[Verte335i]

2008 335i sedan.

A few days ago, I pressed the central unlocking button and it unlocked all of the doors except mine. The only way I could get the door open was to put the key in the lock and unlock it from the outside.

I checked the fuses and they were fine. I concluded it was the lock actuator.

So I called an independent mechanic in the area and they wanted $444 which included the new door actuator at $255. I also checked with the dealer, they wanted between $600-$700.

At those prices, I figured I’d give it a try myself. I ordered the actuator from Amazon ($45.99). I bought a trim removal kit from Harbor Freight.

I began on Saturday afternoon, rueing having to take the door apart. I didn’t have much trouble getting the door panel off. But I followed one posters advice that you could get the actuator out without removing the support for the window regulator. I struggled for about an hour trying to rotate it out with no success. I managed to release the glass following a video on Youtube and duct taped it to hold it up. Then I moved the brace out of the way and it was easy to get the actuator out.

The outside door handle carrier part was also removed. Though in retrospect, I’m not sure it was necessary and caused me a lot of anguish.

The actuator did not come with any bolts and only one of the holes for the existing bolts was threaded. The one that faces the inside door. The other two holes that are on the side of the door become threaded as you screw the bolts in. It was a little tricky and I needed to use an awl to pull the holes into alignment and compress the seal but that went fine. There was also a plastic part on the old one that wasn’t on the new one. It popped off and I put it on the new one.

The door handle carrier is tricky to reinstall. It fell apart and I didn’t undertand how it worked. I combed forums and videos and finally I saw a suggestion to take it out of the door, put the door handle in and exam how it worked. Good advice. When it fell apart, a spring that was supposed to be under tension released. After studying it, I had to take carrier out, get a pair of pliers, compress the spring and hold it until it could get the pins back in their cradles. Then when you put it back in the door, you have to watch that when you tighten the screw in the slot on the front end of the handle carrier, the back part doesn’t get pulled into the opening. Then feed the LED light in and hook it over the door, slide the lock in and re-tighten the allen bolt from the side of the door. I must have done this at least 10 times so now I can do it pretty fast.

Now the front rubber gasket is slidiing out of position so I need to put something sticky on it to keep it from moving.

I haven’t put the door panel back on yet, but I’m crossing my fingers that the work is almost done and everything will work as intended.

Oh, I took the old actuator apart and a plastic gear had a piece that had broken off. So it would lock, but when trying to unlock, the tab didn’t have anything to grab onto.