Help... My 2013 e70 X5 is locking everyone in...

[archival]

Another day, another problem popping out of the woodwork on my X5.

This time it's a fun one. The car has the comfort access doors locks. They work fine. You get in the car, shut the doors, and all is right with the world.

And then, you can't get out.

I can't figure out what precise set of steps is causing this. It's happening at random.

Door locks click into place and the doors can't be opened from the inside. Pull the handle and the lock will pop up as long as you're holding the handle, but the door won't open. Release the handle and the lock snaps back down into its "locked" state (it drops back down as if it has a spring on it).

The driver door can be forced open by pulling the handle twice, but no other door can be opened. It is literally locking people in with no way to exit on the passenger or rear doors. My wife has had to climb over the center console a couple of times now and aside from the safety-issue this presents (being able to get OUT of your car seems like a fairly basic requirement for a car), it's incredibly annoying.

If this happens while you're outside the car, the car won't allow you in. Comfort access won't unlock. There will be a sound when you try, but the doors do not unlock. You can click the lock or unlock button again on the key fob and again, it'll click, but the doors won't unlock.

The gas door is also locked. No access.

You can get in through the rear hatch in this instance, or by using the key inside the key fob on the driver door, but again, all other doors remain locked and cannot be opened. Turning the car on/off, inserting the key manually into the dash, hitting the internal lock button, nothing fixes this.

In the end, you go crazy fiddling around with everything, eventually give up, and at that very moment, the car starts to work again.

All locks function properly and probably will for the next month.

I've had the vehicle into the bmw store a few times and they tell me this sounds impossible, and I can't replicate it in front of them. When I tell them the symptoms they act like I'm speaking crazy-talk and suggest I bring it by next time it's actively doing it so they can see the problem.

What do I do here? Does anyone know what is going in? Has anyone experienced a similar situation?

[SyL3nTFoRcE]

Originally Posted by archival

Another day, another problem popping out of the woodwork on my X5.

This time it's a fun one. The car has the comfort access doors locks. They work fine. You get in the car, shut the doors, and all is right with the world.

And then, you can't get out.

I can't figure out what precise set of steps is causing this. It's happening at random.

Door locks click into place and the doors can't be opened from the inside. Pull the handle and the lock will pop up as long as you're holding the handle, but the door won't open. Release the handle and the lock snaps back down into its "locked" state (it drops back down as if it has a spring on it).

The driver door can be forced open by pulling the handle twice, but no other door can be opened. It is literally locking people in with no way to exit on the passenger or rear doors. My wife has had to climb over the center console a couple of times now and aside from the safety-issue this presents (being able to get OUT of your car seems like a fairly basic requirement for a car), it's incredibly annoying.

If this happens while you're outside the car, the car won't allow you in. Comfort access won't unlock. There will be a sound when you try, but the doors do not unlock. You can click the lock or unlock button again on the key fob and again, it'll click, but the doors won't unlock.

The gas door is also locked. No access.

You can get in through the rear hatch in this instance, or by using the key inside the key fob on the driver door, but again, all other doors remain locked and cannot be opened. Turning the car on/off, inserting the key manually into the dash, hitting the internal lock button, nothing fixes this.

In the end, you go crazy fiddling around with everything, eventually give up, and at that very moment, the car starts to work again.

All locks function properly and probably will for the next month.

I've had the vehicle into the bmw store a few times and they tell me this sounds impossible, and I can't replicate it in front of them. When I tell them the symptoms they act like I'm speaking crazy-talk and suggest I bring it by next time it's actively doing it so they can see the problem.

What do I do here? Does anyone know what is going in? Has anyone experienced a similar situation?

wow that sounds like a weird problem. One thing you should try and do is record when it happens and show it to the dealer. You can always change the battery on the key to see if that helps or have someone run a diag check on it and see if that works as well.

[belarus27]

yes record a video next time it happens , thats pretty annoying

[archival]

Trying to get a video of the issue.

It happened again this morning. Wife went to put my daughter in the car, no problem. Closed her door, went to the front driver door... Won't open.

Doors are frozen locked again. She forced the door with her key inside the key fob but all other doors won't open and interior button is unresponsive whether the car is on or off. She comes in shouting about it, I go outside and verify it's happening.

This is it, I was going to drive it straight to BMW and show them... I run inside to get my camera, I come back out ready to go (with the car still running), and all the damn doors unlocked fine.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This is killing me.

[Poppyboy]

If you're not paranoid about the car's treatment (like I would be) and since it occurs somewhat frequently, you should leave the car with them for a day.

[archival]

Finally managed to replicate the issue in front of a guy at BMW. They were puzzled and said they hadn't seen anything like it. It was locking up all four doors this time, including the driver's door. You couldn't get out without rolling down the drivers window and forcing the door lock with the internal fob key.

They ran tests on the vehicle all morning and finally had an answer.

The diagnosis from BMW is a faulty "interior power control module" (a junction box of some kind somewhere up under the lower part of the dash). Apparently it's intermittently shorting out or otherwise testing as faulty.

Quoted 3 hours of labor and a $503.97 part. A little less than a grand to repair all-in.

I told them to fix it. We'll see what happens. I still can't believe that this is a failure mode for this vehicle. It's insane that a part can go bad and make it impossible to exit the vehicle through any of the doors. There is no mechanical means to open the door if this happens. Pulling the door handles multiple times or clicking the central locking button does nothing.

I'll be glad to have this fixed.

[SyL3nTFoRcE]

glad to see they are finally fixing it. hopefully it doesnt happen again that can be bad if there was fire or something in the car. I didnt know it was controlled by control module. good to know for the future

[Ryan5034]

Well hopefully it is fixed. Make sure you check in a week or so. These vehicles are getting older and it would be nice to have some confirmed diagnoses to search through later.

Glad no one was locked up or out in danger. It's -20F this morning in North Dakota, this could go bad quickly.

[-c-]

Originally Posted by archival

Finally managed to replicate the issue in front of a guy at BMW. They were puzzled and said they hadn't seen anything like it. It was locking up all four doors this time, including the driver's door. You couldn't get out without rolling down the drivers window and forcing the door lock with the internal fob key.

They ran tests on the vehicle all morning and finally had an answer.

The diagnosis from BMW is a faulty "interior power control module" (a junction box of some kind somewhere up under the lower part of the dash). Apparently it's intermittently shorting out or otherwise testing as faulty.

Quoted 3 hours of labor and a $503.97 part. A little less than a grand to repair all-in.

I told them to fix it. We'll see what happens. I still can't believe that this is a failure mode for this vehicle. It's insane that a part can go bad and make it impossible to exit the vehicle through any of the doors. There is no mechanical means to open the door if this happens. Pulling the door handles multiple times or clicking the central locking button does nothing.

I'll be glad to have this fixed.

I'm surprised you didn't get bmwusa involved ! If they knew something like this being a very big safety issue its possible they probably would flip the bill.

They did on a prior car I owned out of warranty, they said they take safety very seriously and they took care of it, sealed me as a customer.

You never know. All about who you get and if their wanting to help.

[archival]

Frankly I didn't think to get bmwUSA involved. I might still contact them to talk with someone about the issue, because this seems like a pretty serious and crazy thing to have happen to your vehicle. The fact that a failure mode on the X5 can potentially leave you trapped in the car at the worst possible moment is pretty eye-opening...

Anyway, here was the result:

Vehicle is fixed...

They said the front junction box was spitting out some intermittent problems, so they replaced the front junction box (part number 61 35 9 292 709 (SA-electronic junction) ($503)

That apparently didn't fix things. Supposedly that fixed the issues they were seeing on the front junction box, but there were still some issues with the way the locks were operating and a fuse blew out pretty much immediately. After a day fooling with the electrical system, they traced it to some kind of power distribution box in the back of the vehicle (part number 61 14 6 931 687) SA-Power Distribution. ($161)

That seems to have solved the problem.

If I were going after this problem again, I'd probably start with the rear power distribution box. I suspect that was the primary cause of this issue, although my BMW store claims that both boxes were malfunctioning (perhaps the rear box failure caused the front box to fail). I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here.

Hopefully that helps anyone who ends up experiencing a similar issue.

[archival]

Originally Posted by Ryan5034

Well hopefully it is fixed. Make sure you check in a week or so. These vehicles are getting older and it would be nice to have some confirmed diagnoses to search through later.

Glad no one was locked up or out in danger. It's -20F this morning in North Dakota, this could go bad quickly.

Well, as I said above, you can force the lock with the internal fob key (assuming you can roll down your window, or if you're outside the vehicle).

That said, the very first time this happened I actually assumed it was user-error. My wife called me in a panic, ready to break a window with a rock. She had gotten out of the car in the middle of summer in phoenix (115F) and when she went to get our 4 year old daughter out of the car, she realized my daughter was locked in. My daughter was trapped inside with the car off, while my wife was frantically trying to get doors open and my daughter was trying to pull door handles to no avail.

In the desert, being locked in a car in the middle of summer can be straight-up deadly. The car rapidly increases in temperature until you're hitting oven-like temperatures.

Anyway, I calmed her down, told her to use the key inside the fob (explained how to get it out of the key) and everything was fine. The car was immediately working perfectly, and I assumed maybe she'd done something wrong because she couldn't replicate the problem.

The failure didn't happen again for a good while, and only started happening again recently which led to me doing this whole repair (because I -saw- it happening at this point and realized this was no user error).

I still find it pretty insane that a failure mode for this vehicle can leave a person trapped inside with no mechanical way to extract themselves... The fact that this can render the driver door totally inoperable (along with all the others) and that no "special knowledge" can allow you to open it is pretty crazy.

[nyalpine90]

i think you should contact BMWNA, this is serious safety issue you shouldnt have to come out of pocket. BMWNA should issue SIB. People getting trap in their vehicle is dangerous

[AshwinLB]

I am experiencing this same issue now. The fob will randomly stop working (no CA, no unlock button, no trunk button) and the only way to get it to work again is to manually unlock with the metal key and then the fob will work again.

I have replaced the AGM battery, CA fuses and the rear power distribution box. Both fobs have brand new batteries too. I would also try the front box like OP but I don’t want to keep throwing parts at it for no reason.

Is there anything else I should be looking at?

[JRockman]

Is there a good way people know to get someone on the line at BMWNA?

[argento]

The original issue from this thread, doors not unlocking with handle pull, is due to failure of the front and/or rear door lock actuators.

In my case, they would only unlock when I 1) pressed the unlock button on the dash, 2) open the door from the outside, or 3) press key FOB unlock. BUT it would not open from the inside when a passenger tried to open the door. Unfortunately, these are about $500/ea. In my 5/2013 build, I've had both my rears go out and my front pass side is starting to have the issue.

Let me add, FWIW, both my rears were replaced under my third party exclusionary warranty which was 50% (incl dealer labor) of what my warranty cost.


GL