Hi Good Folks, I realize this is an extremely foolish question, but I can't find the button to lock the doors from the inside of my '88 E24 M6. I just bought it, and am still learning the ins and outs of this beauty.... Sumanto
hmmm... did you try pressing down the lock button in the door? If it's similar to my 3 and 5 of similar vintage, there's not a separate button for actuating locks, if you lock a door with the key, the other door and trunk lock, too. Sitting inside the car, if you press one lock button down, the other two should follow suit.
Note, do not lock someone in the car using the key in the drivers door. Assuming this car has the dead bolt feature, the person inside of the car WILL NOT be able to get out! Essentially a prison. It is a very effective anti-theft device, until if fails. I don't ever lock my older bmws from the drivers door anymore, b/c one time the feature failed after I locked the doors. To get the pass door unlocked I had to remove the door card and remove the actuator. It failed b/c there was corrosion in the wiring harness plug going to that door. All works now, but I don't want to have to go through that again.
Good point - yes, if the car has the deadbolt feature, would not be a good idea to deadbolt someone else into the car. E30 locks (that have deadbolt) typically have a detent (presumably, other BMW's of similar vintage have similar locking); when you turn the key to that point, the doors and trunk lock; to actuate the deadbolt, you turn the key past the detent, as far as it can go, (which I think is 90º from unlocked), and the car doors will be deadbolted. You can only unlock them from the driver's door, your key will not turn the passenger door lock. If the deadbolt is engaged, the trunk can be unlocked, but the doors will not unlock. The driver's door lock may suffer wear to the point where there is no detent; if there is no resistance midway through the available range of motion for the key to turn, or the driver's door only locks by turning it as far as it can go and thus also engaging the deadbolts, then the door lock should be replaced to ensure you'll continue to be able to get into the car. None of which would be any guarantee against what happened to Grant, where the passenger door got stuck locked. Sounds like a good preventive maintenance measure for older bimmers would be to occasionally check the door wire-harness connectors for corrosion. It is not uncommon for the driver's door locks on older BMW's to get too worn and become intermittent to non-functional; if the central locking system is functional, (& deadbolts are not engaged) then the driver's door may be unlocked via the trunk or passenger door. If there is a gas-flap lock, that is also part of the central locking and is locked when central locking is actuated.
The detents on my driver's doors no longer exists. I also find using the key in the truck lock to be the most effortless in terms of stress on the key. So that is where I lock/unlock my E30s. In E30s anyway there is a way to get the gas door open if the actuator fails. In the truck there is a little finger hole that you can stick your finger in and manually unlock the gas door.
Thanks - will use the trunk from here out Folks, Thanks for the quick replies. I also noticed that locking the doors from the driver's side keyhole is tough to do. I'll use the trunk keyhole from now on. I recall driving a friend's late 80s 7-series and hitting a door lock button that was in the center console, very close to the window controls. I am surprised that E24's of my vintage did not offer the same facility, since all the other controls (power seats and power windows) are also in the center... Sumanto
I little lock lubricant/oil/WD40/etc seasonally probably isn't a bad idea. If you keep the car long enough, keep in mind you're just transferring the wear to a different lock, and eventually all 3 would get worn enough to where you'd probably have no option but to replace at least one. That would take quite a while though, even if the car is a daily driver with lots of short trips and locking/unlocking. I would suspect that an internal door-locking button which was a feature on the earlier highest-end bimmers has become one of those trickle-down features incorporated across the model lines as times have progressed, like so many others that used to be options, if they were available at all. I agree that you'd think it might be on something like an M6 (maybe it is and just isn't obvious, but that doesn't seem likely either); However, considering the timeframe when the E24 would have been designed (early-to-mid 70's), I would guess BMW engineering in those days would likely have considered central locking an additional luxury feature and actuating via the door lock buttons, or locking all doors and trunk when any of the 3 are locked externally, more than adequate from a form-follows-function perspective, at the time, and that an additional button to duplicate a function already & easily done was unnecessarily redundant. Anyway - M6, nice! Congrats on your recent acquisition, enjoy it!
I do lubricate my locks. It is just that for some reason the door locks require more effort to turn the key compared to the truck. I am not talking about inserting the key, just turning it. Seems the truck lock is a much better design compared to the door locks. But it was probably easier to design because of the location and space available.
If it was an '88 or newer 7 series (E32), I believe they do have the power door lock button. The E23 7 series (and safe to assume the E24s) do not have it.
WD-40 is not really a lubricant, so please use the appropriate product for the job - graphite lube/powder. The WD-40 will attract all sorts of dust and micro junk into the tumblers causing certain grief down the road. Don't spray WD-40 on moving parts. It will act as a cutting fluid and dramatically increase wear. This info comes from a restorer of antique clocks. When he gets a movement in which the owner used WD40 as lube, they are very worn. It's designed as a moisture remover.
