Quote:
Originally Posted by glassjoe
Well, I thought I had fixed my issue by resetting the Bowden cable but it was a positive negative. After resting the cable I could open and close the door from both the inside and outside, but as soon as I locked the doors with my key FOB or the central locking button and then unlocked them, I could no longer open the door from the inside or outside. I was thinking WTF???
So, after tearing everything back apart and removing the lock actuator I hooked it up to car power and cycled the lock a few times holding the exterior door handle mechanism approximately where it resides when everything was hooked up and noticed an internal latch wasn't releasing. As I slowly extended the mechanism it would release. So after scratching my head for a second or two, I figured out the problem. The damn cable that came with the Chinese door carrier I replaced was shorter than the OEM cable which wasn't allowing the door actuator mechanism to fully extend allowing the door to be opened. So I yanked the new carrier out of the car and, luckily, I still had the broken OEM carrier and compared the two cables and sure enough, the Chinese crap I got from Amazon has a cable assembly that was about a half-inch shorter. Lucky for me, I was able to remove the cable from the OWM unit and replace it on the new unit and after getting everything back together again, the door functions normally in all scenarios.
I was really close to buying a new door actuator and am glad I didn't because the OEM is $200+. So BUYER BEWARE if you buy an other than genuine BMW door carrier because the cable might not be long enough. I had this issue on my left rear door so I'm not sure if other are affected.
Hope this helps someone!
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^^ This, I think explains my issue. I've replaced my front right door handle carrier with an eBay $26 part (seller = "Partstation2015") and it seemed to work. (Though,, as others have noted, the doorhandle was kind of 'hair trigger', in that it released the door in the first 3mm of handle movement, which didn't feel very safe.)
I know, I know, $26 delivered part, what did I expect...
I was about to re attach the door panel and put my tools away, but I thought I would check that the door locked and unlocked properly. So I reattached the battery, shut the doors and cycled the door locks. The passenger door did not lock. I pushed the 'snib' (plastic but that would normally poke through the top of the door panel) down to lock it, and it then wouldn't unlock. Pulling the interior handle (well the exposed cable, since I hadn't reattached the door panel) would not unlock the door either..
Much frustration, and I'll admit, mild panic.
Detatching the balljoint on the end of the cable, and the door would unlock again. I think the cable is too short,I'm going to try what you suggested. (Back in 2018..)