Not long after I bought my X5 2 years ago, the door handle mechanism failed! Having priced up the part from BMW at close to £90, I chose to go down the pattern part route at less than a third the cost! Just over a week ago, it broke again......not happy at all, it is a complete PITA having to open the door inside via the rear door! When it broke the last time, the part I got was made by Meyle, which fitted fine and worked perfectly until last week. This time I got a different pattern part , which was made from cast iron, rather than alloy, which both the original BMW part and the Meyle part were made from, in the hope of it lasting longer. A word of warning to anyone unfortunate enough to suffer the same breakage of the handle carrier (as BMW call it), the one I got this time, did not fit!!! So I was forced to pay up for a genuine BMW part to get it all back up and useable again - to anyone familiar with the job, there is a fair amount of dismantling to do to get the door card off, and I didn't want to have to do the job twice! I assume when it broke the first time, that the carrier could have been the original one from when the car was built, which had lasted 14 years, and in all honesty, I had been yanking the handle quite a bit as we had been having some hard frosts, and the door rubbers had stuck the door closed - in hindsight DONT do that if the rubber has stuck, use warm water to unfreeze it. It is possible that by yanking the handle I may have hastened its breakage, although in my view the hinge part is pretty small, and didn't really surprise me that it had broken when I saw it afterwards. The Meyle carrier did do the job for two years, and was far cheaper than the genuine part, but I have to say that I have had to admonish the wife a few times - when I have caught her giving the handle a good tug, just to open the door, so she may have done some damage. I find the best way of opening the door, is to use my right hand keeping my thumb on the lock hole, and squeezing the handle towards me to open the door, which feels a much gentler method than just tugging on the handle itself, and must cause far less strain on the mechanism. What I am saying basically is that the Meyle part may well do the job just as well as a genuine part long term, at a far lower cost, - just don't allow anyone to tug on the handle, always squeeze it. Rich
Hi Rich I had 3 brake on me over 12 years the first was replaced with OEM lasted 5 years , second was none OEM lasted 1 month , tried sending back but wouldnt refund , 3 rd was most costly as i put the car in for a service with main dealers went to collect car and handle came off in my hand , they said it was like that but it wasnt . Had to replace the handle £80 plus £140 to paint plus carrier , plus fitting £600 . I found the central locking was slow on cold mornings & found the wife pulling at the handle on several occasions that she denied . The carrier is made out of cheap cast so will brake over time but I also found that the plastic wears out first on the cover then it snaps . I still have my old winter wheels and tyres 19" if interested and also bought some new E53 front and rear brake discs genuine BMW ones ? regards Arl30
