Hi everyone, wondering if anyone has had this problem or might know of things I could try.

I went to grab things from my passenger seat, and when I depressed the passenger door handle lock, first it made a “chunk” noise, and when I depressed it again, it had no “give” (I’m not sure how to explain it exactly). The inner piece of the outer door handle just squeezes in, with no feeling like there’s even a reaction. It’s like the handle just stopped working.

The passenger inside door handle works and the locks work, too.

 

I did my driver's side latch recently, so I think I can help.

The handle has a cable that comes out of it. You can kinda see how ti works in this thread. That cable goes to a lever on the latch assembly shown in step 9 on this page.

The button is attached to a rod, which clips into the latch assembly.

I'm thinking if your button AND exterior handle stopped working, there's a good chance the failure is in the latch assembly. I picked a used one up off eBay for like $50. Best practice is to take it apart and see what's broken before ordering anything, though, so ymmv.

Good luck.

 

Your Bowden cable has probably broken. Not common, but it does happen. I repaired it my son's X83, and didn't find it too difficult. The part number for the cable (on my '09) is #51212754525. You may need some clips (4), #51217040546.

Here's a pretty good video, if you don't have a service manual:


Good luck.