Front doors won't open when too cold

[Tomas]

Gentlemen,
This is my first winter with my geeorgeous X5. (Y2002 with almost 200km on the clock).

Last night was a litte colder, say -5*C and the front doors (both of them) would just not open.
I could hear the remote to unlock the locks, the handle pulls out, bu the doors remain closed. They would not open from outside nor from inside. I had to crowl in via the rear dors.

I started the engine, set the heating to max and the doors would open like nothing happen cca after 15 min.

Please noted that it was not the rubber door seal frozen to the door, the problem seems to be in the inside door mechanism.

Any experience with this problem? Any advice?
Thx a loin in advance,
Tomas

[emil]

Tomas, tell me about it. I had to do the same procedure as You to get into the car! I changed out some parts in the door handle mechanism and so far no problems.

[Helmuth]

Be careful. I pulled twice, second time harder, and "something" in the door was broken. Just had to order the parts. Seems to be a funny car sometimes..........

[Tomas]

@ Helmuth: yap - I guess force can do more harm than benefit in this case.

@ emil: - would you recall the parts that needed to be replaced? I would say that they should be listed here: http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E5...t_side_airbag/

But which one(s) ?

It does not seems to be a rocket science to replace any of those, I just do not feel like leaving the door dismantled until the parts arrive and doing it twice is also not my hobby .

Thx,
Tomas

[SlickGT1]

There was a post not too long ago. If you open the door and look at the latch part, there is a rubber hole cover, oval in shape that you can remove. People have has success spraying antifreeze in there and the latch would not freeze up on them. You can give that a shot.

[JWMich]

I had to repair a broken driver door handle recently, and I took a look at what was going on with the mechanism. After seeing how things work, I decided to use the oval access holes for a fairly liberal application of white lithium grease. So far so good for me here in Michigan, might be worth considering.

Regardless what you do, force is not the answer. More bad things will happen than good.

[Tomas]

All,

Thanks a lot for all the comments and advices. With your help I could identify the problem: frozen water in the cable connecting the handle.

I also found the relevant posts with the explanation and repair guidance here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...n-problem.html

Xoutpost.com - powered by BMW X-sav Enthusiasts!

(for the desperate ones in the same situation during this winter )

Thx again,
I love you people !
Tomas

[Koody]

I spray WD-40 on every moving part of the doors (locks and handles) and i repeat that every couple of days.
No problems so far

[Tomas]

Just for the "techies", I found the problematic art. It s the item no. 5 here:

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E5...control_front/

Enjoy,
T.

[Helmuth]

I have bought 2 because it seems that this is the part that breaks most. And it is - at least for me - a part which when broken is very annoying. Everybody has a smile when you TRY to enter your some thousand Euro/Dollar car.