BMW door handle repair

When you suddenly can’t open your door from the outside on an X5 the typical issue is that the mechanism that the outer handle goes into has broken.  When this one came in that is what we found.

Remove the door panel, somebody had been here before and broken nearly all of the clips

When you fix this it’s important to get the BMW style clips with the rubber bushing on them if you want the panel to stay snug.

The two screws to release the carrier are the one that retains the lock:

Slide the lock out, you’ll see a 8mm nut to remove, then the handle can come off to allow access to the one on the outside of the door, under the small end of the handle:

You can then remove carrier, replace, and re-assemble.  Done.