[CentexM5]

Last week I repaired the leaking seals on the sound insulation in both rear doors. No problems, thanks to all the threads on this amazing site. Both doors worked well afterwards opening just fine, using inside and outside handles. But, I had not activated the door locks with the key until this past weekend. The rear passenger door is now acting as if it is still locked, even though the door lock knob is in the fully up position. The key raises and lowers all 4 door lock knobs. The lock knob will raise from the down position when the inner handle is pulled. There is normal resistance when pulling either the inner or outside handle. They both (inside/outside handles) just act like the door is still locked, in that the door does not unlatch and open,even with the door lock knob in the up position.

Now with the above said...last evening, I somehow got the door to open. It sounds stupid, but I don't know exactly what I did any different than I had done a dozen times prior. I was just pulling on the inner handle several times, pushing on the door, and sometimes pulling and pushing the lock knob up and down. Some combination must have somehow done the trick.

I have left the door open until can further investigate the problem. I can take the inner panel off again, now, and look to see what is going on, but I don't know if I will see anything.

Does anyone here have any ideas as to what I may have done incorrectly in the initial repair? I did not mess with the locking mechanism at all to my knowledge. The inner handle was replaced correctly to the activating wire as far as I know. It feels normal, and opened the door just fine many times until I activated the locking mechanism for the door. Is it possible the locking mechanism has just coincidentally broken just at the time I had the door apart. Does/can the locking mechanism fail in this manner?

Thanks for you thoughts and help.

Mark

 

[Feld1128]

Check all the rods inside the door, make sure they are clipped into the plastic parts properly. Also the rods may be crossed somewhere and binding. If you are not sure where things are supposed to be take the opposite door panel off and compare everything, probably something is not together right. Also child safety locks????

 

[CentexM5]

Thanks. I thought about child safety locks. I looked on the opposite door for evidence of their presence, but but could not see anything I could identify as a child safety lock. Do these come on all e39's. Where are they on the door?

I'll take the panels off and compare.

 

[Feld1128]

I dont have my e39 anymore but they should be there, maybe someone here could verify.

 

[chowdah]

I believe the child safety locks are in the side of the door. However, child safety locks engaged would still allow the door to open from the outside. Are your rear doors still unresponsive when you "lock" the key fob (i.e. has something been reversed)?

 

[CentexM5]

Yes. All 4 locks go down when the key fob lock button is pushed. And all doors are locked unable to open.

 

[chowdah]

Strange. I guess you could fiddle with the child safety lock on that broken door's latch. It looks like a red key slot.

If no joy, then pull the inner panel to recheck the wiring to the window controls, and the cable hook to the door handle. However, I agree that -- besides the airbag -- nothing of substance would have been touched doing this job.

I rechecked my photos from this job, and the components for the handles/latches/locks are tucked out of the way. I can also see that my lock post was in the up position for the duration of this job.

 

[CentexM5]

Thanks. I have seen that red slotted piece on the door edge and wondered if that was the child lock out. I'll give it a try and fiddle with it. I must agree with other comments that the outer handle should not be affected by the lock out.

I may have inadvertently depressed the lock post when replacing the inner, leather panel. Don't know why this would have fouled things up, though.

I may have time to pull the panel this evening to look around. I may close the door with the panel off and then lock and unlock with the key fob to see if the problem returns. With the panel off, I may be able to see better what is going wrong. The outside handle should still work fine with the inner panel off, shouldn't it? Does anyone see any problem with this diagnostic approach?

 

[mchin]

I had the same problem which developed suddenly and without any cause. however, only the outside handle would not work.

I thought that the cable that ran from the outside door handle to the lock actuator had stretched because if you pulled the cable just a fraction it would unlatch the door.

After paying for a new cable I found out that the black plastic door carrier to which the outside handle is attached had cracked at the hinge. It was only cracked so the door handle would still operate and pull on the cable but because of the crack it was not traveling enough to unlatch the door. I think what happened was my 5 year old would pull up on the door handle quickly to get into the car which might have caused the plastic to crack.

Like I said above, my inside door handle worked fine. One thing I did which is incredibly stupid was that I activated the child safety lock and the shut the door. This meant that the inside handle was deactivated and the outside handle was broken. Thankfully, I was able to remove the door panel from the inside and unlatch the door.

Hope this helps and sorry for the long response.

Mike.

 

[CentexM5]

Got a chance to get the panel off. Did not have to get that far before discovering the problem...mechanic error. The inner handle screw had gone in right next to the threaded grommet, but not into it. Therefore the handle was somewhat tight in place, but a bit off center allowing the inner wire to not activate the latch properly. Still do not know why the outer handle did not work either. Now after affixing the inner handle properly, all is good inside and out. Live and learn. thanks for everyone's thoughts.

 

[chowdah]

Interesting. Glad it was easy.

 

[feeblebob]

I have a very similar problem, my rear door does still not open, very interesting thread that I shall need to follow through when I get some time to investigate.

As an aside for the guys that saw my other thread regarding this, the fact it has 'opening issues' was not a cause for an MOT failure, or even an advisory.

 

[englund]

After having problems with my rear doors not wanting to latch during cold winter days until the inside was warmed up, one door finally got stuck in the LOCKED position. No opening handle would work (and no, it wasn't the child safety lock). I tried to fix it myself but couldn't figure out how to get the door panel off from the inside without actually opening the door (Catch 22). I lowered the window and used an endoscope (peep-hole camera) through the window slot and found that the lever on the mechanism that is operated by the outside handle was stuck at a pulled position without the mechanism actually unlocking.

I have seen that others get into the door by breaking open the airbag hatch in the door panel, which can then be re-attached with no vissble damage. But the re-attachement will be patch work using glue and such, since the tabs holding the airbag hatch will break off.

I was sure the dealer would do some damage to the panel to get the door open and the lock mechanism fixed. Was I surprised when they told me they didn't need to damage anything to get the panel off.

The trick was to pull off the inner rubber/plastic seal which sits around the door opening and seals the door by pressing on the inner door panels all around. This trim makes it impossible to pull the panel off the door when the door is closed. This rubber seal and trim has a joint somewhere at the bottom section where it can be pulled upwards and slowely pulled off around the door opening. Before doing this the rear seat and backrest must come out and a panel close to foot level below the door opening must be removed by undoing a couple of screws.

Once the seal/trim is removed there is enough room between the panel and the car body to pop the door panel off.

The removal of the panel from this point on is described well elsewhere on the Internet and in the forums but generally it involves undoing a screw inside the recess for the opening handle, popping the plastic pegs around the sides and the bottom of the panel and then lifting the panel upwards while twisting it slowely clockwise and counter clockwise. The only way to get the door panel off is by lifting it upwards while trying keep the plastic pegs from getting snagged or poped back again.

It turned out that the locking mechanism was broken and needed to be replaced.

I wish I had done this myself so I could describe it better, but at least this shows that it is possible to get the rear door panel off of a locked door without causing any damage.

/Michael

 

[feeblebob]

I still have this issue and haven't had time to start ripping the rear door apart, but I think I'm going to find the following useful, in addition to this thread

Rear Door Panel and Frozen Latch Cable Repair - Bimmerforums - The Ultimate BMW Forum

 

[englund]

Did anybody get a chance to fix a door stuck in the locked position?

It's been a while, just wondered if anybody succeeded in getting the door panel off a door that has gotten stuck in the locked position. I posted a text describing how to actually get the panel off earlier but I know that it can be difficult to picture the procedure just by reading text. If anybody needs more help just let me know. It is possible to get the panel off a locked door without breaking anything. With an open door the only trick to remember is to lift the panel upwards after prying loose the edges of the panel. With a locked door the preceeding trick is to pull out the inside rubber moulding that seals the door before you can pry the edges of the panel loose.

 

[Ferrari M5]

Rear door will not open

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I just did this repair and wanted to let the group know that it is possible. I searched for a long time trying to find a thread anyplace that described getting a stuck rear door open. As the previous thread mentions, you can get the door panel off from the inside of the vehicle. Remove the back seat and side bolster. Be sure to pull it straight out though (toward the front of the vehicle) as I pulled upwards on one side and it tore the spring clip out of the seatback foam. I am not sure how to fix this yet. Next you have to remove the plastic trim piece at the door sill that covers the seal. This piece is hiding the butt joint where the two ends of the door seal meet. I cracked this piece of trim as I did not know that it had to be slid forward to get it off of the retaining pins. Not sure how to fix this either. If anyone has an inexpensive one in black I would really appreciate it! Once you get it removed you can find the seam and free one end of the door seal. Then it just peels around the door opening and comes off. Once the seal is removed there is enough room to remove the door panel. The panel does have to flex a bit to get through the door opening on the vehicle, and feels a bit uncomfortable to do but it will work and if I didn't break it then you certainly will not. This is my first BMW and while I love the M5, I seem to break every piece of trim that I touch. It is very frustrating. Anyway, once the panel is off you can remove the vapor barrier and use a screwdriver to pry up the little rusted lever on the door latch mechanism and the door will pop open. I already purchased a used latch from Sharino here on the forum (thank you very much) and swapped my electronic module onto it (as I was unsure if a different module would need programming) and tested it out. The door now functions once again. Please feel free to contact me if you are contemplating this repair and would like some more detailed information or have questions. I would be more than happy to walk you through my mistakes so that you do not make them as well. Good luck.

 

[pastorom]

Drivers side rear door won't open

Apologies for resuscitating this thread again.

I have an issue that's slightly different.

When i unlock the car with the key (two presses), or from the central lock button on the inside, the two front doors and the passengers side locks all pop up, and the doors open. The drivers side rear door lock does not pop up, and does not open from the inside or the outside. When i pull the door lever, the lock pops up, but then when i let go, it goes down again (unlike the standard procedure where one pull pops the lock open and the second pull opens the door).I've tried holding the lock up, and pulling the inside handle again, holding the lock up and pulling the outside handle, but to no avail.

Any thoughts/suggestions? I've read through this and a few other threads but in all of those cases, seems like the lock was popping up but the door wouldn't open. This seems a little different.

 

[Ferrari M5]

Your issue does sound somewhat different from mine, however in the end the result remains that your latch will not disengage the striker. I had read in some of these threads about the linkages becoming tangled or something but I don't know how that would happen unless you were in the door messing around. If you follow my instructions above you will at least be able to get the door open to remove the latch mechanism and figure out what is wrong. It sounds like the lock mechanism is seized. Mine was that the latch itself was badly corroded and finally seized. You can try dousing it with WD40 first to get it open before tearing the interior apart but I had no luck with that. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[pastorom]

Just a quick update, since i can't send or reply to PM's yet.

The last couple days have been prepping up on tools (i didn't have the plastic panel removal tools etc), and reading up/looking at videos on how to remove the rear seats and panels. From speaking to a couple repair shops here, they think it's a mechanical, not an electrical issue.

Thankfully, i have a 2002 and a fixed seat, so removal should be easier (so i've been told)

I'm going to tackle it this Saturday (and ideally record it so i can upload a video).

 

[Ferrari M5]

Good luck. Please feel free to contact me if you think I can help.
Jeff dot ferrari7 at gmail dot com