1988RedT2
1988RedT2 MegaDork
12/19/19 9:16 a.m.

2003 530i, 130k miles.  Sweet car.  A joy to drive.  But...

Already fixed one rear door latch, driver's side.  Now the passenger side is wonky.  Cold this morning, might have something to do with it?  When I replaced the outside door handle dealie with one from an earlier junkyard E39 528i (metal construction) I noticed that the operation of the original part (plastic construction) was not obviously defective--nothing broken, kinda works.  The metal junkyard part fixed it just fine.  My guess is that the plastic just kinda deforms with age and the part gets to a point where it won't quite do what it's supposed to.

So I guess I've talked myself into a junkyard trip to see if I can score the handle mechanism for the rear passenger door. 

While I'm there, I might as well get spares for all the dang doors.  All of these door latches seem overly "tight" as in it takes a good bit of effort to open them, either from outside or inside.  Is there some sort of maintenance procedure to help correct this?  The parts are just a short cable and nylon pieces.  Not much to go wrong.  Do these things just fail with age?  Part of the joy of BMW ownership, I guess?

1988RedT2
1988RedT2 MegaDork
12/19/19 11:38 a.m.

Well, I've got it working now.  Really cold this morning probably didn't help.  The 2001-2003 part is apparently garbage.  I'll be getting the metal part next time I'm in the junkyard.

The door "brake" benefited from a shot of lithium grease.  Makes the door move more easily.  Seemed stiff before.  Also hit the striker/latch.  I sprayed the hinges too, but the design is pretty much sealed up.

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