Riggodeaux, I live in Dunwoody but up in north Georgia this week, back on Monday. The alignment is the issue I am having now plus the little tits on the door handle plastic pin sheared off so it wont lock into place. However when I mount the handle on the carrier outside of the door, it seems to fit fine without moving so hopefully I will not have to replace. Going to try press from the inside and see if that helps. Otherwise I'll reassemble and give you a ring next week. I have the drivers side front to do as well.

One other item I am confused about is the rear (635) looks identical to the front (615) Is there really a difference?

Go Germany, 7 nil!

World Cup held a lot of interest to me today what a hell of a slaughtering by Ze Germans!

we pulled up the last few minutes [and last two German scores] on the display monitor in a conference room at work; not the beautiful game, but give the Germans credit; some nice passing [albeit weak D] to set up the flurry of scores ........

I finally finished the install for the rear door handle carrier. What a pita this was as it was sure difficult to get the carrier lined up correctly. Had I removed the door lock actuator first, the carrier would have gone in easier. A few points for the rear door that is different from the front.
1. If u have side curtains, the one for the small window needs to be removed as there is a screw at the bottom holding the door panel in place and there is a clip at the top that needs to be depressed to release the top. Here is a video showing how to remove the unit. BMW X5 door panel window regulator privacy shade removal e53 bimmermerchant - YouTube
2. As mentioned above, remove the door lock actuator to give you more room to remove the carrier.
3. During my install process with the door handle and rotation I managed to strip off the tits from the plastic plug. I followed a fix as outlined by squeasel by drilling a small hole in the center then use a small screw and washer to secure the plug. This does seem to be a better approach then the cheep plastic parts.
4. When mounting the carrier, don't over tighten the phillips screw as this will cause the carrier to deflect which then misaligns the mounting for the faux cylinder screw. This was my original problem.
5. To reconnect the cable ball and the white plastic clip, I used a socket and a screw driver type driver to press on the ball until it locked into place and did the same for the white plastic clip. This worked pretty easy.

The end result is the door opens with ease and I can hopefully do the front drivers side within a few hours as everyone else seems to do. Thanks for everyone's help and the offer from riggodeaux to to help with the install.

I just had the front passenger side door carrier replaced at my indie shop. Part was $125 and the labor and tax brought the total to $380. Dealership was quoting almost $600 for this. Just wanted to provide an updated price point comparison for anyone that's not inclined to try it yourself.

Thanks. Not a surprising labor charge, as the 'book' always states the time required as significantly more than it takes someone who has done it before. That's the car repair biz.

Wow, bought a chinese part from eBay for $34.50 shipped. About an hour of my time. Total Cost: $34.50

You close by in RI by chance? I'd be happy to pay you in cold, hard beer the next time I have to replace one :-)

Yes, this thread will never die. Unlike our door handle carriers, my front passenger door being the latest casualty.

I re-read the thread in preparation to diy once the parts come in (previously did the front driver side myself thanks to everyone in this thread).

Interesting to note, which I had not seen repeated, is to skip prying the key cylinder cover off and just unbolt the whole assembly including cover by unscrewing the bolt on the door edge. I buggered up my rubber gasket trying to pry the cover off doing the driver's side, will try this when I do the passenger side.

Someone has a link to the chinese door handle carrier?? I did a search but came up empty.