Last week I parked my car, reached for the door handle to get out, and the door wouldnt open! I had to roll down the window, and reach out and open the outside handle. (yeah, pretty embarassing)

I knew that the LS doors were cable operated (one single cable locks, unlocks, and opens the door) so i ripped off the door panel hoping to just tighten the slack on the cable. Turned out the door handle had actually broken at the point where the handle trips the unlock toggle.

Drilled out the rivets and tied a piece of wirse to the cable as a "temporary door handle" and got right on the phone with the dealer to order a new one.
The wierd part was, the handle had just worked earlier that day, and i for sure didnt pull too hard on the handle. So i was just wondering if any of you have had the same problem, or if it was just something that happened to me?

I hear alot about ford handles breaking in one way or another, but usually its the handle itself that breaks or the spring.

WHen you replace it, please take pics and notes whle you do it, and write up a little How-to for the Tech Section (http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/tech) so the next guy will know how to replace the cable

sorry, already got it done but here is a little step by step

Remove the door panel
(2 screws (all P#2) on bottom, 2 in handle cubby, one behind the black bezel behind the chrome handle, and one on the upper side of the panel. Then just carefully pull straight out)
Drill out all 3 rivets
Remove handle and detach cable
Attach cable to the new handle
Put in 3 new 1/4x1/2 rivets (a hydrolic rivetter helps alot on these big guys)
Reinstall the door panel

I had that happen once or twice when I first got my '03. I noticed that the outside handle would stick out a little without returning fully to the flush position. Then the door wouldn't open from the inside. I just make sure the outside handle is fully flush now after opening the door and haven't had the problem return.