[Lucky@LeMans]

Originally Posted by Lucky@LeMans

Where do I begin ? Firstly the doors were working fine on the donor car. Central locking, opening and closing from inside and outside the car, all as expected.

I fitted mini door handles which are the standard option when you fit the extra door skin provided in many Tribute kits. I made an error at the beginning by fitting the handles a bit low on the door skin. The result of that was the plunger in the Mini door handle was too close to the pivot point in the BMW handle mechanism.

To get around that ( I had the car painted by this time ) I made a swan neck plunger in steel . That in turn pressed against the mechanism higher up in the door and looked ok, it worked, sort of. After messing around fitting the door cards, opening and closing the doors several times it all stuck shut !

I spent several hours trying to work out the problem, you couldn't open the door from inside or outside but the central locking sounded like it was all working as it should. I was truly F**** !

There were plenty of people with plenty of advice, both online and having spoken to a few people.

Online I found a youtube video where you power up a blue wire and black wire to fire the actuator, no good !
Also the actuator might have failed but it sounded good to me and was lifting the inside lock etc.
Disconnect the battery, turn the ignition to position 2, re connect the battery and it will all reset, no good either !

Local auto locksmith said the mechanical mechanism in the lock has failed and you have to smash open the steel lock assembly from inside the door with a long chisel and a lump hammer ! Really ? I won't let him near one of cars ever again, I thought he was a good bloke !

I spoke to Ian at Classic Coach Works, he suggested you need two people, one to pull on the handle out side, one to push the door from the inside and force it open. Maybe, but I wasn't convinced .

Had a chat with Steve and he has been there before with a couple of his cars. Basically the car is in a dead lock situation and can be caused by the Mini door handle plunger applying pressure to the BMW mechanism. It only takes a little pressure and the door can deadlock under some circumstances.
I could see the mechanism in my door was being pushed slightly ( door card was off ). Simply applying light pressure on the mechanism back on itself I heard a click. The door then opened as normal.

The fix will be to remove the door skin and adjust the plunger a little so it isn't quite touching the BMW mechanism, job done !

The internals of the lock feature two levers, one of which is the deadlock . These are both operated by the electric actuator.Steve mentioned that it is possible to remove the deadlock lever so it can't be triggered again, possibly a wise move with our modifications in place.