No kidding.cek wrote:For such a piece of shit, it sure looks nice. I dig the wheels.
OT, but ... what BBS wheels are those, exactly? I just browsed the current catalog and don't see and exact match.
OT: 1995 525i: Driver's door will not open - the lock WORKS
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carnutdallas
- Posts: 1915
- Joined: Apr 13, 2008
- Location: Frisco, TX
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Having seen (and ridden in) this car, I can say it looks incredible. Those wheels make it.Jeremy wrote:No kidding.cek wrote:For such a piece of shit, it sure looks nice. I dig the wheels.
OT, but ... what BBS wheels are those, exactly? I just browsed the current catalog and don't see and exact match.
I offered a black door, but I'm a state awaycek wrote:For such a piece of shit, it sure looks nice. I dig the wheels.
Don't you think a black door would be easy & cheap to find?
I believe they are CH wheels or something? He's told me a couple times, but my memory isn't all that great. I wish my pos looked a quarter as good as Chris' 'pos'...
New key is ~$50 from dealer... I got one for a car that has different door cylinders in it still
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carnutdallas
- Posts: 1915
- Joined: Apr 13, 2008
- Location: Frisco, TX
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wkohler wrote:... Personally, I think using the grinder and the potential fire that could ensue would get me closer to my goal. I will just do it at the end of the driveway though.
+1.carnutdallas wrote:Cool! Glad it worked out. Looking forward to deets.wkohler wrote:Door is open. Latch is out. More details later. I'm at work and can't spend the time posting photos.
Hokay, so...
Today was shaping up to be crappy, much like yesterday. Too much to do. No time to do it and everyone wants it now. I'm going nuts. I keep putting off things that need to get done but are of lower priority and whaddya know. They become really important really fast.
Anyway, my friend Alex is a BMW specialist and he now owns the Orient Express. Sometime after I sold the car, the door brake broke on the drivers side (the bolts loosen over time, then just tear the hell out of the sheet metal) and managed to take the window guide with it and wasn't something he could repair, so he sourced another Orient door. It's been sitting in his shop with the regulator removed and the door card off. I was in the area yesterday and wanted to take a look at what I was in for. I watched how everything was supposed to work, but much of it is obscured.
I went to my parents' house, got in the car from the passenger side (fun - not as bad as I thought), then drove it home. I pulled the drivers seat by first removing the seat back. Then, removed the bolts and the seatbelt and removed the seat, which required a bit of force to get it to move past the map pocket.
Then, I pulled the edge protection, the kick plate dealie, and the lower b-pillar cover. Removed the door panel, but I did tear it on each side of the part that juts out around the latch. I did better than I thought I would.
Here's a shot of the latch in my door:
As you can see, you can't see much. I checked that all of the linkages and cables worked on mine once I got the door panel off. I made sure the door wasn't deadbolted (the linkage towards the door skin is what does that. The actuator worked perfectly.
I had thought about working on destroying the latch by breaking off the plastic bits, then trying to prise open the covering. That's when I started looking at the striker. as a possible option. I was thinking it would be cleaner and that I'd probably end up making the problem worse.
So, that's as far as I got yesterday.
Today, Alex had a cancellation, so he decided to go pull the E34 ZF 5-speed swap I told him about. He asked me to pull it for him, but time is not something I've got and he sold the tranny out of my car to a customer, so timing was perfect. He also tore down the guts from the bad door and said he'd bring me the latch from my old car since it was of such high sentimental value. I did replace the inside door handle cable, though. Anyway, he swung by. I hadn't done anything today, so I didn't have a chance to ruin the car further.
We looked at the latch he brought. I explained what mine was doing. All of the lock functions work and it wasn't deadbolted. I said, "hey, if you want to see for yourself, step right in, but you have to go in the back door. Nothing personal." So, he started looking at it and it didn't make any sense to him. I explained my idea of cutting the bolts on the striker plate. He gave me the same reply he did via text message the other night. Nothing. He started trying to move the catch with the pick tool like I was doing and soon realized that physics aren't on your side there. So, he took my large screwdriver and started carefully breaking things. I asked if he wanted me to get the lighter.
After a short while (about 15 minutes of talking about how this doesn't make any sense), he opened the door. I had walked away for a couple seconds and turned around and noticed he was out of the car.
So, I grabbed the torx driver and pulled the latch out and I got this:
A few pieces are missing out of there. The axle on which the catch pivots also connects to the metal cover (the peeled back part). There are still some pieces in the bottom of the door, so I'm not sure what actually failed. Since both of the input components were connected to their respective spots, it was inside the "box of sadness and death." I guess most people call it the latch.
I'm definitely going to need to find a new door card though. I'll have to reattach all of the stupid tabs for the clips to this one in the meantime, though.
Today was shaping up to be crappy, much like yesterday. Too much to do. No time to do it and everyone wants it now. I'm going nuts. I keep putting off things that need to get done but are of lower priority and whaddya know. They become really important really fast.
Anyway, my friend Alex is a BMW specialist and he now owns the Orient Express. Sometime after I sold the car, the door brake broke on the drivers side (the bolts loosen over time, then just tear the hell out of the sheet metal) and managed to take the window guide with it and wasn't something he could repair, so he sourced another Orient door. It's been sitting in his shop with the regulator removed and the door card off. I was in the area yesterday and wanted to take a look at what I was in for. I watched how everything was supposed to work, but much of it is obscured.
I went to my parents' house, got in the car from the passenger side (fun - not as bad as I thought), then drove it home. I pulled the drivers seat by first removing the seat back. Then, removed the bolts and the seatbelt and removed the seat, which required a bit of force to get it to move past the map pocket.
Then, I pulled the edge protection, the kick plate dealie, and the lower b-pillar cover. Removed the door panel, but I did tear it on each side of the part that juts out around the latch. I did better than I thought I would.
Here's a shot of the latch in my door:
As you can see, you can't see much. I checked that all of the linkages and cables worked on mine once I got the door panel off. I made sure the door wasn't deadbolted (the linkage towards the door skin is what does that. The actuator worked perfectly.
I had thought about working on destroying the latch by breaking off the plastic bits, then trying to prise open the covering. That's when I started looking at the striker. as a possible option. I was thinking it would be cleaner and that I'd probably end up making the problem worse.
So, that's as far as I got yesterday.
Today, Alex had a cancellation, so he decided to go pull the E34 ZF 5-speed swap I told him about. He asked me to pull it for him, but time is not something I've got and he sold the tranny out of my car to a customer, so timing was perfect. He also tore down the guts from the bad door and said he'd bring me the latch from my old car since it was of such high sentimental value. I did replace the inside door handle cable, though. Anyway, he swung by. I hadn't done anything today, so I didn't have a chance to ruin the car further.
We looked at the latch he brought. I explained what mine was doing. All of the lock functions work and it wasn't deadbolted. I said, "hey, if you want to see for yourself, step right in, but you have to go in the back door. Nothing personal." So, he started looking at it and it didn't make any sense to him. I explained my idea of cutting the bolts on the striker plate. He gave me the same reply he did via text message the other night. Nothing. He started trying to move the catch with the pick tool like I was doing and soon realized that physics aren't on your side there. So, he took my large screwdriver and started carefully breaking things. I asked if he wanted me to get the lighter.
After a short while (about 15 minutes of talking about how this doesn't make any sense), he opened the door. I had walked away for a couple seconds and turned around and noticed he was out of the car.
So, I grabbed the torx driver and pulled the latch out and I got this:
A few pieces are missing out of there. The axle on which the catch pivots also connects to the metal cover (the peeled back part). There are still some pieces in the bottom of the door, so I'm not sure what actually failed. Since both of the input components were connected to their respective spots, it was inside the "box of sadness and death." I guess most people call it the latch.
I'm definitely going to need to find a new door card though. I'll have to reattach all of the stupid tabs for the clips to this one in the meantime, though.
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carnutdallas
- Posts: 1915
- Joined: Apr 13, 2008
- Location: Frisco, TX
- Contact:
