okay after reading through the tred, i havent found what im looking for, i have a similar problem, but for what i see it much more complicated, every one saying that somehow they can open the door inn/out or by remote or key. well my problem is none of those works for me. tired the remote no go,tried the key no go, tried inside handle no go, tried the switch inside no go , even try yanking the lock still pop back inn.. im stuck i cant take the door cover due to my door wont even open, good thing is my window still open. but im stuck? anyadvice to open the door? mine MCS 03 90k

 

Wow - thats a good one, remote, and inside switch are the same, so those fail together. But the inside handle not working means the inside cable (forgot the name) has also come off. The only thing I can think to do is go by a locksmith (or something like that) and they might be able to use a slim-jim to unlock the passenger door. - Once it unlocked you should be able to open w/ the outside handle, and it shouldn't automatically re-lock because the electronics are not working.

I've worried about this happening - need to go order parts......... my passenger side just failed last weekend!

Good luck,

Nik

 

ohh men.. that dosent sound good at all, my question is it the motor or the wiring that has the problem.... any other idea of me poping the lock, all i need is to open my door!!

 

Its the motor used to lock/ unlock that died. But (now the bad part) the cable (bowdin?) running to the lock mechanism to the inside handle has also possibly become disconnected. Once you get it unlocked you should be able to use the outside handle to open the door. (it doesn't rely on any cables to work the door mechanism.

Nik

 

okay. i managed to seal outside the rood and do see the half to actuator, do see the lever is pulling the cord when i tried to press door handle out side and inside, do see when iturn the key the metal peice rotates, still unable to open the door, able to pry the door panel inside and i can see now the the lock, try to yank the lock but still wont open, now i'm stuck but i can see the cable on the actuator and it was intact. what else i can do? do you think the lock is ceased? if so, what should i do, any opinion?

 

I don't know if I am having a similar issue or not. Here goes. I washed my car today ('05 MCS-86k mi) and went out for ice cream, locks working fine. Then, I noticed i was having issues getting out of the driver's side door. The inside handle took several tries to open. upon examination of the latch, it showed that the latch part on the bottom wouldn't go move all the way unless manually pushed/pulled (while the door was open). Then, exiting the car, the key fob would not lock the door. I get back into the car, and the switch will not lock the car, either. I manually locked the car, and the switch unlocked the car, but would not re-lock it. There is a sound when you unlock the car using the switch, but no sound at all trying to lock it. Then, after having manually locked the car, the key fob would not unlock it.

Could I have fried something while messing around trying to open the door? When i was looking to buy my Mini, the key fob lock/unlock issue happened and the owner said it was the result of manually locking/unlocking the door. Is there any merit to this and might that be what's going on?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

I noticed something weird yesterday. I'm leaving work and I heard my drivers door lock when I hit about 10mph.

This stopped happening about 1.5 yrs ago. I had always had to unlock my drivers door manually, but it would lock fine by the key fob when I'm exiting the car.

I did recently reset my ECU. It may have been working since then, and I just didn't realize it, but my doors unlock now by the key fob! Try resetting your ECU and see if it helps.

I don't know what else could have made this start working again after 1.5 yrs.

Maybe my bass rattling the doors so much made it work again LOL

 

Maybe instead of repairs I can just spend the money on sweet bass and it will fix the problem! that's a win-win if i ever heard one!

Seriously though, randomly the keyfob seems to be working again. We opened the door panel and did the wire fix yesterday and while it helped the inside opening some, the door still "sticks" a little. I am not sure if the inside switch will work or not, i'll check that later.

 

i honestly dont know why it started working out of no where lol

 

it doesnt work again. WTF!

 

works again, for now

 

The driver side door on my '05 MCS with 31K miles on it went bad. The door did not "know" it was closed, so the dome light would not come on or good off with opening and closing the driver door, nor would the window go up that little notch when the door was closed. It also would not lock or unlock with the remote, but would lock after going over 12 mph or whatever the speed is. I could manually push the button down to lock it when I left the car, but decided I should change it out. This past weekend I tackled the job of replacing the left door lock actuator. Most of the info in this thread was great, EXCEPT for removing the outside door handle. It didn't make sense, but someone posted it made attached the bowdin cable easier. What a nightmare. Taking the exterior door handle off and putting it back on cost me an extra hour and countless cuss words - it is a very tight space to be loosening and tightening nuts!

Anyway, I finally replaced the actuator and put it back together. When I plugged in the connector the window went up. Great! Now the window goes up and down when you close and open the door, and the dome light goes off and on, too. The locks will lock and unlock using the toggle switch, and the locks go down when driving, but the remote still will not lock or unlock the car. And now that the door "knows" it is open, I cannot just push the left lock pin down like before I "fixed" it. Any ideas?

 

Quick update - I tried my wife's key and viola, it works. I guess my key fob died.

 

I have same symptoms reported by edkim, pimpedout97x, and dustinhxc on page 4 of this thread:

• Driver's door will not unlock with the remote or dash switch. (I have to use the key in the driver's door to open it).
• Driver's door will not lock with the switch or at speed
• HOWEVER, the driver's door will lock with the remote.

Can someone confirm that this is a legitimate failure mode for the actuator? I assumed if it failed, it wouldn't power lock at all, not sort of work.

I don't want to buy the part and rip apart my door until I'm confident this is the problem.

 

My drivers door still doesn't unlock with the remote but it does lock with the remote when im out of the car. it also does not lock inside using the switch but it locks if i manually push it down with my finger.
should i buy a new actuator and install it myself? warranty is expired

 

Same symptoms as the two above, I believe it is the actuator. Looking for someone to confirm also.

Dustin, have you messed around with the actuator before? I have and it seems like a huge task to replace it. I might study it more over the summer, but I definitely want to replace it. If it takes a few hours at a dealership, it would take regular people like us a good afternoon of cussing in the driveway to get it done. Attaching all the little cables with no way to see in there is what scares me.

 

When mine failed a while ago, I took pictures of everything, looked at instructions, etc and decided to do it myself. Took the door cover off, etc etc, but I was stock at getting the actuator out. Since I didn't want to deal with removing the window rails and realigning them, I decided to put everything back.

The guy at the local shop, who works on MINIs replaced it in about 10 minutes. It certainly doesn't take few hours to do this... Of course everything takes days if the car is taken to the dealer

Good luck!

 

10 mins! damn i want to know him, i am scared to replace it.

 

Driver's door won't open with remote, but it locks with remote and works ok with the key. So I took it all apart - it's not a cable issue or a lubrication issue. This will require a new actuator.

I nearly screwed up the speaker cover by foolishly trying to remove it, which is not necessary, but no damage was done. I did break a couple of panel clips when pulling off the door panel. I'll order more when I get the new actuator and try to use a better technique next time.

It is a pain to get the actuator out, but if you slide the window rail back as mentioned in the writeup and lower the actuator a bit it will slide straight out -- no rotation or funny angles required. I attached door cable (#2 in the photos) before bolting the assembly back in place and that worked ok.

While I was in there I greased the window rails and cables by smearing a big dab of grease all over them with my hand. That window works so much better now.

 

03,MCS,85K Both doors. Driver side just the cable popping off, Pass side the entire assembly failed with the door closed and locked. I had to take the seat out and practically rip the door panel off just to reach the actuator switch. It was a real PITA that I hope I never have to do again.

 

i still dont know what to do about this. someone in mn help me out

 

Thanks my 04 had the same problem on the drivers door found the you tube video for pulling the door panel and found the tubing loose by the handle. works great once fixed.

 

05 mc under 50,000 miles. both doors stopped working from the inside in the last few weeks.

 

I have to wonder how many of us have loaned our cars to someone that does not drive a Mini or were the second owner. If a non Mini driver goes for a "test Drive" the first thing most people do when a door does not open is PULL HARDER. On my daughters car she is the third owner I was number 2 and I have no idea what happened with the first owner.

 

03 MCS 45 000 miles passenger side.