[52brandon]

My front driver's side door won't open or unlock for me. The remote works on the other doors just fine. Even manually using the key doesn't open it. Nor does trying to open it from the inside. I've checked the fuses and they're fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's not been fun climbing over the center console every time I drive it

[Bimmer_Engineer]

Sounds like you might need a new lock actuator. I had to replace the drivers door one about 8 months ago.

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by Bimmer_Engineer

Sounds like you might need a new lock actuator. I had to replace the drivers door one about 8 months ago.

Agreed. It's the Actuator. It's a real easy DIY and a fairly easy part to get ahold of. I recommend eBay.

[noah.s]

So I had my rear driver door actuator go bad. Couldn’t open from the inside or outside. It was stuck shut.

It was not an easy DIY. At all. Had to pull the door panel off from the inside, which isn’t too bad. The problem is getting the door to open to be able to replace the actuator. I had to drill holes in the actuator and start ripping things out. Got lucky and pulled the right thing after nearly giving up and the door popped open.

I’m pretty sure I found some schematics or a tear down of an actuator online which helped me understand how it worked.

Good luck! Hopefully someone that knows more weighs in and you can get this figured out easily. At least mine wasn’t the drivers door!

[AthiousG3]

Originally Posted by noah.s

So I had my rear driver door actuator go bad. Couldn’t open from the inside or outside. It was stuck shut.

It was not an easy DIY. At all. Had to pull the door panel off from the inside, which isn’t too bad. The problem is getting the door to open to be able to replace the actuator. I had to drill holes in the actuator and start ripping things out. Got lucky and pulled the right thing after nearly giving up and the door popped open.

I’m pretty sure I found some schematics or a tear down of an actuator online which helped me understand how it worked.

Good luck! Hopefully someone that knows more weighs in and you can get this figured out easily. At least mine wasn’t the drivers door!

Hi, where did you find the schematics? I have the same problem with my rear left door on my e91 and it's stuck shut. Is the actuator easily reachable once you remove the door card from the inside of the car? Thanks

[noah.s]

Originally Posted by AthiousG3

Hi, where did you find the schematics? I have the same problem with my rear left door on my e91 and it's stuck shut. Is the actuator easily reachable once you remove the door card from the inside of the car? Thanks

I think I actually looked for people repairing them so I could see what it looks like inside. Here’s a thread that shows the insides.

It was definitely not easy getting the door open, I almost gave up entirely at one point. Definitely one of the more frustrating things I’ve done with the car. I wouldn’t say it’s easily reachable or an easy job at all.

EDIT: Just wanted to say that replacing an actuator when the door is able to be opened is easy. When it’s stuck closed (frozen in a double lock state iirc) it is not an easy job because the actuator cannot be removed unless the door is open. Getting the door open is the hard part.

[gbalthrop]

Originally Posted by AthiousG3

Hi, where did you find the schematics? I have the same problem with my rear left door on my e91 and it's stuck shut. Is the actuator easily reachable once you remove the door card from the inside of the car? Thanks

Here is a DIY Thread with LOTS of photos & DETAILS. It deals with FRONT Door rather than rear, but presumably trim panels are similar. I would suggest PRACTICING on RR Door (with Door OPEN) before tackling LR Door, as it's MUCH easier to get Trim Panels off with door OPEN.
https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=477507

George