In article ,
Parish wrote:
The driver's exterior door handle broke on mine, and I got a new one.
Its fixing is unusual in that you don't have to remove the interior
door trim to get at it - it's all done via a small hole in the door
jam. Which is sealed by a sort of plastic grommet

Kudos then to BMW for making what I expect would be a rarely replaced
item easy to replace.

Well, they totally change the material it was made of from Mazak - a sort
of casting zinc alloy - to plastic.

But despite asking on all the relevant car groups and here, and the
various BMW websites, no one knew actually how to change it as officially
you need two special tools. And the hole is so small even with a powerful
torch and small mirror I couldn't see how. So at the end of the day, I had
to strip the door - airbag and all - to see how it worked. ;-(

Basically, it's a sliding latch bar with a spring lock at one end. You
need a strip of steel of fairly exact dimensions to push back the spring -
a screwdriver won't work - then a hook to pull the bar, both tools used at
the same time. To reset the latch, you merely press the handle assembly in
firmly, and push the latch bar back in and the spring locks it
automatically when fully home.

I'd chatted about this round the coffee table at work with pals interested
in cars - as you do - and just after I'd done it one good mate said his
son actually new as he did build up work on cars after respray. ;-)

--
*If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.