Door Handle Carrier (Are Off-Brands ok?)

[Lamby]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

One more: if x5 owners would learn this Achilles Heel issue with the design defect they would never break another door handle carrier. It takes about 10-15# to open the door. About 70-100# to break the carrier. It will ONLY happen when you think the door is unlocked but because the locking lever is stuck in gummy grease you yank very bar assuming the door seal is frozen. I've been trying to work out a non-invasive way to get some lock de-icer in there to share with people.

In a worst-case scenario all four doors frozen: climb in the tailgate or use some portable heat like IR electric heater and warm up the door near the handle just don't ever pull harder than it normally takes to open the door or risk "operator error" self destructing the carrier.

My x5 the drivers door froze up just about a week ago. I climbed in the back door and about 3-4 days later it finally warmed up enough to defrost the door and work good as new.


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Love the idea of getting in the boot! (trunk) My neighbours already have a pretty strange view of me after I hired 7 midgets to wear my teams rugby kit (before a sevens tournament) and they (the midgets) where hanging about outside my house until I brought the mini bus around. I turned up and they where having a kick about between themselves on the green and my neighbours where going mental as it was a dry summer and they decided to put 'KEEP OFF GRASS!' signs everywhere. Anyway... back to getting in the boot... eat your heart out Dukes of Hazard. This is how I am doing it from now on.

On a separate note, no midgets where harmed, they simply ran out to warm up before kick off and entertained the crowd, to the bemusement of the opposition.

[nebilex]

I've changed both driver and passenger side with aftermarket (ebay) carriers. I initially changed the driver and although it worked fine, there was a significant gap between the locking part and the handle. If you have OCD, you won't survive at the gap different... but it was too late for me since it was already in and worked fine. The passenger side was perfect fit, it worked flawlessly. Had aftermarket on the car for over 2 years before i sold it. As someone said earlier, for a 10+ year old car, i would do the aftermarket on door carrier and keep oem on critical parts.

[andrewwynn]

At my son's school, there is a family where I think the minivan side door is broken and the kid always jumps in "the boot".

I was so busy I wasn't able to replace my broken carrier for about 4 months. Troublesome when the windows wouldn't auto-down but I mastered the art of jumping over the console from passenger side.


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[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by nebilex

I've changed both driver and passenger side with aftermarket (ebay) carriers. I initially changed the driver and although it worked fine, there was a significant gap between the locking part and the handle. If you have OCD, you won't survive at the gap different... but it was too late for me since it was already in and worked fine. The passenger side was perfect fit, it worked flawlessly. Had aftermarket on the car for over 2 years before i sold it. As someone said earlier, for a 10+ year old car, i would do the aftermarket on door carrier and keep oem on critical parts.

Exactly. You can fine tune that fit with a razor knife. I had the same problem. I trimmed the rubber grommet/seal that holds the handle less than 1mm and fits perfectly.


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[Lamby]

Okay. So after a £50 saving and inspecting the after market part before I bought it, I have an aftermarket one and cancelled the one from BMW parts, rang them up and he said, can I ask why? Yes buying a aftermarket one... to which he responded... oh, really... hmm... good luck with the fitment. Grrr. I am now nervous but I will hopefully get it to fit.

[andrewwynn]

Move the cable over OEM much better. You can fine tune the fit with file/razor etc. also more than likely you can FIX the broken one. Find my post on how.


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[Lamby]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Move the cable over OEM much better. You can fine tune the fit with file/razor etc. also more than likely you can FIX the broken one. Find my post on how.


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Thanks Andrew, wow, you know your stuff on these! Okay I will move the OEM over, I did the tests last night and yeah its proper broken so will have to dismantle it. I only have a car port as garage is full of crap and the weather in the UK is likely to SNOW and me -3c on Saturday. Great, where is the fun in doing this in the summer?

[semcoinc]

Originally Posted by Lamby

Okay. So after a £50 saving and inspecting the after market part before I bought it, I have an aftermarket one and cancelled the one from BMW parts, rang them up and he said, can I ask why? Yes buying a aftermarket one... to which he responded... oh, really... hmm... good luck with the fitment. Grrr. I am now nervous but I will hopefully get it to fit.

No worries Lamby. My aftermarket fitment was acceptable to me. See my pics here

https://xoutpost.com/1096238-post25.html

Mike

[andrewwynn]

Wife and I both have 2001 e53s. My carrier broke, I bought knock off carrier but before I could replace wife's also broke.

I took hers out, swapped the original cable and installed into her car.

Then I took her broken carrier and fixed it wrapping some 16ga steel wire around the axle where the pot metal broke.

I took my carrier out harvested the cable from it to put on wife's original now fixed carrier and installed in my car

I think I officially became an expert in this carrier when I inadvertently locked my key in the car in the ignition in Chicago at 1am.

(Drivers door was unlocked of course but I couldn't open)

I happened to have the replacement carrier with me back at my clients house so I studied it until I figured out exactly where I could poke a screwdriver through the weather seal to poke the Bowden cable to horn the car.

It worked on the first try

Roadside assistance couldn't come in a short time frame, I had arranged for them to come in the am until I realized my x5 had the keys in the ignition with $1000s worth of tools in the back and NO ALARM set. (Holy grail for a Chicago car thief)


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[Lamby]

I did the door carrier in 2 hours, first time doing it. Used a decent after market febi part which fit ok and didn't fight me too much at all. The install removal is fairly straight forward if not time consuming to be careful and ensure fit. Attached photos of the broken carrier


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