Rear door handle issue
 

2005 X5 3.0i

I know this has been talked about here a lot. Lock/unlock works fine but I cannot open the door, from the inside nor outside. I just dropped the car off at my mechanic. Is there a way to fix or is replacing the door carrier the only way to resolve this?

Check child safety latch. If the lever isn’t completely up or down, you cannot open from both outside and inside. It happened to me when I was cleaning my X and I must have hit the lever slightly down.

To access the child safety lever, you need to remove rear door panel. It might seem difficult to do with door closed but in fact it was easy. You need to remove the rear seat bottom and outer backrest (upright rear seat padding by the door) then remove the door panel (there should be many DIY for removing rear door panel). With the rear seat bottom out, there is plenty of room to remove rear door panel. Once the rear door panel is removed, slide slim object/tool between the door where the child safety lever is located and move/push up. I used door panel / trim removal tool so it won’t scratch finish. Once the lever is pushed up, door should open. It worked for me... :D