Locked Out! Need Help
 

Hey Guys,

The drivers door handle on my X5 was broken when I got it. It was on my list of repairs but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Well, while I was away for a couple of weeks and the battery died. It was weak and I guess it kicked the bucket. Now I can't get in the truck since the remote key also has a dead battery.

Is there anywhere on the motor that I can get a charger on it to get power to the door locks? Or how difficult is it to replace the battery in the key? I guess that won't work either is it probably needs to be realigned to the truck after you change the battery

Cheers
Bernie

The charging points for the battery are in the motor bay... If you by lucky chance have your hood up you can easily charge the car.. I'm assuming you already know that and meant trying to charge the battery with the car complete closed and locked including hood and trunk.. The charging points are on top of the motor. unless you have a highly trained mouse for a pet that's gonna be a tough one... IF you're windows are cracked the rear trunk has an emergency latch.. its that small black oval looking thing about 2 inches long on the inside passenger side of the rear hatch. If you can get access to it or have MacGyver skills you can simply pull on that latch and open the rear hatch... Battery replacement in the key is not that difficult.. but if the car battery is dead the key remote isn't going to open anything... car batter provides the power to the door actuators....

sent you a PM - good luck!

Thanx fellas,

I figured out a way in.

I used a motorcycle battery and sent 12V up the trailer connector on the aux line. BINGO!

Thanx for helping, really appreciate it.
Now to get that damned door fixed and stat!

There's a door handle carrier replacement DIY on the forum. Not terribly difficult for a crafty person

Just an FYI for any e53 owner curious as to the location of the positive battery cable run throughout the vehicle.

If you can gain access to the engine bay by removing the under panel...and if you can reach the starter or the alternator...you may be able to get a cable attached to the positive side, then find a ground...and you may be able to get enough power to the vehicle to unlock the doors electronically if you're in the same situation as the OP (malfunctioning driver's door handle thus lock cylinder that can't be manually actuated).

Ingenius using the trailer hitch wiring. Well done!

Which pin is the aux on the 7 pin connector? I'll keep that info in my back pocket if things go severely awry in the future.

euro trailer connector is 13-pin, and pin 9 is directly wired to battery via 2 fuses, 20A and 80A, bypassing any other cisrcuitry or a electronics...

US trailer connector is 7-pin... i am not sure which one is going directly to the battery...

The diagram I used does not show a number for each pin.
The pin at 1 o'clock is the hot and the pin at 7 o'clock is the ground.

I sat and thought about it for awhile as any other method would have required a lot of work. Simply hooked up a 12v battery I had sitting there out of one of my bikes and voila!

I will be honest with you... I read your post over an hour ago and I'm still sitting here chuckling about it!

Absolutely 100% genius razor!!!