Lowered door locks
2003 Mazda Protégé - By ZapWizard
Hanging your arm out the window on a nice day is great.
But often times the door lock knob gets in the way, and hurts your arm.
The solution is to lower the door lock.
I could have made the lock total flush, but I left it a little up so that it can manually be pulled, yet doesn't annoy me by sticking into my arm.
Thanks to Elderain for the original guide located here:
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29827
The tools needed are:
 | Philips screwdriver |
| Dremel or hacksaw to cut metal. |
The result is a knob that doesn't stick up when in the locked position.
This guide is for the drivers side door.
First lock the door, and mark the knob gently with a pencil
The distance between this mark and the top of the lock will be how much you need to cut off later.
If you want a lowered (Not totally flush) knob then unlock the doors and make a second mark.
First remove the mirror panel.
This just pops off when pulled.
Then remove the screw from the door handle.
You need to remove the pink wire on the defrost relay.
Pull the handle slightly, then slide towards the front of the car to remove it.
Remove the two screws under this handle.
Then un-cap the screw at the front of the door, and remove the screw.
Be gentle as the door plastic is very soft, use a cloth under the screwdriver to protect the door.
Remove the screw inside the door handle.
There is a clip holding the door handle to the pull-rod.
This clip twists off the rod, then the handle pulls up off of it.
If you can't get the handle off, it can pass though the hole, and stay there (I had to do this at first)
The last thing to remove on the door, is a pop-bolt at the back.
You pry the center up about 1/4" then remove the entire pop-bolt.
The original guild had me pulling at the back of the door panel to remove it.
I found it much easier to pull from the front, as there is almost a hand-grip up there.
Gently pull on the door all the way from the front, around the bottom, then to the back.
The door panel then lifts up, and off the door.
The door will have several wire connectors attached.
Press the tab on each connector to free the door.
You can now see the lock knob clearly.
This knob will unscrew off the rod pretty easily.
Use the mark you made on the door knob to determine how much of the threading you need to cut off.
-For a lowered knob, cut off the distance between the top mark, and the bottom mark.
-For a totally flush knob, cut off the distance between the top mark, and the top of the knob. (Ignore the second mark)
Mark how much you need to cut off with a pencil, or sharpie marker.
Using a Dremel, or other saw, cut the length you marked off from the top.
Note: Put a piece of paper or something to block the dust from hitting the window.
(I forgot to do this)
Once cut, clean up any dust left over.
Then re-thread the knob on, and start putting the door back together.
Once complete your door lock knob will not bother you when you put your arm out the window.
(The above is the lowered knob, and is not totally flush)