After a recent snow storm my passenger door will not open. I was able to open the door with the outside door handle and get in the passenger side, but then the door would not close/latch. I rode to work with my wife driving and when we arrived and she shut her door, mine locked. I am thinking this is a good sign, but that would be wrong! After that the inside and outside door handles do not open the door.

The lock goes up and down with either the key or the console switch, so this leads me to believe the actuator is probably not working. After some searching I found instructions on how to replace and it looks fairly easy with one big gothcha! How do I get the door panel off if I cannot get the door open.

I guess my questions are:
1. Am I making the right diagnosis
2. Is there an easy way to remove door panel with door closed or a way to open the door so that I can remove the panel

Thanks for the help!

 

could your locks just be frozen? tried spraying wd40 or something in any of the mechs?

and, no, theres no way to take the door panel off w/out the door being open! sorry :(

 

Jus saw the exact same issue on a thread here last week I think. Not sure if it is the same cause, but you should be able to unscrew part of the panel and get your hand in there and search for the cable and pull it. I think his (or her) issue was that the cable came out of the guide, so he couldn't open it from the inside or outside.

If it is frozen try putting your car in the sun, if you have any .

 

Just had the same issue. Found a link on the "Bowden Cable" in the door and helped out a lot. Not a hard fix but very frustrating.

 

Issue could be the cable, or be simply frozen....
Starting in 2005 or so mini changed the door handles to more freeze resistant ones....earlier cars were often retrofited for free if they went through a dealer during their warrenty period.
if you look closely, you will see the freeze resistant handles have a different squezez part than the older ones....if you look at a nwer gen1, 2005+ car, look at the handles, and compare them to yours to see if your car was rettrofited....with a fair number if wreckes getting parted out, you might be able to get used ones pretty cheap....

 

Thanks for all the input and I have come to the conclusion that it is moisture somewhere. The door handles started working after it warmed up outside a bit and now this morning, no joy! It got colder so I am working on the premise that I have the old handles as this is an 05. I will keep looking and hopefully get this solved soon!

 

If i remember right, my car, delivered Dec 2004, had the old ones...and was retrofitted at the first oilchange a few months later!!

 

I picked my 2004 Mini Cooper S up in October. In November on a 45 degree day I took it through the car wash, that night the temps dropped to mid 20's. The next morning the locks were frozen. I eventually was able to get in and drive to my destination only to have the locks refreeze enroute and I couldn't get out of the car. I had to drive around with the heat blasting for about 60 minutes before the doors would open. Since then I had them freeze a few more times in strange weather situations. As a prevention now I periodically relube the locks and latches to stop this from happening. So far so good.

 

This happened to me last night. I got into the car just fine and started running errands. I got to my destination and tried to open my door to no avail. I opened my window and tried to open it from the outside. NOPE. "Lucy" wasn't about to let me out into that bitter cold. :(


I drove home, crawled out the passenger side door and went inside to get my trusty hair dryer and an extension cord where I proceeded to heat the door from the inside for about 2 minutes making sure to keep the heat moving all over the door to loosen up the frozen cables.


Presto! The latch worked again and I could be on my merry way.


If you're in a pinch, this works. It doesn't take long at all.