[thatgarrett]

After not driving my car for 3-4 weeks I noticed that there was now a split on the driver’s door armrest, right where my elbow usually rests. Not only is it uncomfortable and an eyesore, but I feel like it has gotten worse over the last few days. I’ve seen a couple of other threads about similar damage, and I have a few options I’m considering:

(For reference, it’s a 2012 with black Sensatec, red stitching on door panel and HK)

-repairing the crack by injecting some vinyl safe adhesive below and either a patch or repair kit on the surface. Cheapest option, but unsure if it will hold up to the high stress of by elbow resting on it every time I drive, and also not sure how clean it will look.

-buying a used door panel and swapping just the armrest part by drilling out the plastic rivets/ and either gluing, plastic welding, or using some self-tapping screws to hold it. Not the first time I’ve done work like this on a door panel. Finding a black sensatec one is pretty easy and could probably get a usable one for less than $70 shipped.

-same as above, but buying a door panel with black Dakota leather- price isn’t that different, would this be any more durable and resistant to cracking over time? The black stitching on the armrest itself would not bother me either.

-swapping a whole door panel if the armrest is not easily removed and reattached, but finding one that is in good condition and matches the red stitching and HK audio may be more challenging.


I am leaning towards swapping a leather armrest into my existing door panel right now, but would love to hear if anyone had advice or experience on the best fix for this!

[thatgarrett]

Well, in case anyone else has this problem, I went the option of swapping in a new armrest from another door panel. I ended up finding a cheap door panel for $60 that had a clean Dakota leather armrest, all it took was drilling out 9 plastic rivets and then using screws (part number 07147270744), which is the exact same process and screw used for the inner door handle replacement- you also have to remove the inner door pull handle (4 rivets replaced with screws), so this is a great time to replace that as well. I got a fantastic quality replacement off Ali for $1.06.

It’s a pretty simple process to get the door panel off and well documented elsewhere on here, took all of 20 minutes and I was able to practice on the old door panel assembly to see how it all went together. I would advise a leather armrest over sensatec based on the failure I saw- it is similar to a failure I had on a lower side bolster on the drivers seat- sensatec really doesn’t wear- it’s either perfect or it’s split, and once it splits a bit it get much worse quickly, you can see the difference in the picture I took 3 weeks ago when the split first happened to today when I replaced it. I don’t think repair is really an option with how much force and wear this part gets either. Leather won’t fail like this and would be very easy to touch up the dye vs a tear like the sensatec got.

So you can pretty much find any door panel that has the desired armrest and swap it and not worry about trim/stitching/and whether or not is Harmon Kardon or not. Looks like the door handle release is also replaceable by drilling out those same kinds of rivets, as is the door pocket on the bottom. The trim strip is nearly impossible to remove in a way that leaves enough material to install it on another door, however. The leather trim above the armrest is glued on to the door panel and would be hard to replace, I peeled off the donor leather just to see what it would be like.