BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sun 2 Jul 2017 10:07
BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues - grasshopper

Hi All.

I have been researching this issue for a few days now and cant get to the bottom of the central locking issues my girlfriends car has.

Heres the issue.

Originally, the keyfob would not work at all.

I have rewired the module above the spoiler due to snapped wires, checked the module and all seems ok now.

All fuses associated with the central locking have been checked and are good (the two usual suspects have already been uprated to 20A).

Since the rewire:

The doors all lock from the keyfob.

When I unlock using the fob, the passenger front door unlocks but the other 3 doors do not, I can hear all actuators 'working', but they dont pop the knob up or unlock the doors.

When using the key in the drivers door, all 4 doors unlock properly.

I originally thought it must be that the 3 non working doors has actuator failures.

This didnt quite sit right with me that 3 actuators had failed.

Thinking about it last night, if the key operates all 4 doors correctly, this must mean that all actuators are good and strong enough to unlock the doors...

Does anyone have any ideas why the actuators work from the key and not from the remote?

I am a little reluctant to buy 3 x new actuators because they work from the key.

Any help is much appreciated (everyone likes to be a hero to their missus) :thumbsup

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 10:44
BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues - FiestaOwner

With many cars the remote central locking can be programmed with the following results:

1) A single press of the remote unlocks button, unlocks the drivers door only.

2) A double press (2 presses close together) of the unlock button on the remote, unlocks all doors.

You say that you can hear all the actuators 'working', but not unlocking. Perhaps that is the deadlocking being disengaged on all doors (that would be correct operation).

Try double pressing the unlock button to see if all doors unlock. If they do unlock, you must have a wire crossed somewhere, as it should be the drivers door and not the passenger door which unlocks with a single press.

As you say, if the actuators work with the key, I don't see how they could be faulty.

Edited by FiestaOwner on 02/07/2017 at 10:45

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 11:09
BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues - elekie&a/c doctor

Firstly,does the central locking work ok from the switch on the dash panel? Door lock actuators are a known failure area on these ,but when they fail,there is no activity at all on the door.Wiring faults on these are not that common,other than the broken wires into the tailgate.(same problem on the 5 series).My next step would be to disconnect the battery for ten mins to see if that resets any confusion in the system.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 15:43
BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues - RobJP

I'll just put this forward :

You 'uprated' some fuses to 20A.

Google 'Zafira fires' - and the ACTUAL causes - people bypassing fuses, or 'uprating' them to stop them from blowing does NOT fix a problem, it just means the problem is likely to lead to overheating elsewhere.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 2 Jul 2017 21:44
BMW E91 2006 - Central Locking issues - elekie&a/c doctor

Not quite the same .Early e90 variants were fitted with 2x 15 amp fuses for the cdl system. These cars would suffer erratic fuse blown failure.The official mod was to uprate the fuses to 2x 20 amp to overcome this problem.,as found on later cars. Unlikely to be fire or hazard risk as the cdl is only a momentary function.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link