Front passenger door won't open from inside

[mfdutra]

I've noticed my passengers always have some trouble to open the door. I never sit there, so I hadn't notice the electric unlatch doesn't work from the inside. The door will only open if I pull all the way back into the mechanical unlatch. From the outside, it works fine, so it's not the latch itself.

I can hear the click of the micro switch, but it won't engage the latch mechanism on the door.

Servicing this car is obviously an exercise of patience. How I miss my BMW in this aspect.



Has anyone seen that problem?

 

[037]

I've noticed my passengers always have some trouble to open the door. I never sit there, so I hadn't notice the electric unlatch doesn't work from the inside. The door will only open if I pull all the way back into the mechanical unlatch. From the outside, it works fine, so it's not the latch itself.

I can hear the click of the micro switch, but it won't engage the latch mechanism on the door.

Servicing this car is obviously an exercise of patience. How I miss my BMW in this aspect.



Has anyone seen that problem?

Did you confirm child lock isn’t enabled?

 

[mfdutra]

Did you confirm child lock isn’t enabled?

The rear doors work just fine.

 

[037]

The rear doors work just fine.

Ah, says front in title but not in body of paragraph, ignore me and take it to service.

 

[Saksak]

I've noticed my passengers always have some trouble to open the door. I never sit there, so I hadn't notice the electric unlatch doesn't work from the inside. The door will only open if I pull all the way back into the mechanical unlatch. From the outside, it works fine, so it's not the latch itself.

I can hear the click of the micro switch, but it won't engage the latch mechanism on the door.

Servicing this car is obviously an exercise of patience. How I miss my BMW in this aspect.



Has anyone seen that problem?

My guess is door misalignment. I had a “sticky” rear passenger door and service took care of it when I scheduled service for minor due-bill items.

 

[mfdutra]

When I open the other 3 doors and operate the inner or outer handles, I can clearly hear the unlatch motor engaging. On the front passenger door, only the outer handle engages the unlatch motor.

 

[bicycleguy]

I think the switch is defective, just like the many other cases of door switch issues although they are usually the outer handle switches. Whoever made the door handles used dirty, poorly plated and or low quality switches or somehow they got contaminated. I was able to get my passenger outside door switch handle working by repeatedly exercising it, just pulling the handle about ten times with the door open whenever I approached the car the first few days. It went from 10% to 100% success, like it was cleaning some oxidation off the contacts. However, just the fact that this changed its performance doesn't bode well for the life of the switch.