Hi

My driver's door lock has stopped working, (door closed and locked), at the moment I'm assuming it's a lazy actuator, but whatever it is I need to strip the panel off to investigate. Does anyone know a way of getting the door open/unlocked when it's like this? Does anyone know if it possible to get the door panel off whilst the door is in it's closed/locked shut position?

all advise, help greatly appreciated

(BMW E53 2003 4.6is)

Hi SHY7G, we had an E53 for sale and one day it was fine the next it was the same as yours, we have a paintless dent removal guy that does work for us and he has a bag of rods and all kinds of odd stuff in his bag to ply his trade, he was able to get a thin piece of steel down between the glass and door skin and was able to hook a connecting rod in the door and gave it a good tug and by luck it opened, we got the panel stripped off the door and found everything to be corroded, it was just a case of cleaning everything up and a whole load of WD40 and all was fine, hope this helps.

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I had the heads up from a fellow member off another forum who works for BM.

He told me exactly what you mentioned. Got the door open only yesterday

done all of the above now OK, Now decided to sell..

many thanks

I have a similar problem with my E36. Was intermittent but now seems permanent haha. I'm sure this will probably be the same thing so i'll look into it. Any other possibilities if it's not this?

No problem SHY7G.

E36-Steve it really could be anything but you have to get the panel off first, I can only really comment on my past experience on E53 models, sorry mate don't know much about the E36.

Stephen