E30 Zone

may be someone know, is the handle to open hood cover release the same as door handle, it looks the same as on the drivers door, just up side down (broke that yesterday, what a shame, such good weather )

Yes mate mine is the same

its the door handle on the e24 and e28 as well

thanks very much, will go to the brakers today or tomorrow, this site makes things much easier

ok, I've got handle, £10, now need to change, first look, seems simple, take little panel off, 2 scrues, done, but second look, not so easy, I think I need to take off all the back seats and all side panel, know how to do seats, what about panel?

after more than 2 years, still did not fix it, new handle rest in glove box, but will definitely work on it this or next week

d1mkaz wrote:ok, I've got handle, £10

Around £8 new from BMW, IIRC!

For the panels, take off the speaker cover and you will see 2 screws, unscrew these and the panel will lift off.

You might be able to get away with just removing the bottom part of the rear seat?

not exactly the same as the handle it self is different, as it pulls the two wires that open both locks. most likely your will have broken where the pin joint the body, and what is the same is the body part (same as E30/28/24 passenger side is UK model)

you do need to remove the whole side panel to get decent access to fix this, seat and seat back out, remove the speaker cover, remove the screws and lift the panel up and out of the way.

what you need is the new surround and then using a small screwdriver hammer the pin out. then do the same with your broken cab surround.

you can see the pin and the part in the first pic which normally breaks, and second pic shows it fixed with another surround, the pin is then obviously installed b y tapping in with a small hammer and screwdriver.

If the handle itself is broken then i am quite sure you will need to buy a full handle and surround from dealers, then you will need to attached the bowdon cables and play with adjustment unitl it opens both catches - i hope this is not the case as its quite fiddley!

I did this job on my cabby about a year ago. I left the door card in but had to remove the horseshoe release cables from where they are seated to get the handle out of the recess - then I removed cable from the handle. The toughest part was reseating the end of the cable on the NS of the horseshoe.

It's a bugger of a job, hence why so many cabs have broken ones.

thanks for advices
I finally decided to do it

so it was really easy, easier than I expected
by the way, it was handle frame broken, so I went to breakers 2 years ago , and picked one from driver side door (uk model - RHD car, so driver side handle the same just upside down), paid £10 for it, but as Brianmoooore said, from BMW dealers you can get brand new one for 8 ...

here how you change it:

It is not necessary to take the speaker out (I did), because it will not make more room, or easier access. (I think fat fingers is big problem in this job). Handles surrounding needs to be removed carefully (they very thin plastic) , then the speaker cover needs to be removed. Then 2 screws which holds handle, when they off, handle turns easy





two little round plastic covers need to be removed, then the cables connected to handle can be released.

BE CAREFUL !!! IT'S VERY EASY TO LOOSE ONE or EVEN BOTH OF THEM LITTLE PLASTIC COVERS inside the car (I did) , because removing process happens in that little hole where handle seats.
But no worries, they not that rare. There is Nr.5 on them, I guess it's 5mm, so DIY stores should sell them as decorative covers for screws , my suggestion - to buy few, just in case .

So that is the bugger


backward process the same, the most difficult part is to put them bloody plastic covers back.

That's it!

I stripped the rear seats etc to do this, to cut a long story short I could not get the round plastic covers on whilst making sure the bowden cables were in place.

I purchased the handle and the complete surround as they were so cheap (only the handle pivot was broken). The dealer gave me the "revised" part number which he said do not break any more.

In the end I resorted to using a huge tie wrap around the ends of the two cables and pulling on this to release the horseshoe....!!! has worked fine for the last six months but I should get round to doing this as the square hole is a bit of an eyesore.

agd931 wrote:I stripped the rear seats etc to do this, to cut a long story short I could not get the round plastic covers on whilst making sure the bowden cables were in place.

it's a bit tricky , but try to do top bit first by turning handle inside the hole on one side (you can see it on my first picture), then do the bottom.

think i'am missing something, i have the handle and the 2 cables but there is no where for the cables to connect to on the handle

Alex wrote:think i'am missing something, i have the handle and the 2 cables but there is no where for the cables to connect to on the handle

The cable ends are like bicycle brake cables, the ends slot inside the copper coloured cylinder when you prize off the black plastic covers on the cylinder.

i'am missing that cylinder, when looking on realoem the other day i couldnt see it so i thought i must have everything, anyone know the pn

No idea, but try Genuine BMW Parts Dept