Door will not open from inside or outside...HELP!!! - BMW Forum

tylset · 09-27-2005, 05:55 PM

I have a 1999 E39 528. About a week ago my front passenger side door would not open from either the inside hande or the outside lock. All other doors work fine. I can hear the electronic locking mechanism working inside the door, but the door won't open. I tried removing the interior handle and manually pulling on the cable, however that didn't work. I went to the dealer who told me that they would have to pry the interior door panel off with the door closed, and said it would be a minimum of 5-6 hours and $600. Any ideas on causes or solutions to this problem would be greatly appreciated!!

dyami · 09-27-2005, 09:32 PM

i would tear the inside of the door panel off myself and take a look to see whats wrong. once you can find out the broken part, then your next step is to find that part and install it.

tylset · 09-27-2005, 11:48 PM

I tried that, however the door panel is impossible to remove without breaking when the door is closed, and a new door panel would be that much anyway....I would love to make this a DIY project if at all possible though

dyami · 09-29-2005, 11:11 PM

take the panel apart when the door is open then shut the door and lock it and see what happens. the moving parts in the door dont rely on the door panel so its safe to remove when the door is open.

Torque · 10-01-2005, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dyami

take the panel apart when the door is open then shut the door and lock it and see what happens. the moving parts in the door dont rely on the door panel so its safe to remove when the door is open.

He can't open the door from inside or outside ... which means he can't open it at all ... which means it's permanently closed.

I really have no idea how you would go about fixing this without taking to the dealer though ... I've never heard of such a thing happening.