'm just circling empty space!

 

[Riviot]

Enjoy these salty instructions

 

[R1Thor]

I'm interested in a follow up.
I don't have these issues, but I do understand the relative complexities of automotive assemblies ass a whole, and there's a lot of assumption baked into the idea that the fault is within the handle module itself.
Could be a connection leading up (or something within the wiring harness). Could be a compute module or chip. Could just be a temporary software bug. Could be something within the zonal architecture that's not translating properly.

Quite a roll of the dice on the off chance it's 'just the handle assembly.' Hopefully you're right! And hopefully this is a permanent fix. (Unless you're hearing something actuate and it's simply not retracting, IE: evidence it's 'triggered' and simply unable to retract. At which point, why not disassemble the mechanism to see if you can find the break?)

This, unfortunately for those of us who have no access to them, is where Rivian's service (and subsequent tools) would come in handy.

 

[MRE]

Quite a roll of the dice on the off chance it's 'just the handle assembly.' Hopefully you're right!

No gambling was involved. Zonal architecture isn't a thing in gen 1 vehicles, and in the full video you'll find that I talk about the slow failure of this door handle in particular. In terms of fixing the sub-components of the handle, I plan to try refurbishing this and selling it but the odds are extremely low. The individual components of assemblies like this aren't something you can typically find. It's hard enough finding the OEM for the 12 volt in these things....multiply that several times over if you are trying to find the "Gen 1 Rivian R1 drivers side exterior door handle auto-presentation servo". Even with the assembly out so that I can spot some logos and identifying numbers, no dice. There's also just diminishing returns when you can pull the entire assembly and replace it with no special tools. I happen to enjoy this stuff, so I'll keep tinkering with this unit once I install the new one (which arrives today)...but it won't be an objectively good use of my time.

 

[MRE]

I'm interested in a follow up.
I don't have these issues, but I do understand the relative complexities of automotive assemblies ass a whole, and there's a lot of assumption baked into the idea that the fault is within the handle module itself.
Could be a connection leading up (or something within the wiring harness). Could be a compute module or chip. Could just be a temporary software bug. Could be something within the zonal architecture that's not translating properly.

Quite a roll of the dice on the off chance it's 'just the handle assembly.' Hopefully you're right! And hopefully this is a permanent fix. (Unless you're hearing something actuate and it's simply not retracting, IE: evidence it's 'triggered' and simply unable to retract. At which point, why not disassemble the mechanism to see if you can find the break?)

This, unfortunately for those of us who have no access to them, is where Rivian's service (and subsequent tools) would come in handy.

Quick follow up for you: I just installed the new handle, and everything works beautifully. If you happened to watch the full video previously, I postulated that the black adhesive would re-adhere and I can confirm that was the case (It was basically just as difficult to remove this time as it was the first). I was able to do the complete teardown, handle replacement, and reassembly in just shy of 45 minutes, And that included some extra time using a magnet to fish out a bolt I dropped inside the door cavity .

 

[MRE]

Enjoy these salty instructions

Oh man!! Sorry to revive a long dead thread, but the PDF links you shared either didn't load, or I just didn't notice them when I first saw this response on my phone. Thank you so much for those guides!! I'm all good on the doors at this point, but is there any chance you have similar guides for the half shafts?!

 

[NSRoamer]

So I did quite a bit of searching and didn't find any videos of someone doing this, so I made my own as a guide for the next DIY-er that chooses this particular adventure. All the other videos I found were A) not the drivers door (so didn't address the flashlight mount) and B) stopped at having the interior panel removed.

As for "Why?," my door handle had stopped retracting when locked, although when I tried to demo the issue in the video it of course DOES retract. Beyond that, I'm out of warranty and have seen forum posts reporting between $750 and more than a grand to have this fixed! The Dude does not abide... For now, I've simply disabled the auto-presentation, as I'm waiting for the replacement handle to arrive, which I bought from an online salvage for ~$200. When it gets here, I plan to re-record the full process in order to provide a more thorough tutorial. Apologies in advance for poor video quality and some missing steps (I provide a link in the video description to another video that will fill in some gaps).

You can find the video at the following link, but I'll also give a brief written version, below.

Fumbling through this my first time took me maybe 2 hours to remove and reinstall. I'd guess that I can do the full tear down and reassembly in about an hour now that I know what I'm doing. In either scenario, I'm going to say it was worth it to save $500 to $700 dollars, not to mention the weeks of waiting for an SC appointment and the hours I would have lost in the back and forth. Without further ado:

Tools:

1. Vehicle trim/panel pry tools (plastic)
2. T-20 torx driver
3. 10mm socket
4. 8mm socket
5. Ratchet and extension
6. Razor or other cutting tool
7. masking tape (Use this to protect the finish on your door handle. Tape over the handle before proceeding.)

Ian - thank you very much for the write up and videos! I hope I never need to deal with this particular problem - but very good to have the information.

The black stuff under the white panel looks like butyl tape (it is very sticky) - what's usually used to hold the relatively thin piece of poly (moisture / water barrier) behind the door card on almost every car made.

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