Door Handle - Page 2

sgrice · #11 02-12-2016, 06:44 PM

tomsawyer - Sorry you have had to replace the door carrier so many times. It makes me wonder if there is a fault elsewhere that is showing up as a door carrier failure (i.e., the carrier is the weak link that breaks, but the real problem is elsewhere). Have you checked the door lock mechanism itself? It can rust up with consequent greater force being required to operate, with a resultant shortened life span of the carrier. Check out this link. Pics 10 and 11 in the first post show a rusted up mechanism that is likely the primary issue which subsequently causes the carrier failure. This YouTube video discusses the same rusting linkage point of the door lock at about the 2 min 30 second point.

Hope that helps. Let us know how the door lock linkage area looks.

Stephen

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upallnight · #12 02-12-2016, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TECN1K

My passenger side broke this morning.

Wound up costing me $336

$136 for the part at the dealer (in stock, that's how common this is)

And $200 on Craigslist so I won't freeze to death this weekend

Nope you won't die from freezing,

you'll probably die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Keep the garage door crack a little.

SlickGT1 · #13 02-12-2016, 09:28 PM

Lol I'm sure not everyone is retarded to use that indoors. I think he was planing on using it outside. I've seen them used in-doors with provisions for intake and exhaust though.

TECN1K · #14 02-12-2016, 10:00 PM

Done. Heater worked like a champ. Yeah, outside LOL

It's pleasant to be surrounded by warmth while bleeding and swearing at this pain in the ass job. (stabbed myself while trying to get those f'n 2 piece plugs out)

Job was cake, could do it in my sleep again - one part of it, the hex bolt that holds the lock cylinder (blank passenger) did NOT want to line up with the hole. Read everywhere that this happens with chinese knockoffs. Well, apparently it happens with a dealer part as well. I wound up using a wire to pull the bolt straight - and kept pressure on everything, finally getting the bolt to bite. But it was slow going threading it in. I'm sure I cross threaded the piece. At least it's snug now.

Other pains in the ass - 75% of the clips broke (had bags of spares, from planning ahead!) and the led broke off the interior handle. And I lost the bolt that holds it to the frame on the door card, so I had to improvise with another bolt with the same thread pitch, and ground down the head so it would fit in the slot on the back of the handle cup.

Like everyone else who's tackled this - I could do it over again in like 20 minutes. The first time is always a bitch, even with videos, a bentley manual and countless threads. Don't rush. Duh. If you haven't done this yet, and you don't listen to me, you'll probably break shit and bleed over everything like I did tonight.

Where it broke. Where it always breaks. Because this part is a f'n piece of GARBAGE.

Sorry to hijack your thread man, no sense making another one.

Awntchi · #15 02-13-2016, 06:03 AM

All 4 of my carriers broke in that exact same location. 3 out of 4 are oem and lined up fairly good on installation, the 4th one took me over an hour to line (the outside screw with the carrier). I've also starting paying a lot of attention to the way I open the door by pulling the handle up rather than out....basically the natural way the carrier works. I'm not sure if that prolongs their life but it feels smoother doing so, less stress on that little piece that keeps breaking. Just a thought.

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Scott ZHP · #16 02-13-2016, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TECN1K

Where it broke. Where it always breaks. Because this part is a f'n piece of GARBAGE.

Engineered obsolescence.

This could have easily been designed, or re-designed, to never fail by reinforcing that little sleeve. Call me cynical, but I swear stuff like this, and the plastic window regulator clips are done to gin up work for the service depts.

upallnight · #17 02-13-2016, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awntchi

All 4 of my carriers broke in that exact same location. 3 out of 4 are oem and lined up fairly good on installation, the 4th one took me over an hour to line (the outside screw with the carrier). I've also starting paying a lot of attention to the way I open the door by pulling the handle up rather than out....basically the natural way the carrier works. I'm not sure if that prolongs their life but it feels smoother doing so, less stress on that little piece that keeps breaking. Just a thought.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

I haven't replaced a door carrier during my ownership of the X. I instructed all my family members to pull up on the handle and not out. I also open all the doors when it is cold because if I feel resistance in any of the doors, I will use another door to get in and open the door with resistance from the inside. A lot of these posts come out during the winter months because the door handle get frozen and people think that by pulling harder they will get the door open. NOT.

andrewwynn · #18 02-16-2016, 03:20 PM

Mine and wife's both broken. I installed replacement knock off in wife's x5 and repaired the carrier where the crappy pot metal frame snapped. In her case the locking mechanism stuck so the handle was still locked when the door was unlocked. The grease on the lock spring gummed up and would not spring back to unlocked position. I noticed the same thing happening on mine just before it broke so I expect to see similar when I swap in my wife's old carrier that I repaired with 4 inches of 16ga steel wire.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=894305

I could hear the locking mechanism spring free up to a second after the door was unlocked on my car and in retrospect recall having the handle stuck but I could pull a few times and it would work. If the common failure is for the lock spring to gum up and the handle to stay locked the cure is a periodic shot of non gooey lubricant. Could even make a small access hole so don't need to remove the inside door panel to get to it.

I will try to do some remote camera inspection on mine before I take it apart. I did also invent a "jimmy" that could be used to directly pull the release cable from outside the car in case of emergency. If I can get that perfected I will make a DIY tutorial and others can put one in their trunk to get to and open the drivers door from outside and not have to climb in from passenger side.

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nebilex · #19 02-21-2016, 10:33 AM

OP, the same thing happened to me when i was changing the door carrier... I thought about putting the screw as some suggested but then i decided to see how much the door handle was on eBay... (i will probably get crap from people for buying eBay parts :-) ) but it was cheap, i think i paid $20 (luckily i have the black handle so no need to get it painted)... and installed the new one... Just make sure when you install it, pull the carrier out as if you are opening the door. I made the mistake of pushing the handle into the carrier while the carrier was in the resting position...
Good luck.

upallnight · #20 02-21-2016, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nebilex

OP, the same thing happened to me when i was changing the door carrier... I thought about putting the screw as some suggested but then i decided to see how much the door handle was on eBay... (i will probably get crap from people for buying eBay parts :-) ) but it was cheap, i think i paid $20 (luckily i have the black handle so no need to get it painted)... and installed the new one... Just make sure when you install it, pull the carrier out as if you are opening the door. I made the mistake of pushing the handle into the carrier while the carrier was in the resting position...
Good luck.

Nothing wrong with buying on eBay. I found and brought my PORSCHE from a listing on eBay. The guy ended the listing early after I went and saw the car and made him an offer.

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