Firstly, I'm from the UK so my 'passenger' side is your driver's side. But I've always found this forum helpful so hopefully someone has an idea that works for either.

R60 2010 Countryman Cooper S.

Earlier today I opened the passenger door from the outside, without a problem. I then drove for 20 mins, filled up with fuel, and now the passenger door no longer opens.

What works:

The passenger window goes up and down
The lock indicator goes up and down when the car is locked or unlocked
No fault codes on ODB or EDIABAS

What doesn't work

The passenger door handle (external)
The passenger door handle (internal) will move the lock indicator up, but the door won't open.

My guess is either a Bowden cable (if there is one on these cars) or some kind of actuator?

Any help gratefully received. All results I found on here relate to the first gen R50/R53

 

I had an issue similar to this while being a little cheap with replacing the actuator. After tearing the panel out and manually pulling on the lever to open it, I noticed the wire that held the lever had slid out of the its jacket and wasnt pulling as far as it should.

There are two hidden screws in the door handle you need to remove before pulling the panel....also check newtis,info for more details on how tos

 

Thank you mate I'll take a look. My biggest concern is getting the door card off without being able to open the door - I had my R56 cards off with relative ease except for the plastic pin by the door handle.

I've got a horrible feeling it will be a wire and I have no idea how easy/difficult it will be to re route it but will check how tos

 

the countryman door is a bit beefy compared to R56 which makes it easy to stick your hand in there. Don't be scared to pull on the panels, some plastic tabs might break, but it's ok. take your time and remember the two screws hidden behind the door pull handle.

 

Spot on thanks, horrible task but got into it this evening.

No obvious cause of the issue. I took the driver's side apart too so I had a comparison.

In the end had to pull back the sound insulation too and with a bit of persuasion, seemed to be able to move the outer door cable down further by hand and got the door open.

I'm going to have to replace the actuator I reckon - it seems as though part of the actuator that's visible from the side of the door has three positions (maybe unlock/lock/deadlock)? And it seems to be this that's failing to reliably go back to 'unlock' when the door handles are pulled

Other than some rust on the cable from the outer handle, I can't see any other obvious problems. Neither cable has snapped

 

All fixed, bought a genuine BMW door actuator very cheaply from eBay. Bit of a difficult job to access but it is just about possible to manoeuvre the lock out (and the new one in) without removing the guide rail for the power window

 

I'm proud of you

 

Thank you, and for the tip on NewTIS, didn't know that existed. Useful resource!