Door Lock Removal - Central Locking - HELP!!

[reddevil]

Hi Guys, decided that today was the day to replace my door locks, downloaded a guide from here http://www.bmwe30.net/cgi-bin/datacgi/d ... 2&Section=

Which sounded easy enough, also read through the forums and felt pretty confident. Managed to take off the door panel and get into the door cavity before I rearlised that there was going to be a problem.

Was working through this hole:


The article them mentions the removal of a C Clip which I assume is this item:


The trouble I am having is that my car has central locking which I am guessing is why I have this unit:


As you can see from this picture the unit (which I guess is for central locking) is almost completely over the C Clip which leaves me no room at all to prise is out, it's almost 100% covered and the central locking unit is firmly in place so not sure how I proceed.

Any tips? or tricks or advice?.

Here's a side picture which might help out any replies:


Where am I going wrong?, is that the C Clip or have I got that wrong and how the hell do I get to is without a special tool??

Thanks in advance Guys.

Red Devil

PS, my car is a 2 door 318is (if that helps any?)

[Chris-W]

Longest screwdriver you have (flat or phillips) - just get it behind the lip of the c-clip and lever it out with all your might!!

[reddevil]

So that is the C Clip and I am pushing it towards the front of the car?, a straight right? because it doesn't seem to want to move and I didn't want to bugger it by pressing it in the wrong direction.

Red D

[ian332isport]

I find a pair of water pump pliers are the best thing for removing the C clip. Because they have angled jaws you can grab the clip and pull it out without problems.

Cheers,

Ian.

[Chris-W]

Towards the frnt of the door, yes. Lever against the hole in the door panel. It's a sturdy clip.

In the unlikely event you break it, I'll post you a new one!

[reddevil]

Right, got the passenger side done in about 5 minutes once I know I was pressing on the right part, works great, job done......THEN I came to the drivers side door and all my worst fears came true. The drivers door is a lot more involved (deadbolts and central locking), the lock I bought of Ebay eventually went in though it came with no small spring (for the deadbolts) so I took the spring off my old lock and refitted it to the new one, put it in the door, tried to lock it and the central locking worked, half a second later though it uinlocked itself, tried again, it locked, then unlocked itself. After several failed attempts I put my old lock back in (still with no spring and therefore no deadbolts) and that one locks fine. SIde by side they seem the same, both twist as far but the new one refuses to stay locked when in the car, any more tips to offer? or have I just bought a bum lock?.

Cheers again and once again thanks for the help and advice.

Red D

[Chris-W]

I'd suggest you disassemble both locks and put the inner barrel & tumblers from your new lock in your old outer casing.

Not a huge amount of work - just remove the end cap (furthest from keyhole) by removing the hollow pin. Key needs to be in the lock to remove the inner barrel. Just be *very* careful to hold the tumblers in whilst you remove it!!!!

[Brianmoooore]

If the driver's door locks and then immediately unlocks, the ECU thinks the drivers door isn't closed i.e. the catch isn't engaged.
It determines this from a switch in the driver's door locking solenoid, which may need a bit of adjustment.
Look for two 7mm(?) hex headed self tappers in slots near the back of the inner door panel.
Incidentally, there is a way to improve your access to the mechanism.
In your pic you can see the window glass guide channel crossing inside your access hole. Just off the bottom of this pic is a single 10mm bolt which holds the bottom of this channel.
Unscrew the bolt and pull the outer metal bit of the guide down about 10mm, letting the felt part slide in the metal. You will now be able to bend the guide upwards from the bottom and hook it into the winder mechanism.