My seatbelt caught in the door when I slammed it and it seems I'm having this issue as well. Pacific Motorsports in Portland quoted me $350 for the part (!) and "at least" two hours labor. Glad I checked here first. I'm gonna go get a dealer quote tomorrow just for fun, then go ahead and do it myself!

Found one at $109
BMW Door Handle Assembly Front Left Outer (X5) - Genuine BMW 51218243615OE | FCP Euro

You don't even have to spend that much. I got all three of mine (different doors) from Husker BMW in Nebraska. www.bmwmercedesparts.com

I order almost all my stuff from there

I replaced my driver's door handle carrier a while back, but my left rear door recently broke. I bought a Chinese replacement via partsgeek.com for $54, but it was impossible to get it to fit properly. I returned it and bought a BMW one from Stevens Creek BMW for $159 (OUCH!). However, I can't seem to get that one to fit either. The alignment on the rear doors is more critical than the fronts. The carrier doesn't seem to conform to the contour of the door, and thus its impossible to get the fake lock cover back in all the way. It has some tabs that must align when its pressed in all the way, that allows it to move forward toward the handle. Once its fully seated, then the hex screw will align. Otherwise, it won't. Have spent a couple hours now fighting it and trying to figure out how to solve this. It assembles perfectly off the door, but seems warped when its installed on the door? Anyone have any tricks for getting it aligned??

Just happened to me cost me £200 parts and labour in west London. Dealer wanted £99 just to diagnose the problem so went to local body shop I bought the parts myself from BMW

I just want to thank the OP (PersonaNonGrata) for this DIY. The description and the pics gave me the confidence to try this out myself on my driver side front door handle carrier. It was a success!!!

Some things I learned:
- Lining up the carrier was critical. I didn't realize I can simply latch the one end of the carrier on to the edge of the right hole.
- While tightening the 8mm nut and bolt that attaches the handle to the carrier, the bolt somehow got lodged behind the door sheet metal

Thanks to PersonaNonGrata and all other posters to follow for providing extremely helpful tips and guides! I had wondered though why this how-to was so light on pictures. Now having completed the job I see why! There is really no abillity to take photos of anything and those that are here are better than any I could have taken, so again THANKS! Job took 1.5 hours going slow and about 20min screwing around with alignment.

Now my turn to add my 2 cents:
1. I didn't have the right size Hex/Allan Key, however a Torx 25 screwdriver works a treat and was probably faster.
2. Alignment is Key, although I didn't think of it until afterwards if I have to do it again I would have traced around the original Carrier with a Sharpie/Artline texta before unscrewing anything and then matched up the new carrier to this.
3. I used a coat hanger to hold the airbag

Other than that everything else is well covered over the last 15 pages!

Having trouble removing the old carrier from the rear right door. From what I can tell based on the OP, there are only four points the carrier attaches to the door: The cable ball socket, the cable retention seat, the exterior philips screw and the allen bolt.

No matter how I rotate the carrier, it just won't make it passed the door lock stem. Any tips?

My fix was to temporarily remove the three Torx screws in the door body and the actuator.

I had to re-do mine over the weekend because the cheap URO carrier I used was not seating correctly. Interestingly, in the picture of the OP, the cable retention holder/white plastic nut is seated at the upper notch. on mine, in order for it to work correctly, I needed to have it seated on the lower notch, which is a PITA to do. because of that, and the extra pressure on the cable, getting the handle to line up was a bitch. So, either it lines up but doesnt really open the door all that well, or it opens great, and doesnt really line up.

thats my .02 on the stupid URO part. It would be nice if you could shorten the cable a little, but the part is molded.

I guess I will use it till it breaks again and get OEM this time for better fitament.

Just finished mine, works better than ever before!

Problems that I had:

- took some great effort to take the old cable out
- spend a bit time to figure out how to get the old carrier out
- STILL can't get the hex screw into the lock part and even when I just place it back the gap between the lock and handle is much bigger than it used to be.

PLEASE help if you know a trick for threading that hex screw. Spent hours on that and still nothing.

Hex screw is 3mm away from the hole in the locking part.

Please help.