Latches/locks/linkage Problems of BMW 325 - part 2

The driver's side locks would not unlock on the door. The passenger's side was unlocked and wouldn't lock back. I had to climb across the passenger's seat to get out. This is a terrifying experience especially when thinking about what happens if there's an emergency and this happens. Very frightening.

See all problems of the 2006 BMW 325 🔎.

Passenger doors won't unlock electronically or manually. This is a common problem among the cars and there hasn't been a recall issued.

See all problems of the 2003 BMW 325 🔎.

The contact owns a 2002 BMW 325i. The contact observed that the vehicle locks on three of the doors would not release open when accessing automatically or manually. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000. Updated 01/12/lj updated 02/23/11.

See all problems of the 2002 BMW 325 🔎.

BMW 325i e46 model has door locking issues. The doors will lock and not unlock trapping passengers inside the car. The only way to get out of the car is to crawl out the window and disconnect the battery which fixes the issue but only temporarily. This is a known problem and BMW should fix the issue through a recall. It is a huge safety issue that people cannot get out of the car, what if they were in an accident and could not escape the vehicle?.

See all problems of the 2001 BMW 325 🔎.

The drivers side door would not open either with the keyless remote or by pulling on the door handle inside the car (the windows were down so I could reach inside) I had to open the passenger door and climb across the seat to get into the driver's seat. The button between the seats to unlock all of the doors also failed to open any of the locks. The hazard light switch beside it still worked, so I know the problem isn't due to that faulty switch. This door locks returned to normal after driving the car about 30 minutes and it hasn't yet returned in the five days.

3 doors on the car would not open from inside or outside of the car. Luckily the driver door still worked. In the event of an accident or fire this is a severe hazard.

I have a 2006 BMW 325i. The car has automatic locks that can be triggered with a remote key or inside the car with a lock/unlock button in the dashboard. The "unlock" feature has failed and I am unable to unlock the car with either the remote or the lock/unlock button in the dashboard. In addition, the only door that can be unlocked from either inside the car or outside the car is the driver's side front door. All the other passenger doors are locked and cannot be unlocked or opened. This obviously creates a major safety issue. The gas tank is also locked when this happens, however, this can be overcome through the manual gas tank release in the trunk. The lock failure must be remedied with some type of repair, either of a fuse or a repair of the actuators.

The drivers side door would not open either with the keyless remote or by pulling on the door handle inside the car (the windows were down so I could reach inside) I had to open the passenger door and climb across the seat to get into the driver's seat. The button between the seats to unlock all of the doors also failed to open any of the locks. The hazard light switch beside it still worked, so I know the problem isn't due to that faulty switch. This door locks returned to normal after driving the car about 30 minutes and it hasn't yet returned in the five days since.

2003 BMW 325i 4-door sedan. Driver's side door lock will not unlock. Happens all the time. Started about a year ago. I have gone online and found many other people have same problem. Seems to me to be a safety issue. If I can't get out of the car.

I have a 2006 BMW 325 I with only 34k on it,all its doors except the driver door cant be open from inside or outside,only driver door open. It is a great danger in case of accident or fire people from passenger side or from rear seats can get stuck .

The door locks on my 2006 BMW 325xi all failed at once without any warning. The front passenger and both rear doors do not unlock at all, either electronically or manually. The driver side door will open with the key and is the only one, so far, that can be opened from inside the vehicle. Had passengers been in the car and the car was involved in an accident, it would have been extremely difficult to exit the vehicle.

The door locks stopped working due to well known by BMW faulty door actuators. Left side got locked, while right side kept being unlocked. The worst part is that I could not close the locked passenger door, so we had to "belt it" to the back passenger door to eb able to make it home. Shame on BMW for very poor design w/o any mechanical way of locking/unlocking. Very unsafe it happens at collision.

Beginning mid-summer 2010, the door locks began working erratically. The situation has progressed and often I must reach through an open window to be able to open the door. The center locking system also does not respond. This IA a potentially serious hazard as a person could become trapped in the locked vehicle after a crash because the locks don't work.

The contact owns a 2004 BMW 325i. The contact stated that the doors lock failed. The front passenger door and the rear doors could not be unlocked manually with the key. The contact mentioned that the driver door was the only door that could be unlocked manually with the key. The dealer advised that vehicle general electronic control module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 65,000 and the current mileage was 97,000. . . . . . . Updated 12/20/12.

See all problems of the 2004 BMW 325 🔎.

I have a 2001 BMW 325i sedan (production date 10/2000) and I'm having a issue with my door locks. Today when going to pick up my child from school, I was unable to exit my vehicle. I always lock my doors once I begin driving for my own comfort and safety. So after parking my car and removing my key, normally I would be able to pull the interior handle to the drivers door and the door would unlock, it didn't. I don't have an alarm on the car so I didn't understand what was going on. I pushed the lock/unlock button inside the car to attempt to unlock the door with no success. I pressed the button on my key to attempt to unlock the doors with again, no success. The only was I was able to exit my vehicle was to put the key back in the ignition, open the drivers window, take the key back out and use the key to unlock the door from the outside. This is not the first time this issue has happened, but is the first time it happened where I was locked inside my car. It happened once in the winter and I was unable to get into my car for over 30minutes. This is a very big safety issue because I was trapped in my car. I could have been involved in a accident and can't get out the car through the doors because of this issue. The most scary part is that I don't know when it's going to happen. Something has got to be done about this. I took the car to be looked at by a mechanic and was told that it would cost me almost $800 to repair this issue. They informed me that this is a common issue with my car. I searched to see if there was a recall or something for this issue offered by BMW and could not find anything but more people complaining of the same expensive issue. This issue is a serious safety issue. If I was involved in a accident where the car caught fire and all doors were locked but the drivers door, how would my passengers get out??? very serious and dangerous safety issue!!!!!.

The contact owns a 2006 BMW 325i. While the vehicle was parked, the contact and occupants attempted to exit the locked doors. However, the front driver side automated door lock mechanism was the only functioning device in the vehicle that would allow the door to unlock. The vehicle occupants exited from the front driver side door. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the technician stated the failure was contributed to a defective door latch. The vehicle had not been repaired at the time of the complaint due to the excessive repair cost. There was a technical service bulletin related to the defect. The technical service bulletin number was unknown. The contact had significant concern of the safety hazard. The failure mileage was 69,200.

E46 BMW 2004 325xi and 2000 323i both have issues unlocking doors when weather is above 50 degrees. Vehicle wont let you unlock doors from inside and manual unlock is only for drivers door and must do so through window. If there were an accident in the car I don't know how I would have escaped in a reasonable amount of time. People in the back seat are forced to crawl into the front of the car and out the driver door. No manual unlock is available to any door but the drivers door.

Without warning or indication of a pending failure, the electric door locks failed to unlock all four doors. The lock/unlock switch on the dash would not unlock the doors nor would the unlock button on the key remote. The only door that can be unlocked is the driver?s door and only when using the integrated key directly with the exterior of the door or using the ?double jerk? mechanism (mechanical override) of the inside door handle. None of the passengers doors have the ?double jerk? mechanism (mechanical override) and anybody riding as a passenger would be stuck in the car with a means of exit other than the driver?s door or the windows. In conjunction with this failure, the gas compartment and the electrical rearview mirrors stopped working. The dealer attributed the failure to damaged battery, battery cables and the door actuators, but refused to cover the costs for fixing the problem. My car has turned into a death trap. An ex-mechanic of the dealer has said that this is a common problem he has seen. This is a safety issue that needs to be addressed now before some gets seriously injured or even dies as a result of this design defect.

2003 BMW 325i 4-door sedan - problem: electric door locks will not always unlock with key fob. Persistent with colder ambient temperatures (less than 65 degrees f). I can unlock drivers door with key, but no other doors unlock. Issue: the door locks double-lock meaning when doors are locked, they can't be opened from outside or inside (by pulling on handle). The only door that unlocks with interior handle pull is drivers door. If vehicle is in an accident my passengers will not be able to unlock their doors to exit vehicle! they are basically locked inside. This is a big safety issue, especially if there is a danger of fire or some other event that necessitates quickly exiting the car. My research: I've basically narrowed it to the gm5 module that controls the door locking and unlocking. This module controls some other vehicle functions as well. The door locking function works great, but unlocking is sporadic with ambient temperature fluctuations. Opinion: there should be an investigation opened on this issue. Reading several BMW user forums this appears to be a common problem across many vehicle years. The double-locking door locks are a nice anti-theft feature, but are dangerous if the system malfunctions. BMW must acknowledge a defect is present in the gm5 module and take appropriate action.

The door locks will not unlock with the remote. The doors cannot be opened from the inside. Only the drivers door can be unlocked using a the spare key. This is a safety hazard if there were to be an accident, I would be stuck in my car. There would be no way for the doors to be opened in case of an emergency. This is a very common problem with this make. Its attributed to a faulty design.

The door locks will not unlock with the vehicle's remote. The doors cannot be opened from the inside. The driver door can be unlocked using a manual key but all 3 other doors remained locked due to the fact they are controlled by the remote. The doors cannot be unlocked by depressing the button to unlock the doors.

The car doors at times do not unlock. It is very intermittent. A key can be used to open the driver's door but a couple of times even the door key has not worked. The most serious issue is that I have been locked inside the car and unable to open any of the doors, including the driver's door, with the main lock control or even by trying to open the door with the inside door handle. I have had to have passengers crawl out of the window to exit the car a few times. There are times when the key works to get in but I cannot get the other doors open even by attempting to use the inside door handle. This is a scary situation to be in.

The automatic power door locks on a BMW 3-series (e46) are known to randomly fail, resulting in it becoming impossible for any occupants to get out of a vehicle. . Read more...

The door locks will not unlock with the vehicle's remote. The doors cannot be opened from the inside. The driver door can be unlocked using a manual key but all 3 other doors remained locked due to the fact they are controlled by the remote. The doors cannot be unlocked by depressing the button to unlock the doors. If my son and I were in a wreck and the driver side damaged we would not be able to get out of the car.

The car locks fail to lock or unlock, one time locking me inside my car. The manual locks also stop working so using a key or opening from the inside with the handle is impossible. I had the problem repaired the first time in December and they replaced the locking mechanisms for the front driver door and gas cap door. In January, my locks failed again. This time forcing me to crawl in and out my front passenger's side door to gain access to my car. The dealer this time replaced the door lock fuse. This is a safety hazard if there were to be an accident, I would be stuck in my car.

I was at the store when the car locks jammed. The only way to get into the car was by manually using the key. The key fob would not unlock the door. The real issue was that the only door that could be opened was the drivers side using the manual key. All the others were jammed shut. There would be no way for those doors to be opened in case of an emergency. This is a very common problem with this make. Its attributed to a faulty design. See threads and youtube video. . Read more...

For no reason one day, my door unlock button does not work and I am not able to open the door by pulling on the door handle. The only way to open the door is to use the key and open it from the outside. This only works for the driver door, and you are not able to open any of the remaining doors. This could be a severe safety issue especially if the car is in an accident in which people would not be able to get out. The failure has been consistent and is not intermittent and should be corrected for all cars on the road, since people could die. The only way to exit the vehicle would be to climb out of the windows. The car effected is 2006 BMW 325i.

I was inside my car in a parking lot and the electric door locks failed to unlock the doors. The switch on the dash would unlock the doors nor would the remote. The door handles inside the car would not open the door either. Luckily I remembered that if I held down on one of the buttons on the remote control the windows would open. I then had to climb out of the window. The temperature inside the car was more than 100 degrees. This is a very serious problem. If I had not had the remote, I would have been trapped inside the car!.

The contact owns a 2006 BMW 325i. The contact stated that all of the locks failed to unlock in 2007. All of the locks are electronic and there is a master unlock button on the dashboard. The contact was unable to exit the vehicle and had to drive to the service dealer in order to be let out of the vehicle. The dealer had to reset the computer chip in the locks. On March 22, 2008, the failure recurred and the dealer had to replace all the door locks. Immediately after the replacement, the electric mirrors failed. The dealer stated that the motor failed simultaneously. The dealer provided the contact with a new vehicle. The failure and current mileages were 38,000.

Door locks malfunctioning. Typically inconvenient when keyless entry will not unlock driver door (unlocks all other doors). One incident where, while inside the car, driver's door unlocked, but passenger door did not unlock. In the event of a collision or other emergency where passengers inside car, all passengers would have to exit driver's door as passenger door would not unlock.

The contact owns a 2006 BMW 325i. The contact stated the doors will not open from the inside or the outside, causing someone to be trapped inside the vehicle. The dealer diagnosed the failure to be that the fuses are blowing out causing the electronic locks to malfunction. This had been the second time he contact had been trapped inside the vehicle. There had been no repairs. The failure mileage was 18885 and the current mileage was 60000.

Due to the malfunctioning of the electronic for door locks, the door will not unlock using the key pad and from the central console lock bottom from inside the car and also with the manual lock lever from inside. But the drivers side door will unlock using the key manually from outside. Once the car is auto locked after it starts moving, the door will not unlock and open from inside with the manual lever, except the driver side. The center cosole switch will not unlock any doors except the cargo hatch. Main safety issue is as follow: the rear seat and front right side passengers cannot unlock their doors using the manual lever on the door. This can be very dangerous in case of an emergency. This failure locks the occupants of the car unless they crawl to the driver side or to the back cargo door. I have not yet taken the car to the dealership. But I thought BMW needs to fix this on all cars before some one gets trapped in the car and cannot get out to safety or escape from the car, if they need to. Thanks sincerely amit r patel.

While I was traveling out of town my 2006 BMW 325i had a major locking failure. I could not unlock the doors of the car except for the drivers side door. This to me is a safety hazard because all other doors where not operable, thus no one could safely get out of the car if we had been in an accident, the safety unlock would not have worked.