Rear Door's won't open.

[cbowling]

I recently bought my 1996 328i 4D and only use it for transportation for myself to/from work and school. When I purchased it, the private seller told me that the rear doors had been locked at the dealership (he didn't remember what to do) with the "Child Safety Lock" option to prevent kids from opening the doors while in movement. I went through the manual today to see if I could do something about unlocking the rear doors.

The Manual said that to engage the child safety lock, you needed to insert your key into the inside part of the door and turn the key to the right (which meant locked). It said that the door should only be able to be opened from the outside. Well, obviously it doesn't open from the outside. Nor the inside. I've tried all sorts of weird combinations to open the door, short of taking a crowbar and ripping them open.

If I could get the doors open, I could dis-engage the safety lock and the problem would be solved.

Does anybody have any suggestions on something to do to help me solve my little dilema? Has anyone had this problem before?

[strad]

I have not had a four-door E36. But from the description in the owner's manual it sounds like you should be able to open the door from the outside if the child lock is engaged.

The fact that you can't do this would indicate that there might be something wrong with the cls in that the rear door actuators might be seized. If that is the case, you're going to have to remove the rear seat and then pull the door panels off.

edit: you know, I'd try the emergency unlock procedure outlined in the manual before doing anything else -- it's what you do if the battery is dead. Otherwise you're going to be in for some fun disassembly of the doors from the inside of the car. Also, if the door lock button doesn't go up and down when you unlock/lock the rest of the car, that would tend to confirm something wrong with the actuators.

[cbowling]

Awesome. I'll check that out.