BMW E30 Door Brake Replacement Fix

The door brake helps hold your door partially (or fully) open. After the brake breaks, getting in and out of the car when parked on a hill can lead you into a spontaneous break dance.

When you buy your new door brake, be sure to get the locking pin. There is a small chance you won't need it. New fasteners are cheap insurance! You won't go broke buying small parts like this, and you don't want to go out later to get one. Depending on the locking pin, you may also need a c-ring retainer.

  1. Lower the window. Remove the two Phillips screws under the armrest. Carefully pry the outside rear view mirror control out of the top of the door grab handle. Remove the Phillips screw you will find. Be careful: this screw likes to jump out of your hand and slip down inside the door.

  2. Unscrew the lock tower. If your car doesn't have electric windows, remove the window crank. If your car's door has aftermarket speakers you probably will have to remove them.

  3. Unlock the trim ring around the "open door" lever by sliding it towards the rear of the door. (The rear edge is the left side for the left door and the right side for the right door. Doesn't that work out nicely?)

  4. Pop out the nylon fasteners at the bottom and rear edges of the door panel. To release the fasteners, carefully work your fingers between the door panel and the metal part of the door, starting at the bottom rear of the door. The fasteners seem fairly rugged, so you don't really have to worry about breaking them. I have noted that the fasteners are much harder to get off the first few times.

  5. Carefully slide the door panel up, starting at the back, to release the clips that hold the top part of the door panel to the door. When you get to the front, be very careful or you may scratch the paint. Raise the window to gain access to the interior of the door.

  6. With the door panel off, you can see a plastic membrane covering the door. Carefully peel this back starting at the front bottom. You want to peel it back far enough so you can gain access to the inside portion of the broken door brake. If you are highly motivated, (I wasn't) you will take this opportunity to ream out the drains at the bottom of the doors.

  7. Remove the two bolts that hold the door brake to the door. Don't break the rules: put on some safety glasses. With protection ub place, drive the locking pin up out of the door jamb using your favorite persuading tool.

  8. Remove the old broken brake by sliding the parts down and through the large opening at the bottom of the door. Or you can just let it drop to the bottom like I did.

  9. Snake the new brake inside the door, put the two bolts in, but don't bolt it firmly to the door.

  10. Close the door just enough to align the hole at the end of the brake with the door jamb, then insert the retaining pin. If you have the door almost closed without the pin being anywhere close to the jamb, give yourself some extra length: take a screwdriver, pretent it is the locking pin, and firmly pull the brake shaft out of the door. If you can't get things lined up at all, you may have installed the brake upside down. Back to the safety glasses to persuade the new retaining pin down. It should be a tight fit. Don't worry, you can't break it. Tighten the two door brake bolts, and the door should brake smoothly again.

  11. Replace the membrane on the inside of the door. Make sure that this vapor barrier is intact. I applied some extra duct tape because the adhesive didn't seem to stick very well any more. Go ahead, roll the window up and down a couple times, make sure the window isn't catching on anything. You've earned a break. Leave the window up for the next step.

  12. The hardest step is this: you must persuade the clips at the top of the door panel back onto the ridge that runs just inside the window. Start at the front of the door, with the back of the door held high, and mate each clip one at a time. At the rear of the door, make sure the lock rod sticks up out of the lock hole. You will break into a smile when you have these clips on!

  13. The rest of the installation is, well, the reverse of removal. It is very easy to drop the screw behind the rear view mirror switch into the door. If you do this, you will get another try at removing and installing the door panel. When you put the rear view mirror switch back into the door, make sure the electrical connection feeds into the door or you may break the switch