Preventing the deadlock from locking you in/out

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Do I have to sell the car?

A little engineering can go along way to driving you crazy.

One or all doors are deadlocked and cannot be opened from the outside by the key or remote, or from the inside.
The pin will not lift up. The car really resembles a locked safe.

First, all doors are stuck. Let's hope that its a shortage of electricity - a relatively easy fix.
Remove the cover plate of the rear license plate lamp and the bulb, and connect a battery or battery charger to the exposed terminals.

If that does not work then the general module or relay may be failing.

More likely is that one door only is having trouble.
It is possible to reopen a deadlocked door from the inside but it is not easy.
For the rear door, rv8flyboy has a great post on bimmerboard, here
The front door is similar but easier as the bolts holding the locking module are on the outside of the bracket.
After loosening the bolts, push the locking module backwards, i.e. towards the door latch. This should allow the door pin to be lifted and the door opened

Main causes of deadlocking problems are:
1. stiff catch assembly - remove and clean up shown here
2. the motor in the locking module is not working - repair here
3. broken wires in either the hinge space or where the wires loop inside the door.

Some people disable the relay to eliminate deadlocking, see here

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How to resynchronize the door locks?
After manually locking or unlocking the system, the door locks may become unsynchronized.
To synchronize the locks, close all doors, trunk lid and tailgate.
Lock the passenger door by turning the key clockwise into the emergency locking position (approximately 110 degrees from position O).
Unlock the driver's door. If any of the locks do not operate, repeat the locking procedure until the locking system is synchronized.
This might happen if a door which is not completely closed is locked, or a door handle is lifted before the interior lock button is raised.

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After a few years the rubber gaskets under the door handles become brittle and cracked. Time to replace them.
The dealer will only sell you the complete door handle as a set -- not just the gasket.
While many private suppliers advertise on the web -- Only Shogun offers good quality gaskets that remain pliable and east to fit. Check on Bimmerboard.

This is what most gaskets look like when they are old.


This is the set of 4 new gaskets.


They are simple to replace -- only these tools are needed.


First, remove the rubber plug in the door frame next to the handle
First the center plug, then its holder.


Insert the open spanner into the frame, push the lever behind the top of the handle towards the front.
This releases the front plate.


The front plate lifts out of the bottom clips.


Remove the old gasket - check how it fits -- and then clean the plate and the door recess.
Spray the new gasket with your favorite rubber protection and fit it to the plate.
Make sure that the plate fits down completely in the gasket.


Insert the bottom hooks into the door and swing the plate into the recess.


Holding the plate against the door, hook the lever with the ring spanner and pull it backwards so that it
catches the top hooks on the plate. Pull hard until the lever is really in position.


Reinstall your plugs

Check that the handle does not foul on the plate and that the gasket is not caught under the plate
(use a fine pick or driver to tease out any lip under the plate) -- step back and admire your handiwork.

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Do I have to sell the car?

The trunk always opens with the key, no matter if the battery is completely empty or there is no battery at all in the car.
Trunk light is best, this is what Tim once wrote:

unlocking doors via trunk light connections

The emergency unlock (lifting the passenger door handle and then turning the key over a certain resistance) sometimes does not work.
However, even with a dead battery the trunk can be opened with the key by turning it anti-clockwise and then push the unlock button.
To avoid wrong connection of power to the wires or blowing the fuse, Timm from the 7 series register in the U.K. has made a nice write-up:
A few pointers to connecting power to the boot/trunk lamp:
Firstly, the boot/trunk light is a good place to connect power as it is constantly connected to the battery via Fuse 33.
However, you must only use a charger at this point, and only one that can supply a maximum of 10A.

If you use a fully-charged battery you will blow Fuse 33.

The boot/trunk light has two wires going to it, RED/WHITE is the positive supply, connect the chargers +ve terminal to here.
Connect the charger-ve lead to somewhere on the chassis.....this removes any possibility of reverse polarity.
When the charger is connected and charging, allow 10 minutes before trying the central locking, this is just enough time to get enough charge in the battery to supply the locks.
If you have not got a charger you can use a battery but MUST connect it via a 55W (headlamp) bulb. This reduces the current to a safe level.
DON'T connect to any other lighting point, these go via the LKM or General Module and it is not a good idea to stuff power up these!

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