How To Adjust Your Hard To Open Door

Good Read! Lol

will have to try this later when I get home since the gf always thinks the door is still locked too!

I did it, it worked :: to OP

Made a bit of improvement to mine, thanks. Well worth the <5 mins it took anyway.

Thanks to the original poster, this worked like a charm on my hard to open driver's side door. I also tried the passenger side door and seemed to have either (a) over loosened it or (b) broken it as the bolt just spins and doesn't seem to grab. The passenger side door can't be opened from the outside now. Anyone else break their doors and know how to fix this? I suppose I will take the door apart this weekend to attack it but would love to know if anyone else has had this problem.

Thanks again!!

Originally Posted by Speedyejl

Need to try this when I get home, i've got countless stories of females being unable to open the doors (nothing sexist)

-"The doors locked!"
--"I'm sure I've unlocked it"
-"Nope its locked"
--I walk around and magically open door

That was hilarious. Thanks for the laugh (and reminder of how guhlie, guhls are).

DIY door handle awesome

doing it now.. brb

done in two minutes! Not that big of a difference, but its noticeable.

OMG! Even when I bought my E46 I had this hard to open door issue - And kind of wrote it off as a BMW thing...

Having *just* done this I can now open my drivers door with ease! Unbelievable! I used to have to, embarrasingly, give the door a real jolt to open it - Espically embarassing in car parks when your E46 is sitting there all polished up and people are checking you out as you jump in. The end of my woes! HA!

Wicked DIY!

WOOO! result! it worked for me, thanks!!

I'm not sure if my understanding is right, but here goes.....

A few months ago, the plastic cover over the drivers side door lock broke off. After pricing a primed (not painted) replacement at $30, I decided to glue it back on. To remove the lock, I removed the allen head screw you all are talking about. My glue job went well, and I reinstalled the lock and bolt.

My point is, there was no "adjustment" to this process at all. My door opened fine before, and the same after. I think that all of you that are having problems may simply be tightening a bolt that has come loose.

Thoughts?

"girls tapping on the window" hhahahahah

I don't care if the topic says adjust, I'm just glad I found this thread before I paid BMW the $370 they quoted to install a new part as this fixed my issues for free.

just read this, just walked out and did it in 3 minutes.

thanks to the original poster great simple diy fix

This is like finding uranium!

I'm almost postive there are no standard fittings on BMWs...it should be a 6mm hex end, if i remember correctly.

and yes that screw youre tightening is for adjustment, but when a car comes in and its already been adjusted and the problem is still there, it will need a new door pull handle. thats why the dealer "tries to screw you", so they can fix the problem correctly.

havnfun328 - you are completely correct, that hex bolt that everyone is tightening the crap out of basically "pinches" the lock cylinder in place to the door pull handle, inside the door. It might become loose over time, and tightening it slightly might help, but the problem lies in the door pull handle itself, with where the door handle and its associated mechanics are worn away from people yanking on the door handle.

jmgitlin - you broke the passenger side door pull. if i remember correctly, that hex bolt runs directly to it and overtightening it will probably break off the plastic pull handle and the cables attached to it might disconnect. remove your passenger door panel, the vapor barrier, and have the window closed and inspect the door pull handle, looking up from the bottom (towards the direction of the sky). if anything is loose or disconnected, pinpoint it to the door pull handle or one of the cables. theres only 2 or 3 cables which run from the handles to the locks and releases, so it shouldnt take you too long.

Surely if the initial problem is the door handle itself and tightening the allen head bolt is just a "band aid" then isn't this another factory design fault BMW should've recalled and fixed for free considering EVERY coupe owner in creation is having or had this problem?

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

I like watching people stand outside of my car in the heat trying to open my door. If they pull the handle off, I'll make them pay for it.