'01 X5 Door Won't Open- Fixed it
 

Hi Everyone,

My drivers side door release finally failed completely after many months of intermittent operation. Initially, the first pull of the interior handle would fail to unlock the door. The solution was simple, use the central lock button to unlock the door. Eventually, my wife had to drive the car so it failed completely- she could not open the door from the inside but fortunately could unlock it. Very shortly thereafter, the central locking system lost the ability to unlock the door, and the door would not open using either handle- not a good situation at all!

Upon disassembly, I discovered that the bowden cable anchor point at the door latch mechanism had broken (thin plastic) and the bowden cable was no longer fixed so any pull on the cable merely deformed it and failed to transmit the force to the latch.

My solution was pretty simple- I used a pair (though it turned out only one was needed) of plastic coated cable clamps from the local hardware store. The clamps are ~1 cm wide and is basically a piece of flat stock bent into a U shape with screw holes through the tabs of the U. The cradle portion is covered with rubber/plastic to prevent wear and when it is screwed to the surface the tabs close around the cable, holding it in place. I used a washer and lock nut on the backside to keep everything tight. Getting to the nut to hold it in place is the only challenge, and that is only because the space is tight and you are doing it blind. I thionk I used a 3/16" bit to drill the hole- will depend on your bolt size.

Anyway, I put the clamp on the cable and slid it around to find a suitable mounting location then had to play with it a bit to get the proper tension on the cable so that the handle would function. I hate to say it, but the tension process is a bit of a trial-and-error process and that means assembly, disassembly, assembly of the door until it works. A good starting point is to line up the end of the bowden cable with the old mounting point then screw in the clamp. The angle of the clamp can be adjusted to alter the tension on the cable, so there is no need to drill multiple holes in the door.

Note that the picture shows 2 cable clamps. I finally made it work without the left-most clamp, using only the one closest to the front of the car. As shown in the picture there was too much tension on the cable and it would not pull the door latch.

The repair has been in use for a couple of weeks now and the mechanism feels crisp, like new. Much cheaper and easier than replacing the latch assembly.

Good luck,
Randy

Wow, I've never seen a door fail because of that. The carrier usually fails first. Glad you got it fixed. :thumbup:

funny you say that.. my friend has this problem. It sometimes fails exactly how you described. Will have to open it up!

Holy macaroni! looks like i wont have to visit my dealer for this kind of problem. im not that experience with regards to fixing this kind of things on my bmw but after hearing the quoted price of repair and replacement parts from my dealer looks like im gonna be trying this one myself OR find an independent mechanic that wont charge me as high as my dealer. wth. good thing i research a lot! thanks man! if i have some difficulty i will be bumping this thread again. cheers!

So, I have the same issue, I think. There is an elongate white piece on the end of the Bowden cable, that hooks into the latch, and then there is a small anchor piece that clips into a thin black plastic carrier right above it. A small piece of my carrier apparently broke off, and the anchor won't stay in place. It looks like you mounted the cable clamps well above this point, near the upper bolt for the airbag? How has that held up for you? I really don't want to replace the latch mechanism, mostly because it looks like a real pain in the tush.

Quick Question, you mentioned that you are unable to open the door at all. I have a similiar problem in that both door latches now are not functioning. How did you remove the door panel with the door still closed? Or is there some emergency double secret probation code used to open it. THanks in advance!

Why don't you just replace it with a new bowden cable? The bowden cable is not expensive at all, around $20, part number 51218403057, that will be a permanent fix.

Mostly because there is nothing wrong with the Bowden cable. I put a fresh one on anyway, because I had a spare, but the issue is with the anchor point that the secondary clip on the cable fastens to (where the cable tension is set, a bit above the point where it attaches to the latch). That is why the op was able to fix his by adding tension with the cable clamps; the cable was fine, the attachment points were not.

OMG I have been searching the ends of the internet for that little plastic part to no avail. I have this problem and just tried JB Welding the plastic piece together. That worked for all of 4 days. I didn't even think of using a cable clamp. Great idea and definitely worth a try.

Thanks!

Same thing happened to my car. This works perfect. I only used one clamp. They are actually called throttle body clamps at Ace hardware. Not much to it just adjust the tension so the clip on the bowden cable is in position using a lock washer and nylon lock nut on the back of the throttle clamp. Only issue now is the "Door Open" message pops on. not sure where the sensor is. I am assuming I dont have the door panel on correctly