Easy fix for door locks

[SpeedDemon]

So go down to the local audio shop and buy a $20.00 dock lock actuator. And look at the pictures and its a super easy fit. Instead of trying to put the factory one back in.

[brandnew07z]

So why do our door actuators actually fail? I've been trying to figure out mine forever. Not one door besides the trunk works consistently. This is a great fix though. Oh and do the door panels fit over the actuators.

[brandnew07z]

does no one know?

[John Firestone]

A good question. I meant to take apart the last one that failed on me. I will with the next one.

Does the above, aftermarket actuator double-lock the car?

[brandnew07z]

Wellllll after hours of messing with wiring I've tried this setup and it will work if wired correctly. The green actuator wire will hook up to the bigger white wire, not the black one. The black is the ground, the blue is the unlock and the white is lock.

I also wouldn't mount them as above mine wouldn't fit inside the door panels instead I routed on the inside. It works great now and have no problems with the doors.

[John Firestone]

All three wires can serve as ground (be "LOW"), depending on the locking action.

This 1.3 Mbyte PDF explains the system and why I asked about double-locking.

[brandnew07z]

Well I understand a little because of the relay system... But with that actuator it will only lock and also unlock the way I said. I tried every combination possible.

[John Firestone]

If I read the ETM and the above training PDF correctly, you guys are wiring the actuators in parallel with the rear hatch lock actuator – precisely because that is the only combination that both locks and unlocks the door. But does it double lock it?

If you roll down the window of the door with the new actuator, lock the car from the other door, return to the original door and pull the inside door handle, does that unlock the door and the car?

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Sorry about the extended EDITS: I am trying to flush out a possibly non-obvious issue from a great distance.

[brandnew07z]

it does unlock the door and the car. What does that mean exactly? although with my aftermarket alarm system (bought the car that way) =( does go off once the door is opened.

[John Firestone]

The car is only single- rather than double-locking which makes it easier to burgle and steal. The details and how the age of the car affects them, are given in the above PDF.

[John Firestone]

I found this thread about a perhaps less obvious benefit of double-locking , although in the circumstances, it might make me feel perhaps just a little bit sorry for the guy once he is wearing charm bracelets.

BMW's technical writers showed some amazing prescience. Their first translation before "double-locked" was "arrested".

[brandnew07z]

ahhhh i gotcha... well that was definitely a good read. Didn't know how genius our door locking system was... I'm not too worried about the system not double locking, my aftermarket alarm system still sets off if someone were to ever break in. Thanks for your input though. really appreciated. Its sometimes hard to find information about our cars. My daily driver is an Integra and theres about 100 times more information out there about that, than the 318 haha

[John Firestone]

If you are wondering about the car's refined security features, there is a quite a cat and mouse game between the European carmakers and car thieves.

The 318ti is fairly uncommon in the U.S. The situation is Europe is the complete opposite: for a year or two after its introduction, the E36 Compact outsold all other BMW models. Despite the great number in Europe, most of the information about the car comes out of the America, due to the U.S. EPA. It is a bit ironic that the folks on top of that fountainhead of information, continentally-speaking, aren't seeing lots of it!