rear door deadlocked - help from Bill R. please

[motuman]

The rear door on my '95 540 M-Sport that appears to be "deadlocked?" and neither the inside or outside door handle will not open the door. The lock button moves up and down easily but does not unlock the door.

I did a search on this problem and found a thread in the archives, but the reply from Bill R. showed only the "?" (info missing symbol)
thread here - http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20848

Is there any more specific info for e34? Or is the reply from Shogun for e32 applicable to the e34? Any other techniques to try before I attempt to remove the interior panel with the door closed?

Thanks!

[shogun]

does not work, link is gone, even with wayback machine no success.

[Bill R.]

it with a diagram as well but its no longer on my computer. May have to reload on another computer so i have old and new info... anyway here is the text description which is stored on Ed's space that he provides for us....http://www.bimmer.info/%7Ebill/Reardoor%20panelremoval.jpg

[motuman]

it with a diagram as well but its no longer on my computer. May have to reload on another computer so i have old and new info... anyway here is the text description which is stored on Ed's space that he provides for us....http://www.bimmer.info/%7Ebill/Reardoor%20panelremoval.jpg

Well I tried to follow Bill R's directions and I think I screwed the pooch..

I was able to pry back the top of the door panel, and I broke off a white plastic piece that the manual lock rod was connected to, but that didn't open the door. After a few minutes I decided to take off the opposite rear door panel to see what I was looking at (should have done this first!). It turns out all I did was break off the pivot arm for the manual lock rod, see pic #1. Looking at the inside of the door in pic #2, I don't see anything that can be done via from the top of the panel with the door in place. This got me thinking that perhaps Bill R's procedure is for the old style (91 or earlier) lock actuators. So I dug out an old actuator (pic #3) and I see how breaking off the white arm could release the lock mechanism. Unfortunately, I have the new style (or e36 style) actuator shown on the right, that mounts directly to the lock mechanism. I believe this fact also negates Shoguns e32 directions posted in the first link.

The only other thing I can think to do and try and remove the door panel with the door in place (don't know if this is possible without damaging the panel) and then remove the actuator from the lock mechanism, while the assembly is still in place. (Don't know if this is possible. Usually you remove the lock mechanism first, but the door needs to be open).

Any other suggestions? If not, I guess I will try and remove the door panel with the door still closed.

Thanks to all....

[Paul in NZ]

[QUOTE=motuman;317620]Well I tried to follow Bill R's directions and I think I screwed the pooch..

I was able to pry back the top of the door panel, and I broke off a white plastic piece that the manual lock rod was connected to, but that didn't open the door.
[QUOTE]
you sure...something about the door seals make the doors hard to open if they havent been opened,esp in cold weather.My back doors are hard to open because they dont get used much.They dont budge an inch.Try again just to be sure.

[nirvana19]

I just remedied a frozen actuator on a rear door but on the older style mechanism. It's quite clear when the actuator is frozen because the lock will not move up or down. I'm not too sure how it works with the newer one. The procedure above would have been helpful, I actually removed the door panel (this is the second rear one to seize, the shop did it last time and pulled the panel). It is difficult to remove the panel without damaging it (I ended up cracking the top and inflicting some pretty serious damage to it, but after a careful gorilla glue reconstruction it's near impossible to tell.

With your M-Sport the panels are probably much more precious than my 89 non-wood non-leather ones, but the procedure is to essentially remove all the screws and all all the trim on the inside around the door (including the weatherstripping/rubber/upholstery thing, just pull it right off). You can then take a bent metal hanger or hook of some sort and stick it under the door panel and pull away to release as many clips as possible. Then, pull hard up and out and the panel should pop out on top and you can disconnect the linkages and switches and remove the panel completely. From there the solution to your problem should be straightforward.

[motuman]

Ok, I fixed it...it wasn't pretty but it worked. After trying and realizing that Bill R.'s method was almost certainly meant for the old style lock actuator, I proceed to see if I could get the inside panel removed with the door locked and closed. Here is a quick summary of that process.

• remove the chrome trim at the top of door panel, along the inside of the window
•carefully lift and pry back the top of the door panel
• remove the rear seat bottom and seat belt clasp (17 mm hex head)
• remove the plastic moulding on the floor covering the door seal.
• carefully peel off the inside door seal around the door, up to window level.
• use a screw driver to hold open the top of the door panel, and put a long bar inside the door and pop out the white fasteners one by one. I was able to pop all the fasteners from the top side using this method.
• once the white fasteners were out it was just a matter of lifting the panel up and away and it came out rather easily. (disconnecting the handle cable and window connector of course)

OK, the interior door panel is off (after sustaining a little minor damage from prying it away at the top) but what to do now? The lock actuator is mounted to the top of the lock mechanism, which can't be removed without opening the door, and there is almost no access the actuator in the mounted position. I tried to see if there was any way to manually unlock the door with the mechanism installed, but I just could find a way. So I decided to take a shot at breaking the actuator loose with force - hopefully without damaging the mounting bracket.

• The first step of this process was removing the actuator electrical connector (the slide bracket style).
• Feeling around blind, I was able to get a small screw driver into the bottom of the connector, slide and pull down, and remove the connector from the actuator.
• With the connector removed, my goal was now to forceably, and somewhat blindly, remove the actuator from the lock mechanism. My theory was that the actuator is plastic, and the lock mechanism and fingers are all metal, so the lock mechanism should be able to survive this process.
• The electrical connector on the actuator forms a nice "pocket" facing forward on the car, so I placed a long screwdriver into the actuator connector at an angle about 30 deg below horizontal.
• With a few very light taps of the hammer I was able to force the actuator off the top of the mechanism, without breaking the mounting bracket - bonus!
• Once the actuator was popped off the lock mechanism, I was able to unlock and open the door.

There may be a more elegant solution to this problem, but it worked for me, without any damage to any of the reused parts. (Well just a little damage at the top of the panel from prying it away from the window, but that could possibly be avoided and was easily repaired with a little gorilla glue).

Hopefully it will help someone else with the new style lock actuators (common to later e34's, e36 and Z3) as I haven't found this exact method described elsewhere.

Cheers to the completion of a a potentially nasty job!

[Ross]

Another method that has worked for me on several occasions is to remove the weatherstrip from around the door opening. This provides a bit of wiggle room to free the panel clips and maneuver the panel off.

[shogun]

does anyone have Bill R's directions or a copy from the TIS for that?

[shogun]

some more info http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Trouble/Locked.htm
http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/showthread.php/44226-Central-locking-problem-(will-not-unlock)