I have a 2003 Cooper S with 106K on the clock. When I am in the drivers seat it is hard for me to get out of the car. I have to pull the handle and almost push on the door from the inside. It has gotten so bad that I have had to roll down the window to open the door from the outside.

At first I thought it was the actuator but I can always open the door from the outside, so I am thinking that my cable may be stretched. Does anyone know how much this cost to fix?

 

It is almost certainly the cable. I think you can get the part for like $20, then it is just a matter of pulling the door panel off, which is pretty easy.

 

I also have an 03 MCS. There is no retainer where the cable goes into the lock mechanism. you can just push it back into place and it will probably be good for another 50'000 miles, its easy to do and takes about 15 to 20 minutes to do. You have four screws to remove from the inside door panel. you have three that are obvious and one behind the reflector. You can pop the reflector out with a small screwdriver. pop it out from the bottom edge.(it has three retaing tabs at 9:00, 12:00 and 3:00 be careful not to break the tabs). You also need to remove the bezel around the door release handle, but don't do that until you've poped the door panel loose. Now for the panel, it's easier to remove if you have a plastic pry bar. start at the bottm left corner and pry the panel straight out towards yourself. Then work you way up the left side (I beleive there are three retainers on the left side, you'll feel a distinct pop as each retainer pops out). Now work across the bottom and up the right side. Once you've released all of those retainers you can remove the door release bezel. At this point, it should have already poped loose. Be careful of the bezel retaing tab over the tweeter, it breaks easily. Now there is probably one more retainer towards the center of the panel, you need to grab the panel on each side and pivot the the bottom of the panel up until the last plastic retainer pops loose (this will probably pop loose when you have a four to six inch gap between the bottom of the panel and and the door). You're almost there, now grab the top right hand corner of the panel and carfully pull it straight back towards you (there is a row of metal retainers across the top edge of the door that pop into the panel) the first retainer will pop out of the panel, just keep pulling untill all of the retainers pop out of the panel (there are five or six of them) Now pick up the whole panel about an inch to clear the button on the top edge of the door panel and pull it straight back (it should be completely free. now for the fun part, you'll see the door release cable in front of you (just above the cut out in the door) at the left end of the cable it has a rubber piece that the cable passes through, put your hand inside of the door and you'll feel the cable come through the rubber piece Now follow ht cable with you hand to the door release mechanism (there will be a metal brace in the way, you'll need to run your hand around the other side of the brace and on the otherside you'll be able to feel the cable again. About two inches past the brace you'll feel the door release mechanism and notice that the end of your cable is sitting on the outside surface of the door release. There is a groove in the release that the cable fits into, the cable probably just poped out of the groove. pull the cable back just a little bit (I do mean a little bit) and push the cable back into groove (you can put a piece of tape over the cable to help keep it in place). now pull any extra slack in the cable back towards where the cable passes through rubber piece in the door. Now close and lock the door and see if you can open it from the inside. If it works properly then just reverse the disassembly proceedure, except you'll want to install the door release bezel last after everything else is in place. Make sure the plastic retainers are started into there mating holes before you push them back into place.
If the cable is broken at least you'll have a good idea of what your looking for.
The later cars have a better retainer than the 03's and before.
It's really pretty easy if you mechanically inclined, if not I'm sure your dealer would love to do it for you.

Good luck,
Steven Tyler