Sticky Door Handle

Mine is different. The door handles always retract. Quicker with the doors closed, after 5-10 minutes with the doors open.

Odd, you’d expect them to be the same.
I’ll go through the same process as I did earlier just to check it out, I only left the drivers door fully open perhaps thats it ?

It probably doesn’t matter.

FYI - I’ve seen handles closing on my DS4 after 5-10mins with doors open. Can’t remember if that was with the engine still on (elec) when checking tyre pressure with mini-compressor plugged in, or if engine was off. Or if I just walked away with the key far enough for the car to think I had gone.

Handles definitely stay in the out position but I think I’ve explained it wrong above.
There is a sequence to get them to stay in the out position when parked up.

So, if I can recall.

  1. Leave the car lock itself by walking away with the key.
  2. Return to the car, it will unlock and the handles pop out.
  3. Open the door/doors, leave the key in the car.
  4. Shut the door/doors, the handles will retract after a minute or so, but the doors are not locked because the key is in the car.
  5. Re-open the door by pushing on one of the handles, handles will pop out, open the the door.
  6. Then either leave the door open or close them, the handles stay in the out position as long as you leave the key in the car.

When I did it like this the handles stayed in the out position indefinitely, in fact 3 hours later the car was still unlocked, with the handles in the out position and they key on the drivers seat, so be careful if you do try this as I nearly forgot to lock the car up.

Hi this is my first post but wanted to chip in with an observation. I have a 2022 DS4 and my first handle failed while under warranty. Over the winter (out of warranty) all the others have started to play up - but weirdly the problems stopped as the temperature became milder this week. Also I deactivated the automatic door locking when you drive off. So I have no idea (yet) if that was a factor. I am just happy they are behaving for now…

My handles started off with just the one playing, even before I had them wrapped, and it was in the summer months.
It was changed under warranty, and all was good for a good while.

Then months later at the beginning of this year two others started to stick, both within a few days of each other, the passenger front & rear, it didn’t matter if the weather was cold or not.

I booked it in to have them done under warranty, but a day or two before it was due to go in the drivers door handle started to play up, it would pop out and retract but the door would stay locked, so that one was changed at the same time as the other two.

Its now had all 4 replaced.

Funny you should mention the auto locking when driving off, it was active on my car all the time there was an issue with the handles, I’ve also now deactivated it just in case ?

My dealership said DS are fully aware there’s an issue with their “pop out” handles, so much so, that dealerships now stock spare handles.
Apparently their attitude towards this (DS), is that it’s cheaper to replace any that fail under warranty, than issue a recall for all DS models with pop out handles.
The thought process is , the sticking handles are not classed as a safety recall because they do still open the doors when used manually, it’s more of a cosmetic thing as they stick either in the closed position, the out position or midway position, but can still operate when manually used.

Greetings from Greece!This is Spyros, owing a Ds4 2023 esprit de voyage. I want to wrap the door handles as you did in your Ds4, because subjectively i believe they look much better! While replacing yours at the dealer-shop,did you asked them if the wrapping is affecting somehow the functionality of the door handles, which i assume they don’t but i am just curious of their perspective on this matter. Thanks in advance.

The wrap has no effect what so ever on the sticking door handles.

Firstly, the wrap only covers the very outer chrome part of the handles, it DOES NOT go any further into the handle than the chrome face.
Secondly, the sticking of the handles are a known problem with the “pop out” design, so having them wrapped has nothing at all to do with the handles sticking.

I have had all 4 handles replaced under warranty, each of them had already been wrapped when they were changed under warranty, if the wrap was the issue DS would not of allowed them to be replaced.

I was also present when they were wrapped.
You need to have the handles stay in the out position so that the wrap can be applied.

Open the doors, leave the key in the car with ignition off, the door handles will auto close within a few minutes, when they do, push on one of the handles, all 4 will pop out and stay out as long as you leave the key in the whilst your work on the handles.

After the job is done just start the car and all the handles will reset.

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Thanks a lot for the tips! As my car is black, the plan is to proceed with wrapping the handles and the badges in the front and the rear of the car. Till now only once a had an issue with the right rear handle that during automatic locking it could not lock and was pop in and out constantly.It was somehow reseted when i switched off the ignition and then back on.So far it looks good.

When mine were playing up they would either stick fully out or half in half out out.
On one of them I could also hear the mechanism inside the door constantly trying to operate the handle but the handle was not moving, yet if I tried to move it manually it was moving easily, no feeling of it sticking.

As i saw in your previous posts, unfortunately this is a common issue on the Ds4. Maybe the mechanism along with the digital control box are cheap made.

In a local DS Facebook group in Turkiye, a member shared a DIY fix for the sticky door handle issue instead of replacing the entire unit. He disassembled the handle and found that water ingress had caused corrosion inside the mechanism.
There is a white plastic cover on the unit held by retention tabs (clips). He recommends using a heat gun (or a powerful hair dryer) along with a flathead screwdriver to carefully pry it open; the heat is advised to prevent the plastic tabs from snapping.

After opening it, he cleaned the entire mechanism and the PCB using IPA or contact cleaner i think. Once cleaned and reassembled, he tested it on the car, and it’s working fine again. This might be a great way to avoid the high cost of a full replacement after warranty ends.

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I’ve been looking for something like this ready for when my warranty runs out.
Looking at these photos there’s obvious signs of water ingress.
It looks like the piece that being shown is the bit with the white plastic cover, which is intended to be a sealed unit, so the difficulty would be managing to open it up.

Great info :clap:

DS need to address this correctly by issuing a re-call.

There’s also a post on here somewhere showing how to remove the door panel, but I cant find.

With this info and the info showing how to remove the door panel I think it’s a task that could be tackled by someone with a basic level of DIY skills.

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