E61 Rear door stuck closed
E61 Rear door stuck closed
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Discussion

RanchoGrande

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

199 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
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Hello! The back passenger door is stuck closed with neither the inside or outside door handle doing anything. The lock still pops up and down with the central locking so I'm wondering if the actuator has randomly broken? Is there a way to get the door card off from the inside to help get the door open?

I've searched the web a lot this afternoon trying to find a solution but haven't seen any threads on this subject - hopefully someone can help. Failing that I guess the door card will need to be butchered.

d_a_n1979

13,859 posts

102 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
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Seat base up, remove door card that way, remove vapour barrier and you'll get into the workings that way.

Shouldn't have to butcher anything, you may break a few clips though, easily replaced

RanchoGrande

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

199 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
quotequote all
d_a_n1979 said:
Seat base up, remove door card that way, remove vapour barrier and you'll get into the workings that way.

Shouldn't have to butcher anything, you may break a few clips though, easily replaced
Thank you.

How would that help remove the door card - will lifting the seat base give better access? and what's a vapour barrier!


Smiljan

12,687 posts

227 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
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I'm not sure you can on the E61 as the door trim is held on with screws and trim clips. The front screw I don't think you can get off with the door closed.

The rear seat base should just pull forwards and up from the front middle of the base and then just pull out. Again I can't remember if you can do this with a door shut, should be able to though.

Before you do any of this try the central locking repeatedly with someone else trying the pull the inside / outside handle at the same time it may just come free all of a sudden.

Smiljan

12,687 posts

227 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
quotequote all
p.s. Vapour barrier is a sheet of plastic behind the door card normally stuck to the door with mastic.

RanchoGrande

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

199 months

Sunday 6th December 2020
quotequote all
Smiljan said:
I'm not sure you can on the E61 as the door trim is held on with screws and trim clips. The front screw I don't think you can get off with the door closed.

The rear seat base should just pull forwards and up from the front middle of the base and then just pull out. Again I can't remember if you can do this with a door shut, should be able to though.

Before you do any of this try the central locking repeatedly with someone else trying the pull the inside / outside handle at the same time it may just come free all of a sudden.
Correct, you can't get to the screws with the door closed. I wondered if any of the sections of the panel could be removed whilst its closed. There is a video on YouTube where a guy drilled a hole in the door card (front door) then poked around until he found the manual release.

d_a_n1979

13,859 posts

102 months

Monday 7th December 2020
quotequote all
Smiljan said:
I'm not sure you can on the E61 as the door trim is held on with screws and trim clips. The front screw I don't think you can get off with the door closed.

The rear seat base should just pull forwards and up from the front middle of the base and then just pull out. Again I can't remember if you can do this with a door shut, should be able to though.

Before you do any of this try the central locking repeatedly with someone else trying the pull the inside / outside handle at the same time it may just come free all of a sudden.
Ah; I thought those screws were accessible!

Damn...

OP; I'd look for a spare door card; contact Simon /Garland if you're on Facebook, or he has an eBay shop - RoTrip

RanchoGrande

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

199 months

Monday 7th December 2020
quotequote all
I feel that butchering it is going to be my only option! There are door cards on ebay for £40 so it's not the end of the world.

RanchoGrande

Original Poster:

1,151 posts

199 months

Saturday 2nd January 2021
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This job has ended up becoming a massive headache! I managed to get the door card off by drilling through the door card and cutting a hole big enough to be able to get some force behind it to tear the whole thing off. Once I had it off, the door still wouldn't release after 3 hours of trying - turns out that the door actuator was knackered and to get it to release I had to get my hand inside the door panel to the other side of the actuator, unclip the bowden cable and pull down the release fully. Once I had the door open I replaced the actuator with one a sourced on ebay and put it all back together. Door still didn't work; I suspect that either the bowden cable itself needs replacing (could be stretched or worn and coupled with the lock actuator being jammed, the door was stuck) or the entire handle carrier is broken.

After taking apart the exterior door handle I now can't put it together again - it's a pig of a job as you need to get to a torx screw which is a couple of inches inside a dark access hole. Taking the grab handle off was sort of easy, putting it back together has me stumped.

Anyone have any ideas how you do it? The grab handle doesn't seem to connect to anything in the hole.

I'm nearly at the point where I have to give up and take it to the garage!