Modern BMW door lock barrels being stolen?

[mdowning]

A close friend had his 2009 fully loaded Mini JCW broken into last night. Although, it wasn't really broken into... all they stole was the door lock barrel - taken clean out. Nothing else was tampered with, including OBD port. Bizarrely, there was a very smart 2011 X5 a few cars down the road. This had had exactly the same thing done to it... i.e. door lock barrel removed, everything else untouched.

Any one know what's going on here? There are plenty of other relatively modern BMWs (albeit, less desirable) on the same road that were left untouched.

[Cheib]

My guess is a thief or thieves were interrupted....I don't know enough about how the door locks work to know if you can gain entry that way. I know there are people that have removed the door locks and put a blank handle from a LHD car (BMW's only have locks on the drivers door) to remove the risk.

[t8cmf]

mdowning said:

A close friend had his 2009 fully loaded Mini JCW broken into last night. Although, it wasn't really broken into... all they stole was the door lock barrel - taken clean out. Nothing else was tampered with, including OBD port. Bizarrely, there was a very smart 2011 X5 a few cars down the road. This had had exactly the same thing done to it... i.e. door lock barrel removed, everything else untouched.

Any one know what's going on here? There are plenty of other relatively modern BMWs (albeit, less desirable) on the same road that were left untouched.

Are you sure that the barrel wasn't punched into the door and is lying at the bottom of the door behind the trim?

I don't see how you can remove a door barrel without access to the back of it.

I did what the poster above recommended, I fitted a complete barrel replacement which removes the barrel and replaced it with a blank trim, the same as the passenger side.

[Zod]

It's one of the techniques used to gain access to cars that have not had the fix. It lowers all the windows automatically if your car has not had the fix. It was used on my M5 and my X5.

[LocoBlade]

What's more likely is they punched the door lock to drop windows and have cloned a key, and are now waiting for the key lock to be repaired before they pop back with said cloned key and take the car all nicely repaired.

If I were your friend I'd be adding some additional security to the car sharpish.

Edited by LocoBlade on Saturday 18th May 10:15

[t8cmf]

Zod said:

It's one of the techniques used to gain access to cars that have not had the fix. It lowers all the windows automatically if your car has not had the fix. It was used on my M5 and my X5.

The technique you refer to is when the barrel is forced around to the stops using a screwdriver. I've never heard of a barrel being removed before.

[LocoBlade]

I suspect they sometimes force it too much which ends up shearing the barrel and it ends up in the bottom of the door so looks like its been taken out, as I've seen victims of this mention finding the remnants in the bottom of the door as you mentioned previously

[Zod]

t8cmf said:

The technique you refer to is when the barrel is forced around to the stops using a screwdriver. I've never heard of a barrel being removed before.

Both times, the lock barrel was gone.

[5to1]

Zod said:

Both times, the lock barrel was gone.

As others have alluded too, I imagine its a by product of the attempt to drop the windows, rather then part of the procedure or someone stealing barrels.

You can understand how it happens. Thief jams screwdriver into lock, forces it around until window drops. I can imagine sometimes they use too much force pushing the barrel in. Or they use too big a screw driver, gets stuck and they push the barrel in trying to free it. Can't see how they would get it out, I would concur with previous posters its likely lying in the door. Otherwise the barrel design has another fundamental design flaw, as you shouldn't be able to pull it out :/

[Zod]

5to1 said:

Zod said:

Both times, the lock barrel was gone.

As others have alluded too, I imagine its a by product of the attempt to drop the windows, rather then part of the procedure or someone stealing barrels.

You can understand how it happens. Thief jams screwdriver into lock, forces it around until window drops. I can imagine sometimes they use too much force pushing the barrel in. Or they use too big a screw driver, gets stuck and they push the barrel in trying to free it. Can't see how they would get it out, I would concur with previous posters its likely lying in the door. Otherwise the barrel design has another fundamental design flaw, as you shouldn't be able to pull it out :/

Oh, I agree. I don't think anyone was trying to steal the lock barrels, given they came back and stole each car later.