Frozen door locks - Common Problem ?

[princemoe2m]

it happened to me this morning, the trick to open the door is wash the door with hot water by the door handle & on the glass window right on top of the handle thn try unlocking & locking with the key several times and it should open, u gotta do it fast so the hot water dont freeze up after it cools off. thn when u open it dry all the area where u poured water on real good and spray wd40 by the henge area. if u open it and the door wont shut and it keep bouncing back just hold the door shut and press the lock button.. that should lock the door, but u might get stuck inside, just exist from the back door usually the back door opens from the inside with no problem... if that dont work just enter ur X from the trunk thats wat i did last winter

[Naz24]

UPDATE: blasted the heat at 90 and was able to open the door from the inside. The outside seems frozen, i'm not gonna mess with it for now. until i get it back in my garage at home

[joeboch348]

it's happened to me to oa few times. just replaced the door opener as it had broken. hopefully wont happen again.

that sucks. but how about when you pull up to the dunkin donuts and the window is frozen shut, so you have to open the door to get your coffee ( like a damn hobo) then the lock freezes and the door wont close! thats what happened to me. picture mr fancy pants driving his bimmer with one hand holding the door closed. when i got to work i pulled in inside to let it thaw.

[butundo]

Originally Posted by chefwong

Primetime -

I know it's been awhile but has the updated part done the trick for you in the last couple of winter seasons ?

Yes, I have replaced the parts in the past, and it still happens, but not as often.

[joeboch348]

i just replaced mine a few weeks ago' ill let ya know

[joeboch348]

maybe staying out of the car washes in the winter will help?

[mysweetx5]

Originally Posted by Bill K

It happened to me twice last winter. BMW NA was completely useless since my warranty expired. This problem is a safety hazard, since you can shut the doors by pulling the door shut, then pressing the lock button. Problem with that is you get locked in the car until the doors thaw. And the door isnt even completely latched shot. Piece of crap design.
The way this problem seems to happen is that when snow/ice melts on the windows, the water runs down into the door. If its still inside the door when you shut down and this water remains there long enough to freeze, then your screwed.
POSSIBLE SCENERIO: You run out one very cold night to the store. You park, come back out to your car and find the doors dont shut because with all the cold, the water in the door froze. Now you're stuck at night in a parking lot without doors. As bad as that sounds, now replace that scenerio with your wife and small child being stuck one cold night in a parking lot and cant shut the doors. I would send BMW a threatening legal letter (my wife's an attorney, so its free).
I really see a lawsuit looming for BMW because this is clearly a defective design in the doors.
BMW needs to step up and recall these particular models because if they cant figure out how to shut a f****n door, I will never purchase another BMW again (I'm on my third and last).

yea Bill k, I really like your comments about *frozen bmw doors* Imagine locked out in the cold where door won't open, or came back to your car while carrying a little baby and rushing to get in so, you can warn-up, but unfortunately found all door handles stuck and locked. It happened to me once, and I had to look for a nearest store where I got me two large cups of hot tea. And I threw it all around my doors/handles which finally got me inside my car to warn-up after a good 30mtes.

Anyway, I like your input and you've made some great suggestions about this issue.

[RMak]

Took the X5 for a car wash yesterday. Soon as I got home, sprayed the door lock mechanism with wd40 drivers side and the passenger side. Now that we're looking to having a minor snow storm scattered showers sunday through monday, threw on the car cover. All of this just to prevent frozen door locks and to keep her clean. Looks like i'll use my Toyota till all is clear.

[mysweetx5]

Yes my friend as we are in New york, they announced there could be a possible 6 to 12 inches snow falling and it would be a great idea if I could cover my baby up as I washed yesterday. But unfortunately I don't have a car cover + my car usually park on the street. Otherwise (WD40 @ any autozone is very good to have for the frozen doors handle trick. I had my two front doors that kept frozen everytime I have a temperature around 20's, but since I read this forum, I went and got me a bottle WD40 for $6.00. I opened the little black cover plastic by the corner of the door and sprayed all around inside the lock/the mechanism compartment, every since I never had that problem.

[evertonfc]

New X5 owner. I bought it because it would be much safer in the canadian winter than my Mustang. First time the temp drops below freezing, the door locks. Not impressed with german engineering.
So what works best?
The rubber glove; the wd40; the BMW lock grease; spraying anti-freeze in the door lock (not sure anti-freeze and paint mix well); or standard lock de-icer.
Really helpful forum by the way, much friendlier than the more general beamer forums.