Replace front driver door handle carrier |
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These cars are absurd. I'm actually lucky only having had one of these fail so far.
From a Facebook post I made recently:
Quote:
The issues that you'll run into unique to the E53 (so in addition to all of the normal BMW madness) are:
1) The door handle carriers like to fail very prematurely.
2) The steel rear brake hardlines like to rust out prematurely where they transition below your left foot on a left-hand-drive car.
3) The steering angle sensors like to fail prematurely (and require coding).
4) The plastic transfer case actuator gear fails prematurely.
5) The plastic stand-offs for the electrical backing plates in the tail lights (where the light sockets connect to) like to melt and allow the sockets to lose connection.
6) Suspension bushings and joints up front and in the rear designed for a shorter/lighter 5-series sedan will fail prematurely causing poor alignment issues and similar.
7) The CV boots seem to fail prematurely, especially the front outer units.
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We'll see how many more of these common issues I collect as my ownership experience progresses.
Opening the door from the outside stopped working, and it was the common door handle carrier failure. Supposedly designed in such a way as to avoid them getting frozen stuck in cold weather, BMW managed to do this in all of the rest of their cars without causing this type of mayhem. I am aware of the multiple repair techniques (bailing wire or metal zip-ties), the aftermarket replacement options (all of dubious smoothness), and the rebuilt options out there (most notably by
Moustapha Sari in France).
I tried to repair mine with a metal zip-tie but just didn't get it right. I then pivoted to purchasing new, and decided on OEM after a bunch of research and getting first-hand experience with what it might be like to live with a unit that doesn't fit perfectly. There were no decent rebuilt options at the time (like there are now). It was a bit more than I wanted to spend at the time, but I am happy with the solution.
After the failed repair attempt I still needed the car while I waited for parts to arrive so I fashioned up a field fix that worked well enough until the new parts arrived. You'll see that oddball stuff in the pictures.
Normally this would be a pretty typical repair, except I had one crazy thing to deal with.
Who ever removed and reinstalled the driver's side door panel before I bought the car pried open the tangs on the central latching mechanism to the point where the door panel locked into place with no easy way of removing it. After a couple hours of trying I finally got a sight-line and enough light on the issue to see what was going on. I was then able to dislodge the door panel from the locked latch, damaging the plastic female guide in the process. A new piece was easy to add to the order. The pics show I was mistakenly sent 1 bag of 10 pieces, instead of just one.
While I was in there I also glued one of the outer latch provisions that had pulled away from the door panel during removal.
The rubber trim for the door handle was in decent shape, but I replaced that as well.
Parts:
$130.58 | OEM outside door handle carrier (front, driver's side) | 51218243615
$11.84 | OEM rubber door handle trim (front, driver's side, right lock portion) | 51218243631
$12.09 | OEM rubber door handle trim (front, driver's side, left portion) | 51218243629
$3.20 | OEM door panel central latch guide (plastic, female) | 51418156532
Pics:
