Manually Disabling Double-Locked State

[youngmineeh]

Hi All,

Somehow my car went into a double-locked state without me double-locking it with a key. The fact that I usually lock my door from the inside (by pushing down the lock lever), and unlock by using the key on the driver side's lock cylinder, I don't know how it went into a double lock mode in the first place. Here is the story:

One day, my door wouldn't unlock from the driver's side. The key would rotate close to 45 degrees CCW, but the lock wouldn't budge. Thinking that it might be a seized driver side's lock cylinder, I tried unlocking it from the passenger's side, but the results were the same. My trunk lock isn't connected to the actuator, so it was the only thing working at the time.

Repeatedly latching and unlatching the door handle, I was able to open the driver side door (honestly I don't know how this worked) and confirmed that the car went into a double-locked state. I then removed the door-lock actuator from the driver's side as a temporary solution, so that I could lock and unlock the driver side's door.

From what I've read, the only way to disable the double-locked state is to unlock the car from the driver side's door lock cylinder. The fact that I couldn't get the driver door to unlock while it was connected to the actuator vs the lock cylinder working when I removed the actuator, leads me to believe that I have a seized driver side's lock actuator.

I've been trying to decipher this diagram to resolve the issue, but no solution yet..

Here are some of the questions that I have

1. Is there a way I can manually test to see if the driver side's lock actuator is working? Maybe by jumping pins or supplying 12V to one of the pins?

2. Is there a way I can manually disable the double-locked state so that I could open the passenger side door? I'm assuming there's a signal sent to the CLCU by the unlock inhibit microswitch (#14 here) when the car enters/leaves the double-locked state, and I was wondering if I can manually replicate that to get out of it.

I'm a caveman when it comes to electronics and I'd appreciate any sort of help.

Thank you.

[Maddog]

Try disconnecting your battery to reset the door lock ECU, first. Your problem may be lock cylinder rather than the actuator.

I has a similar situation when my lock would double-lock; it was annoying but I just put up with it. Then one day the lock ceased and I could not unlock the door; it almost snapped my key.

In short, the lock cylinder needed to be replaced/rebuilt. I decided to keep my key set so ordered the replacement thru my BMW parts supplier; they sell a rebuild kit, but I don't have the patience or time to fiddle with all of the parts. I highly recommend you replace it since it's only a matter of time before it will cease and leave you in a dilemma.

There is a trick to open the door if it's a double-lock mode but you need to access the lock knob; my window was open enough for me to push down on the knob and pull on the door handle. The other choice is pulling off the windshield to access it.

Changing the cylinder is easy. Just take you time since there is not much space.

Bob

[Maddog]

Try disconnecting your battery to reset the door lock ECU, first. Your problem may be lock cylinder rather than the actuator.

I has a similar situation when my lock would double-lock; it was annoying but I just put up with it. Then one day the lock ceased and I could not unlock the door; it almost snapped my key.

In short, the lock cylinder needed to be replaced/rebuilt. I decided to keep my key set so ordered the replacement thru my BMW parts supplier. I highly recommend you replace it since it's only a matter of time before it will cease and leave you in a dilemma.

There is a trick to open the door if it's a double-lock mode but you need to access the lock knob; my window was open enough for me to push down on the knob and pull on the door handle. The other choice is pulling off the windshield to access it.

Changing the cylinder is easy. Just take you time since there is not much space.

Bob

[Gregs///M]

1. You can test actuators a few ways. Try measuring ohms across the actuator but it must be disconnected from the rest of the system so you only measure the coil of that particular actuator only. Should not be fully open and should not be full short, there should be some resistance. You can also manually power the actuator with a 12v supply (again disconnected from module) Send 12v to power actuator in one direction, reverse polarity for other direction.

2.Try performing the test at the end of that PDF you listed. Basically jumper the unlock command to ground and it will trigger unlock on the whole system. If that does not work, you can reach into the door (with panel removed) and physically pull the actuator arm.

Good luck.

[youngmineeh]

Will try it out this weekend. Thank you for the input guys