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Car Forum / BMW Cars / October 2005

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will door lock actuators failed on battery failure?

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Bigbox - 15 Oct 2005 00:27 GMT
with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
well?

my 1991 525i has some kind of power leakage recently (from somewhere i
don't know) so the battery was drained and now the 4 door locks and
unable to open even by the key! only the boot lid can be opened. how
to open the door again without breaking the glass?

thank you.
JimV - 15 Oct 2005 00:33 GMT
> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
> well?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> thank you.

Yes, nice huh? You can do the emergency unlock thing on the passenger
door lock or you can pull the plate light and use that wire to power-up
the system.
Bigbox - 15 Oct 2005 13:39 GMT
>> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
>> well?
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>door lock or you can pull the plate light and use that wire to power-up
>the system.

my keys (i got 2) can't even open the passenger door lock! i think i
can locate the plate light but what do u mean by 'use that wire to
power up the system'? do u mean making a short circuit?

thank you.
Dave Plowman (News) - 15 Oct 2005 15:46 GMT
> >Yes, nice huh? You can do the emergency unlock thing on the passenger
> >door lock or you can pull the plate light and use that wire to power-up
> >the system.

> my keys (i got 2) can't even open the passenger door lock! i think i
> can locate the plate light but what do u mean by 'use that wire to
> power up the system'? do u mean making a short circuit?

You need to remove the *trunk* light and hook up a slave battery to
chassis and the live wire. This should send power to all the permanently
powered things like the central locking. The license plate light is only
powered if the lights are switched on.

However, there's a caution about this. If your battery is heavily
discharged this might make more current flow from the slave battery to
yours while it charges it than the wiring can handle - after all the boot
light is only a few watts. So to be safe, I'd wire a 21 watt bulb in
series with the connection. Leave it for a few minutes to charge the car
battery slightly. Then with a bit of luck the central locking will operate.

Signature

*Happiness is seeing your mother-in-law on a milk carton

   Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                 To e-mail, change noise into sound.

330Xi - 15 Oct 2005 07:28 GMT
go here... http://www.bimmer.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=10
and search for "emergency unlock" procedure... that is the best site for
that car

> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
> well?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> thank you.
Bigbox - 15 Oct 2005 14:10 GMT
>go here... http://www.bimmer.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=10
>and search for "emergency unlock" procedure... that is the best site for
>that car

i think my procedures were a bit incorrect... i turn the key before i
lift the door plate. anyway, i will try again and hope i can get into
the car. thank you.

>> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
>> well?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>>
>> thank you.
R. Mark Clayton - 15 Oct 2005 20:52 GMT
> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
> well?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> thank you.

Depending on model there you can mechanically unlock the driver (or LHS)
door.  Once you get into the car you can read how to do it in the manual ;-)
A Google in the news groups should turn it up though.

Otherwise you can charge up the battery enough through the boot light, but
do not over current or you will blow the battery supply fuse and then you
will have to break a window.
Bigbox - 16 Oct 2005 08:09 GMT
thanks for all the input. i can now unlock the door using the
emergency unlock method. the only thing left is to check if any
electrical or electronic problem remains after a new battery is
installed. once again, thank you.

>> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
>> well?
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>do not over current or you will blow the battery supply fuse and then you
>will have to break a window.
Jeff Strickland - 18 Oct 2005 18:15 GMT
I am currently -- as we speak -- playing with the door locks on my '94 E36,
and I played with the trunk lock a few weeks ago.

I can say without reservation that the door locks are mechanical, and they
work by the key on the door you are trying to lock or unlock. The other
doors operate by electric motors, but the lock set with the key in it
operates mechanically. When you use the key on ANY of the locks, that lock
operates the latch directly -- unless it has other problems -- and this lock
will work a switch that operats the rest of the locks on the car. Obviously,
with a dead battery, the other locks will not operate in this way, but the
door that you insert the key into will lock and unlock properly.

> with a completely flat battery, will the door lock actuators failed as
> well?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> thank you.
 
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