Door arm rest broken
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
Door arm rest broken
This is my first post on the club. I have read through as many FAQ's and Q&A's as I could find but nothing has been able to help me. Just bought a beautiful 92 SC400 with 102,000 miles. Everything works great except the driver's side interior door arm rest. In the span of a few weeks the entire arm rest has basically come apart from the door. Along with this, my driver side door latch will not open from the inside unless I disengage the handle from the outside first. Right now the most important thing is to find out how I can put my arm rest back in place. I hope that some of you can shed some insight for me on this issue. I appreciate you all taking the time to help a new member.
Very Respectfully,
James
Very Respectfully,
James
Hi, Welcome to CL.
The door rest is held on by plastic, unfortunately. if it were metal it may not have broken. There are two plastic tabs that are under the armrest basically inside the lower pocket at the top beneath the armrest. If you remove the unit you will see how the two plastic tabs have broken and you can use backstrap to repair them with a little epoxy glue mixture.
Backstrap is a metal strip with holes in it, which makes it even more convenient for this repair. By creating new tabs and mounting holes with the metal backstrap, you will have reinforced the problem to the point where you should not see it happen again.
The door rest is held on by plastic, unfortunately. if it were metal it may not have broken. There are two plastic tabs that are under the armrest basically inside the lower pocket at the top beneath the armrest. If you remove the unit you will see how the two plastic tabs have broken and you can use backstrap to repair them with a little epoxy glue mixture.
Backstrap is a metal strip with holes in it, which makes it even more convenient for this repair. By creating new tabs and mounting holes with the metal backstrap, you will have reinforced the problem to the point where you should not see it happen again.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
From: California
great link enzo. from the tutorial:
Before putting the door back together you will need to reinforce the door clips so that the problem does not happen again. The reason the problem occurs is that the plastic clips where the 2 long bolts under the arm rest are break. These are the clips that take the strain of shutting the door. What I did was put a steel reinforcing bracket to work as a large washer to spread the load over the plastic bracket.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 8,387
Likes: 1
From: bat country
Take a picture of the problem so we can better judge if this is a DIY fix-it or a dealer-rape-me-please replacement. I reinforced my broken door pieces with a plasticized epoxy (turns really really hot when mixed) and a strip of molded abs plastic. It is now the strongest part of the entire door panel. In the case of Manaray's busted door though, that's a must replace... If you have to buy another door panel, buy from TAP or any other recycler.
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
Door arm rest broken
Good call lexsc400,
I just removed the door trim as shown in the DIY post by Enzo. I noticed that all the screws in the bottom of the panel have shredded away from the door arm rest. Therefore, it looks like I will have to do without a driver-side door trim for awhile until I can find replacement grey door trim. Any suggestions besides TAP? Anyone on this forum parting out an SC with grey interior? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again to everyone that has helped me on one of the first problems I have had with the car. Hopefully, there won't be too much more, but I'm ready if there is!
Thanks everyone,
James
I just removed the door trim as shown in the DIY post by Enzo. I noticed that all the screws in the bottom of the panel have shredded away from the door arm rest. Therefore, it looks like I will have to do without a driver-side door trim for awhile until I can find replacement grey door trim. Any suggestions besides TAP? Anyone on this forum parting out an SC with grey interior? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again to everyone that has helped me on one of the first problems I have had with the car. Hopefully, there won't be too much more, but I'm ready if there is!
Thanks everyone,
James
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 8,387
Likes: 1
From: bat country
TAP is just the local bigdog for CA. There might be similar recyclers in your area. If not, TAP ships worldwide. Their website is rarely accurate with inventory though so call in. If they have it, usually they are around 50% or more off retail. They might try to tell you "we only sell the entire interior complete" or "we only sell the door assembly complete" but that's not always true depending on your salesman skills 
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Lead Lap
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 607
Likes: 0
From: California
My driver door armrest part is broken too. its been broken for the past 3 months. I guess it broke from old age. becaue all i did was pull on my door to close it one time, and snap, the lower piece of the door panel broke 
So when i want to close my door, i have to roll the window down and grab the edge of the door.
I bought the lower door piece for 100 bucks off a CL member. It will be here soon, it sucks gettin in my car with a broken panel hehe.
Alot of things on my car broke because of old age, both my door handle broke. So my dad got me new ones, 100 bucks each
The picture shows whats broken on mines. i wonder if its the same for you?
So when i want to close my door, i have to roll the window down and grab the edge of the door.
I bought the lower door piece for 100 bucks off a CL member. It will be here soon, it sucks gettin in my car with a broken panel hehe.
Alot of things on my car broke because of old age, both my door handle broke. So my dad got me new ones, 100 bucks each
The picture shows whats broken on mines. i wonder if its the same for you?
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Driver
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 102
Likes: 2
From: VA
Hey Folks,
I had the same issue, right where the arm rest was, the two plastic tabs underneath were busted. I ignored the problem for a while until after several 'slamming the door' occurances the plastic piece started to snap in other locations (neer the power window buttons and around the door speaker.
Mine was damaged beyond bonding repair so I ordered a new one. Having worked at the dealership they gave it to me at employee discount. Can't remember exactly, but was around $115.
Incase anyone needs the part# it is 67780-24050-08 (tan interior). These parts are pretty hard to come by "new" since Lexus parts distro centers do not carry parts past the 10year old car mark. Although I guess the newer model SC's (95-00) have the similar lower door panel, not sure!
Thanks
LexusBiz
I had the same issue, right where the arm rest was, the two plastic tabs underneath were busted. I ignored the problem for a while until after several 'slamming the door' occurances the plastic piece started to snap in other locations (neer the power window buttons and around the door speaker.
Mine was damaged beyond bonding repair so I ordered a new one. Having worked at the dealership they gave it to me at employee discount. Can't remember exactly, but was around $115.
Incase anyone needs the part# it is 67780-24050-08 (tan interior). These parts are pretty hard to come by "new" since Lexus parts distro centers do not carry parts past the 10year old car mark. Although I guess the newer model SC's (95-00) have the similar lower door panel, not sure!
Thanks
LexusBiz
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