How Do I get My E34 To Open With No Battery

[632 Regal]

amazing what this forum has come to

[Dave M]

Please try a search.

There is a method you can attempt with the key on the passenger door, it may take a number of tries, but might work. Otherwise, yes, you need to supply power via something like the licence plate light.

Dave M

[Omega]

Done this exact thing myself..... The passenger door lock trick - which you should search for - rarely works.

If the battery is in the engine bay then get some jumper cables and try to connect to the battery cables under the hood/bonnet then connect to another battery. This worked for me.

If the battery should be under the rear seat then choose a window to pop. Rear quarter light is the cheapest to replace.

Don't try to slim jim an e34, they're a bitch as the lock and rods are plated over to stop this. Apparently... :-)

EDIT:
1> Wow how screwed is the posting clock on this forum? Posted the reply before the question?
2> Add your vehicle details to your profile. Your location would also be useful if you ask questions in the future.

[Ferret]

Cheers for all the advice. Thing is it's a long story about the car. I have 3 E34's and the one that is locked got locked accidently when I had to take the battery off for one of my other cars and I told the wife to lock the car and then realised how the hell do I get into it now. And now I need to get into it for a part for my 3rd E34 which is going to be resprayed.
And I don't want to break any of the windows if I can help it.

As for my profile,tried to do it but not working at the mo so can't do anything,if it helps I'm from Wigan,uk.

Cheers Mike

Jack up the front of the car, rip off the tray under the engine and get yourself a jump battery + jump leads to hand.

Clip the positive end to the battery cable on the back of the alternator or the starter motor. Negative end to any piece of chassis to hand.

You should be able to open the doors now :)

[E34 Lover]

Hiya I was wondering if anyone can help me.I have an E34 525ise and I am unable to get the doors open as there is no battery on the car. I have tried unlocking it with the key but nothing and I don't want to break a window or bend the door to gain access.
Does anyone know of a way of getting into it?
Cheers Mike

[bad_manners_god]

Hiya I was wondering if anyone can help me.I have an E34 525ise and I am unable to get the doors open as there is no battery on the car. I have tried unlocking it with the key but nothing and I don't want to break a window or bend the door to gain access.
Does anyone know of a way of getting into it?
Cheers Mike

Try unlocking from the passenger door or the trunk and crawl in if your seats fold down. If not you pay taxi drivers like $40 and they slim jim it for you.

[E34 Lover]

Try unlocking from the passenger door or the trunk and crawl in if your seats fold down. If not you pay taxi drivers like $40 and they slim jim it for you.

Cheers for that but tried the key in all locks,nothing doing the key just turns. Had been told that putting a battery to some jump leads and then to the battery terminal may do it but not too sure.
Cheers Mike

[E34 Lover]

Cheers for all the advice. Thing is it's a long story about the car. I have 3 E34's and the one that is locked got locked accidently when I had to take the battery off for one of my other cars and I told the wife to lock the car and then realised how the hell do I get into it now. And now I need to get into it for a part for my 3rd E34 which is going to be resprayed.
And I don't want to break any of the windows if I can help it.

As for my profile,tried to do it but not working at the mo so can't do anything,if it helps I'm from Wigan,uk.

Cheers Mike

[Tiger]

I think the main problem is that he has NO battery in the car... so by hooking up another battery, it is still a problem. as he has no complete circuit (provided by the battery).

I think in this case, you need to open up the trunk. Take out the carpet mat that is against the back seat... pop that center (ski) hole out... Reach in the hole and jumper the two battery cables. Then get a battery and hook it up.

Otherwise, send a small kid into the car and have him or her pull up the door lock. Mmm... kinda reminds me of how Gayle did this for her brother...

[Qube]

I must be missing something here. Can't you just turn the key to open, lift the handle, then turn some more? It's in the manual. I took the battery out of my e34 for storage and that's how I get in. I do this on the drivers door.

[attack eagle]

battery to the trunk light if the key in lock doesn't work

[Dave M]

I think the main problem is that he has NO battery in the car... so by hooking up another battery, it is still a problem. as he has no complete circuit (provided by the battery).

I think in this case, you need to open up the trunk. Take out the carpet mat that is against the back seat... pop that center (ski) hole out... Reach in the hole and jumper the two battery cables. Then get a battery and hook it up.

Otherwise, send a small kid into the car and have him or her pull up the door lock. Mmm... kinda reminds me of how Gayle did this for her brother...

Never thought about a lack of battery causing a problem. Hmmmm.

You might be remembering
the thread (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=33305&highlight=ski+hole+sister) in which my sister crawled through the ski hole to open the hood on my car. Gota say, it worked.

Dave M

[2fast]

Try what qube said it should work fine.

[Paul in NZ]

there is some serious ******** going on here....I have a RHD E34,and had the misfortune of running my battery flat because I left the lights on all night...I was very apprehensive as i had seen all the threads and posts about this...so with little hope i attempted the emergency unlock...as you lift the handle and turn the key ALL the way to the right(this is on the drivers door of a RHD car) you see the pin just move a little..three or four attempts later I had the door open.However there is something I dont understand.If the Battery was removed HOW DID YOU LOCK THE CAR?
In short the emergency unlock WILL work it is a mechanical procedure and you dont need a battery or all these other techniques.The Boot however should unlock with the key if you feel the need...it had to because my jumper lead were in the boot.

[Omega]

there is some serious ******** going on here....I have a RHD E34,and had the misfortune of running my battery flat because I left the lights on all night...I was very apprehensive as i had seen all the threads and posts about this...so with little hope i attempted the emergency unlock...as you lift the handle and turn the key ALL the way to the right(this is on the drivers door of a RHD car) you see the pin just move a little..three or four attempts later I had the door open.However there is something I dont understand.If the Battery was removed HOW DID YOU LOCK THE CAR?
In short the emergency unlock WILL work it is a mechanical procedure and you dont need a battery or all these other techniques.The Boot however should unlock with the key if you feel the need...it had to because my jumper lead were in the boot.

I did EXACTLY the same thing as Mike has now done when I has my e34. Opened the bonnet, removed the battery and locked the car. Then later closed the bonnet as it was starting to rain. It was only then that I found out that the locks rely on power and would not unlock. There must have been enough residual power left to allow the locking.

So I then read the Bentley manual and this site to find out about the emergency unlock. Tried it for nearly 1 hour and although the door pin slightly moved there was sufficient slak and inertic in the locking system to stop the pin rising completely.

In the end I used jumper cables on the battery cables under the bonnet.

As you say, you can get into the boot but this isn't much use of you have a full rear firewall as my e34 had.

Mike. Have you solved this yet?

[Ferret]

This is why I always wire my sub cable backwards (slightly dangerously) and put the fuse at the wrong end :)

Last time I locked myself out of an E34 with a flat battery - I rather cheekily jumped the battery using the amp power leads :D

Edit: maybe this should be a standard mod for all those in the know :) buy an amp wiring kit for the sole purpose of having a high current +ve battery terminal in the boot?

I wonder why bmw didnt think of that?

[E34 Lover]

I must be missing something here. Can't you just turn the key to open, lift the handle, then turn some more? It's in the manual. I took the battery out of my e34 for storage and that's how I get in. I do this on the drivers door.

Hiya Bud tried that nothing happened.:(

[E34 Lover]

there is some serious ******** going on here....I have a RHD E34,and had the misfortune of running my battery flat because I left the lights on all night...I was very apprehensive as i had seen all the threads and posts about this...so with little hope i attempted the emergency unlock...as you lift the handle and turn the key ALL the way to the right(this is on the drivers door of a RHD car) you see the pin just move a little..three or four attempts later I had the door open.However there is something I dont understand.If the Battery was removed HOW DID YOU LOCK THE CAR?
In short the emergency unlock WILL work it is a mechanical procedure and you dont need a battery or all these other techniques.The Boot however should unlock with the key if you feel the need...it had to because my jumper lead were in the boot.

Hiya Bud how it all happened was the wife locked the car as I asked her to but the bonnet was still open and I removed the battery and then closed the bonnet myself,it was then I realised what I had done.

I've tried the key in the lock but nothing doing,I just want to get in without causing any damage to the car.

Cheers Mike

[pfmc24]

Hi Mike,
I had similar problems this year.
Using the key in the drivers side door works, raise the handle as you turn the key clockwise, the door lock should pop after a several attempts.
However, lately this is becoming more and more difficult on my car..... due to mechanical wear perhaps?
Yesterday I had to attach another battery to the starter motor, as fortunately for me, the original battery was still in situ.
To make getting in easier in future, I am going to hardwire a link to the +ve terminal.
By the way, if the battery is not fitted, can you hook the loose +ve lead somehow from under the engine bay and use some jump leads to provide power?
Good luck
Pete

[E34 Lover]

I did EXACTLY the same thing as Mike has now done when I has my e34. Opened the bonnet, removed the battery and locked the car. Then later closed the bonnet as it was starting to rain. It was only then that I found out that the locks rely on power and would not unlock. There must have been enough residual power left to allow the locking.

So I then read the Bentley manual and this site to find out about the emergency unlock. Tried it for nearly 1 hour and although the door pin slightly moved there was sufficient slak and inertic in the locking system to stop the pin rising completely.

In the end I used jumper cables on the battery cables under the bonnet.

As you say, you can get into the boot but this isn't much use of you have a full rear firewall as my e34 had.

Mike. Have you solved this yet?

Cheers mate,no not yet. I'm getting very fed up with it now.:(

[Dave M]

there is some serious ******** going on here....I have a RHD E34,and had the misfortune of running my battery flat because I left the lights on all night...I was very apprehensive as i had seen all the threads and posts about this...so with little hope i attempted the emergency unlock...as you lift the handle and turn the key ALL the way to the right(this is on the drivers door of a RHD car) you see the pin just move a little..three or four attempts later I had the door open.However there is something I dont understand.If the Battery was removed HOW DID YOU LOCK THE CAR?
In short the emergency unlock WILL work it is a mechanical procedure and you dont need a battery or all these other techniques.The Boot however should unlock with the key if you feel the need...it had to because my jumper lead were in the boot.

Oh, its possible. One could lock the doors out of habit, then remove/unhook cables from the battery under the hood and shut the hood. I came very close to doing this when my car was stored for the winter :D

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have little things like the manual door unlock trick work. For instance, I've been successful on an e39, but can't get it to work on my e34. Glad you were able to do it, but as you noted, it moved slowly, in little increments meaning........its days are numbered. Keep your jumper cables handy.

Dave M

[Ross]

The lack of a battery shouldn't prevent this from working, unless the positive cable happens to be grounded.

[Tiger]

I thought about this... however, we know that the battery cable brings the main feeds into the fuseboxes. There are two fuseboxes... unless you know for sure the branch you are powering also powers the door lock fuseblock, there would be no way to power up the door locks.

Best bet is to make sure that battery positive cable is not grounded that would cause a short and blow out the main fuse... then jeez... things get trickier.

[Qube]

Ok, that's it then. If the emergency unlock doesn't work (works like a charm on my 89 with 350k), then just tap a 12v lead to something like the license plate lights or inside trunk light. At worst, the draw will blow that fuse I surmise.

[Sam-Son]

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r20/E34MGERM/blog_brick.jpg

[2fast]

I Don't know if this will work, try the passager side with the emergency unlock.

Or maybe spray some WD 40 in the lock?

Good luck, may the BMW force be with you

[E34 Lover]

Cheers lads for all the advice. Mike

[Ferret]

the emergency open doesn't work on my car when it is double locked.

My '92 E34 just about worked when it was deadlocked - though it required a hell of an effort and jiggling the door handle repeatedly while turning the key hard :)

[WaaD]

I must be missing something here. Can't you just turn the key to open, lift the handle, then turn some more? It's in the manual. I took the battery out of my e34 for storage and that's how I get in. I do this on the drivers door.

Did that few days ago, it worked for me, just pull up door handle and turn key to the left.

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

If you have the double lock problem due to a duff actuator or the dreaded boot wiring problem then the emergency manual unlock procedure does NOT work! In a thread years ago was a tip about running power via the number plate light, debatable but running power from/to the pressure switch for light actuation did work.

[RallyD]

the emergency open doesn't work on my car when it is double locked.

[E34 Lover]

there is some serious ******** going on here....I have a RHD E34,and had the misfortune of running my battery flat because I left the lights on all night...I was very apprehensive as i had seen all the threads and posts about this...so with little hope i attempted the emergency unlock...as you lift the handle and turn the key ALL the way to the right(this is on the drivers door of a RHD car) you see the pin just move a little..three or four attempts later I had the door open.However there is something I dont understand.If the Battery was removed HOW DID YOU LOCK THE CAR?
In short the emergency unlock WILL work it is a mechanical procedure and you dont need a battery or all these other techniques.The Boot however should unlock with the key if you feel the need...it had to because my jumper lead were in the boot.
no **** mate, took battery off then pressed door locks down then closed the door. tryed the main key, tryed liftin door handle turning key. had e28 the door worked off key but not the e34. no battery no power. everyone inc mechanics say use the key, tried it. cheers

[Omega]

no **** mate, took battery off then pressed door locks down then closed the door. tryed the main key, tryed liftin door handle turning key. had e28 the door worked off key but not the e34. no battery no power. everyone inc mechanics say use the key, tried it. cheers

Haven't you got this open yet???? I cannot believe this is still going on after 4 days.

Have you tried the jump leads under the bonnet yet?

[E34 Lover]

Haven't you got this open yet???? I cannot believe this is still going on after 4 days.

Have you tried the jump leads under the bonnet yet?
as i am a coal man i dont get time to get to this bm often, only at weekends if i can be bothered. bonnet shut dont know how to open it from outside. will be over in my yard sometime today to get in it either using the advise you guys have given me or a brick. only goin to break this car for parts anyway as ive got 3 ov em but think its a shame coz its a nice car and its an e34 but cant keep em all. mike

[Paul in NZ]

You can search for a method to open the bonnet from the grill.......once you have got the bonnet up you are home and hosed....
Good luck with this.

[E34 Lover]

I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finaly got the car open and I didn't have to use a brick either. I jacked the car up at the front and put jump leads to the battery terminals and hey presto it opened the doors,well the passenger one but it opened it.
So thats guys for all the advice and I hope this may help others who do the daft trick I did.
Cheers Mike