Drivers Door Handle

Happy Holidays Fellow 928 Owners....

Today I went out to take the car out for a ride, and I pulled up the door handle and it wouldn't open. The handle moves but won't unlatch. It was very cold and thought that might have something to do with it. It does unlatch from the inside. I also sprayed some silicone spray on mechanism mounted on the door jamb. The "metal arms" inside it didn't move to easily...

Any ideas would be helpful.

Most likely it is about to break as is common with 928s. They get a lot of slack in them as the part that breaks will be soft to the extent that pulling the outside handle all of the way will still be insufficient to actuate the latch.

In your opinion is it the handle or the mechanism, inside that needs to be replaced ? I have found alot of good info on various websites about this. Would love your opinion.

Definitely the mechanism. I have a tendency to generically refer to the whole assembly as the handle. It is a pain in the rear, but I would use the passenger door outside handle exclusively until I managed to repair the driver handle. Since the mechanism isn't totally broken, it should be easier to salvage.

Not sure what you meant by using pass door handle only...its the only way to get in !!! While I'm thinking of it, I should probably put a window down in case the other handle breaks !!!!The drivers side lifts up but doesn't open the door. I have to open pass side, and reach across and open drivers from inside. I agree it looks like a pain in the ass. Just getting the door panel off looks a little intimidating.
I have a junker that I'm going to use as a guinnea pig and reference. Plus whatever I can find online. I would even take it to the dealer...except I'm afraid they would do even more damage. Not sure how many of the guys today, know how to fix it.

Removing the door panel isn't a big deal. Use a knife's edge or similar to remove the cover for the screw at the dial for the manual door lock actuation. Remove the screw and then you may remove the dial and the plastic trim from the door card. There are screws along the bottom edge of the door panel where the carpet is. Then, pull the armrest. To do so, you need to remove the plastic trim piece that folows the perimeter of the opening for armrest air flow from the dash. It has ears on it that can be depressed to remove. This grants you access to an otherwise hidden 10mm bolt. Pull the door card closeout leather trim adjacent to the interior door handle and door handle bezel. Now, open the parcel compartment. You have access to all of the hardware that secures the armrest. The door card that remains is now only held in by plastic body clips. A body clip tool is advisable, but any way to pry at the clip with a way to give them a sudden jolt of counterpressure should allow for their removal with minimal damage being done to either the clips or door card.