Okay a little bit of background information first. When I got the car last year the passenger side front door couldn't be opened from the outside. The previous owner had already bought a replacement door handle carrier so I installed it almost right away to fix the issue. With the new handle carrier, the door was again openable from the outside, although the feel was not 100 % like in other doors. It required a slight yank to open the door. As time passed, it just got worse and worse requiring even bigger yank while eventually after couple of months of use the door couldn't be opened at all from the outside.

Today I finally had time to work on the door again and I replaced the handle carrier again, thinking that perhaps the part I installed last year was somehow faulty to begin with. Not sure what brand the first one was, but this new one was made by Febi Bilstein. With the new carrier, the door is openable again, but it still requires a slight yank and I predict that after some use it will completely fail again.

Could it be that both of the handle carriers were in some way out of tolerance from the factory, perhaps the cables were too long or something. Should I just stick with a BMW part for this? Has anyone faced anything like this? As far as I can see the only other part that could be causing this is the door lock with motor actuator (51218402540), since opening mechanism is attached to it. Is it typical for the door lock to wear out this way?

Attached a picture I took inside the door, the mechanism was at least visibly in working condition when I tested it.

Attached Images

 

__________________
09/2003 X5 3.0i
02/2003 X5 4.6is (non-runner)