Fragile Taco door handles.

I'll be on my third set after 45k miles. Lube is useless. They use like the most brittle ABS concoction for the pivot, that's the problem. They need to change to fiberglass impregnated or something

 

a wise old man told me something a long time ago... quality is long remembered soon after price is forget. After the first replacement handle broke I bought an original Toyota part.

 

yep, I thought I could get aftermarket ones from rock auto until I broke like 4 in a row, 2 each side.. bought ones from Toyota, and no issues.

I will say though the 85 4RN which has 11 years on my tacoma, has never had issues with the door handles. It was also 3 boys first car (me and my brothers) so it went through serious abuse but the handles are still crisp. They "could've' made a better design for the first gen door handle, but as others have said, 15-25 years for a highly used plastic part on a vehicle, is still pretty dang good. Replace then with OEM parts and you can expect another 15-25 years, instead of 15 days like some of the shoddy handles rock auto gave me.

It also seems its really those of us who get colder weather have them break, but hey, thats the nature of materials experiencing extreme cold and extreme heat, over and over again for 15-25 years

 

They could literally just have a cheap aluminum cast instead of plastic, charge $20 more per handle, and they would sell in droves.

Btw I think the chrome handles are more brittle than the black ones.

 

^This...

Sorry if maybe I need to make separate post but it reminded me.

For some reason interior, passenger door often doesn't open with handle? Opening with exterior is sometimes required (occasionally with driver, interior as well).

Also, I've replaced the interior handles with ebay and OEM. Very obvious the OEM was dramatically better, even the spring was much beefier.