Broken Outside Door Handle Fix

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by Ven

I asked a shop, they said 477. So I ordered the part, me and my friend will try to do in my garage.

Any tips for lubricating the door handles and carriers, all 4?

And most indy shops rip out the vapor barrier then never replace it.

Online searches will find sellers of Genuine BMW carriers for around $150., this has the indy making over $300 on a 1hr job.

If the indy uses a crappy knock-off carrier, they make over $400 per hr.

Major POS indy!

I use the WD-40 Specialist White Lithium grease (spray can), to lube carriers.......and door hinges/strikes/latch pivots, wiper arm pivot points....

[Riggodeaux]

You can do it, just be prepared to take your time and be frustrated. The angles can be tricky - as best I recall, one key was keeping pressure on the spring [up or 'open'] as you line that sucker up for the screws. Extra hands will be helpful. $477? no thanks .... I don't recall that lube was called for - mine didn't show any issues with moisture, etc. - its just the pot metal casting they use that leads to the break at that one pressure point.

[SlickGT1]

I screwed with mine for all of 10 min yesterday. I got that plastic cover out no issues. The allen screw as well. Going to try and get it done tonight.

So far everything that can be taken off with plastic prying tools has been removed. Next up is the vapor seal.

[SlickGT1]

So I finished it. It was a very easy quick process. About an hour. My first time on an X. There are quite a few little pointers that I did not see posted. I realized some as pulling and yanking on stuff is not the right way to do shit.

1. The plastic plug in the side of the door is two part. You need your thinnest plastic prying tool to get under the lip. Then just work it around with two prying tools.

2. The little handle part, the part held by the allen bolt, that does not pull when you pull the handle. Once Allen bolt is out, you need to first move that part to rear of car like 1/8 th inch. You need to do the same on assembly. Slide it in, then push it forward.

3. The handle part that does move. It has an 8mm nut and rod. Also a little bit of a trick here. First pull handle to open position, take off nut. Push the rod bolt out. It has a square end on other side. Remove this carriage bolt type thing out completelly to not harm paint. While holding handle open, look at that joint from the bottom. The one you just unbolted. Take a flat head, thin one and pop the carrier locking notch away from handle. It actually has a tiny notch there. No wiggling or force required. But stop. Don't separate it all the way yet. Pull handle open and stick a plastic pry tool in to keep carrier in open position. This is to remove the stress from the front plastic. Tilt handle down 2 hours or so (30 degrees). Pull out front from its hole. Don't force it, it comes out easy.

4. I used a thick plastic right angle prying tool again and popped the ball joint thing, and the white plastic holder. Basically put tool behind it, and push up. I managed to push these guys back in with pure man thumb strength.

This was the front right door.

Tools used were an assortment of red plastic prying tools. Two flat head screw drivers, a 1/4" and 1/8" tips ones. A Phillips. 1/4" ratchet, 3" extension, torx bits and 1/4" sockets. 5" bungie chord for hanging airbag.

[StephenVA]

Congrats!

[petebmwm]

Yep, mine broke this morning too... Order the part tomorrow and slap it in asap...

[petebmwm]

part in stock, done!

[StephenVA]

CONGRATS!

[petebmwm]

My saving grace is working at the dealership and being able to buy a tech lunch to pop it in!!!!

[andrewwynn]

mine broke quite a while ago; been too busy to install the new one that i already have, because I also want to do the window regulator, and i haven't had enough time to to do both of them.

I'm going to bump up the priority to get it done sooner because last night the wind blew my door shut and locked my keys in the ignition; the roadside assistance guy's truck broke down leaving me at 3am stuck outside my car with $3000- 4000 of tools inside, with no alarm in Chicago with my key in the ignition, basically a 'gift to the interested party'.

So… i studied the replacement part and realized that more than likely the broken part is one of the teeth on the stupid partial gears in the horrible design. I poked around a bit to figure out exactly how to pry with a screw driver to pull the release cable skipping around the goofy useless 'gear'; i was able to open the door on the first try in less than 30 seconds.

So… I will take a video of how to do that for those in the same boat; i will likely make a little gizmo my wife can keep on her keychain to get into her car until i can fix her door carrier.

THEN: I will re-build HER carrier to be 5x better than the original rather than just replace it with the same shitty design.

Basically the design is such that you lift up/out and the force going around a fulcrum is wanting to also lift straight up ; the opposite direction. BMWs solution to revers the direction is to use partial gears; they would be maybe 4" diameter if they were complete, but they only have 3 or 4 teeth; when pulling the handle it's quite clear it's horribly inefficient; it takes at least 3 to 5x the force to pull the release cable with the handle than actually just pulling the cable; that's absolutely shit. Sorry BMW, you make some great stuff this is the butthole of your creations.

So; i'm going to re-engineer the design to directly pull the cable through a pulley; the door handle pulls outward but needs to translate to upward, why the hell bmw decided to make a stupidly complicated solution rather than just use a pulley to change out into down is absolutely beyond me it makes no sense whatsoever.

once done i'm absolutely positive the door handle will operate with 50% to 70% less force; you should see my 7 yr old opening our x5 doors; it takes him 3 to 4 tries every time; that's ludicrous. He will be able to open first try every time.

I will post a very detailed how-to and people will be able to REPAIR and improve the design for under $5 - 10 maximum. The simplicity of the repair will be mind-blowing. (you will need some mechanical skill and some tools; it will be about 7 out of 10 difficulty).

I will be doing window regulators at some point and when i do them i will be doing preemptive strikes on the door handle carriers and implement the fix i describe above.

-awr