So I got home last night and went to get out of my car after hitting "unlock" and my door handle isn't working. So I crawl out the passenger side and lock the car and say to myself "ill deal with it tomorrow." Well, this morning, I get up to go to work, go out to my Mini, and the door handle on the outside doesn't work either. I'm pretty concerned and don't wanna have to drive 200 miles to the Mini dealer in Oklahoma. Does anyone have any advice on a quick repair for this or am I screwed and need to take it to Okie? Thanks for any and all input.

 

Have you tried everything to unlock it? Remote, key, lever inside the MINI, locking (again) and unlocking? I suppose there it the possibility something is sticky, and if you could get it convinced to open it would be ok later, but I am not inclined to be very optimistic... Maybe the little motor that locks and unlocks it is stripped/dead/disconnected? Is there any noise when you tell it to unlock?

 

does the lock pop up when you hit the remote?

you said you were able to get out from the passenger side but not from the driver side? now you cant get in to the car from the outside either?

could be a few things. actuator could be dead, mechanism could be frozen, cable could be frozen, cable could be out of position.

 

With the things ya'll have brought up this is sounding like it needs to go to the dealership. I can get in and out of the boot and passenger side door.

When I first went to open the door from the inside, I tried to do the 2 pulls on the door handle to open it, without actually having to do the unlock button, like I always do. The little thing went up some, but the door didn't open. So I hit the unlock button and nothing happened with the door. No noise, no movement, nada. The locking mechanism definately is not sticky. You would hear it struggling to push the lock.

 

sounds like it's off it's "track"
i had this issue several times and took it to the dealership.

it happened again recently but ive installed the handles so i know my way around in there now and fixed it myself.

 

My driver's side won't unlock via the remote, but it does lock with the remote. It does unlock with the switch inside. The manual key works fine. Any ideas what may be causing this?