Door latch feels “sticky”, door doesn’t open smoothly

What’s up guys? I’m new around these parts and struggling to find some help. I have an 04’ taco and the door latch feels like it’s sticky inside. When I try to open the door from outside the truck it does not feel smooth like it should and I have to kinda push in on the door while lifting the handle all the way up for the latch to pop. The handle flexes quite abit and I’m worried I’m gonna snap it like I did the passenger door (that one was frozen). Can anybody point me in the right direction? Is the problem with the handle mechanism itself or the latch?

 

Well, you're prob. exactly correct. It's dirty and sticky inside the door panels and all parts in the system.

Only thing to do is take the inside door panels off and clean and lube either just what's hanging up now or all of it.

 

Welcome aboard. The nuts holding the exterior handle may be loose. Gotta remove door panel to know for sure.

 

I just did this on my friends '04 Tacoma Friday afternoon. His passenger door wouldn't open from the outside, and I thought for sure the door handle was broke.
After removing the door panel, the door handle mechanism was dry / dirty. Cleaned it up and sprayed it down with silicone spray, and it's working fine now.
While you have door panel off, is a good time to go ahead and grease all of the door handle parts you can.
Also, spray the window channels with silicone spray.

Part circled below was the main culprit on my friends '04. Before cleaning it up and lubing it there was very little up/down movement.
*From the post above...the two holes you see below are where the door handle is secured by two 10mm bolts.

 

I battled this for many many months with different door handles. The secret is grease. Not WD40 or even silicone spray.They dont last. .. its thick automotive grease. I used Belray motorcycle grease. Everywhere. Especially where the plastic slides and the brass connector where @jammer has posted above. I even greased the rods, where they connect with the little plastic clips.

Mine work flawless now.

 

Thanks your all the reply’s! Huge help. Gonna take the door panel off one day this week and see what does on in there

 

Your handle may be cracked. I had one that acted like you described. It was partly broken and flexed a lot. If I lifted the handle and looked under it, I could see where it was breaking. I ordered a new one and was real gentle with it until the new one arrived.

 

A lot of us have had to replace the door handles. I bought OEM but many have said the quality of the Dorman handles are better.

welcome to TW!

 

I'll clarify. The Dorman are better solely in the aspect of being thicker and thus more resistant to breaking at a specific spot in the mechanism that many find their oem handle breaking.