Did my car come with manual door locks? How to get power ones?

[Vicarious]

Yea so i have a 91 318is. I never inquired from the previous owner. The car needed work, i boguth it, did work to it, love it. But having manual door locks can be annoying sometimes.

Theres two ways about this. Either it did have them, and they some how went out of order; or the car came with manual door locks. In which case how hard it is to retrofit the car with power locks? Id want to do this so i can then get keyless entry.

[Jordan]

Uh.. it should have power locks, it won't have keyless entry or anything though.

[twistednut]

Pull the trunk liner behind the license plate and see if there is an actuator in there. If there is then it sounds like you have a problem with the door locking relay.

[Vicarious]

Uh.. it should have power locks, it won't have keyless entry or anything though.

uhh.. i know it wont if i have manual locks...


to the other guy: yea thats sounds like a good idea, i'll check the liner to look for an actuator. i hope there is one because it seems like it would be a pain to retro fit power locks.

but a question: have most cars came with power locks? or was it common for e30's to come with manual locks. and are 90-91 more common with one or the other.

[DaveSmed]

I have personally never seen or heard of a US market E30 without them.

[red]

I think he's a bit confused because theres no button to push for the locks.

[Wishno87]

some E30s were orderd without the central locking system. my neighbors E30 dosent have it. the easiest way tell the difference is looking at the fuel door. if you have central locking there will be a pin in the gas filler area that comes out and locks the fuel door when central locking is activated.

[Kilawin]

I have personally never seen or heard of a US market E30 without them.

I have a '91 318is that came with no central locking and no sunroof.

[gearheadE30]

Huh, even Jordan doesn't know this one. My car also doesn't have power locks, and came from the factory with a digital clock (2-button OBC, kind of). I have seen at least 2 other M42 cars equipped the same way.

As for adding central locking, it would be easy enough to add door and trunk lock actuators and the controller, but you wouldn't have the locking gas cap. The parts to do so aren't worth the money, IMHO, because you can just lean across and hit the lock. The trunk would be nice, but not worth $150 to me.