(Probably) Soft-Close Door Issue

[ptm1nh]

Often time when going through a bump or hitting a small pot hole, there is a small chance one of the 4 doors are gonna pop open. It is not opening wide, but I could hear a small sound like a pop & the door-open sign turns on. The soft-close door is not kicking in to attempt to close the door either. The only way is to stop the vehicle or drive slow enough so I or whoever closest to the door could swing it out and in again.

My wife panicked just the other day as we were cruising down on I-5 when I hit a pot hole and her door opened. Even the down force at 80 miles/hour and the secondary locking mechanism are gonna prevent the door from being opened, it's still pretty bad.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? I'm also out of factory warranty too

[Maverik259]

Originally Posted by ptm1nh

Often time when going through a bump or hitting a small pot hole, there is a small chance one of the 4 doors are gonna pop open. It is not opening wide, but I could hear a small sound like a pop & the door-open sign turns on. The soft-close door is not kicking in to attempt to close the door either. The only way is to stop the vehicle or drive slow enough so I or whoever closest to the door could swing it out and in again.

My wife panicked just the other day as we were cruising down on I-5 when I hit a pot hole and her door opened. Even the down force at 80 miles/hour and the secondary locking mechanism are gonna prevent the door from being opened, it's still pretty bad.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? I'm also out of factory warranty too

Not quite like you do but occasionally if I lean into my door too much it will pop unlocked and I have to open to get the door to close again. Pretty sure the only way to fix this is to replace the units. But idk. If it happened more like yours I'd be more concerned and look into my extended warranty.

[sj22]

Originally Posted by ptm1nh

Often time when going through a bump or hitting a small pot hole, there is a small chance one of the 4 doors are gonna pop open. It is not opening wide, but I could hear a small sound like a pop & the door-open sign turns on. The soft-close door is not kicking in to attempt to close the door either. The only way is to stop the vehicle or drive slow enough so I or whoever closest to the door could swing it out and in again.

My wife panicked just the other day as we were cruising down on I-5 when I hit a pot hole and her door opened. Even the down force at 80 miles/hour and the secondary locking mechanism are gonna prevent the door from being opened, it's still pretty bad.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? I'm also out of factory warranty too

There is a bulletin about this. Requires changing locks etc. My dealer fixed it for me.

[ptm1nh]

Originally Posted by sahiljain22

There is a bulletin about this. Requires changing locks etc. My dealer fixed it for me.

Did you get it fixed under the warranty?

[Cranswick852]

I have the same issue, not regularly, but enough to be an irritant. I'm trying to determine a cause, wondering if a contributing factor is starting the engine whilst the soft close mechanism is still closing a door. So I'm putting on seatbelts before starting engine rather than the other way around. Basing this approach on the tailgate closing being interrupted by an engine start. My door 'popping' is too sporadic to determine if it's working or not. Oh, and my vehicle is on '14 plates, approaching 5 years old, so way out of warranty.

[Silververtu]

I have similar issue, happened twice within the past 12 months on driver side door. In those 2 occasions, i was driving on hwy with heavy wind, could easily hear the door was not fully sealed and wind could get in, like the window wasn't fully closed, then the door popped open. but hard to manipulate when you bring it to dealer.

But I do notice I get quite a bit of road noise from the door, so I am not sure if that's door alignment or soft close mechanism. The door closes effortlessly and the soft close function works well.

[tntp]

Yeah, the soft close mechanism is the problematic one. That is why BMW removed that one from standard features for MY2015 forward. I think there was a recall on this. Mine is MY 2015, no soft close, but I still had issues of door unlock/door ajar error while driving. Complained to Dealer several times, and finally they replaced the door lock mechanism 2 years ago. Since then, no more door unclocked while driving.

[Kzang]

Wow a lawsuit waiting to happen. Imagine the door swings open during a turn and your kids fall out of the X5!

[CanadianLurker]

Is this issue occurring even with the doors locked while driving?

[Cranswick852]

Yes, it does for me. My doors are set to auto-lock when I drive off and I still get the occasional 'pop' and the door is not fully shut.

To be clear, the door doesn't fully open when it 'pops'. You can push on the door and it doesn't open, but neither is it fully shut. It is almost as if there are 2 stages to the door closing, as if it's on a ratchet, and when it 'pops' it adopts this intermediary stage; neither open nor fully closed

[ptm1nh]

Originally Posted by Cranswick852

I have the same issue, not regularly, but enough to be an irritant. I'm trying to determine a cause, wondering if a contributing factor is starting the engine whilst the soft close mechanism is still closing a door. So I'm putting on seatbelts before starting engine rather than the other way around. Basing this approach on the tailgate closing being interrupted by an engine start. My door 'popping' is too sporadic to determine if it's working or not. Oh, and my vehicle is on '14 plates, approaching 5 years old, so way out of warranty.

Originally Posted by Silververtu

I have similar issue, happened twice within the past 12 months on driver side door. In those 2 occasions, i was driving on hwy with heavy wind, could easily hear the door was not fully sealed and wind could get in, like the window wasn't fully closed, then the door popped open. but hard to manipulate when you bring it to dealer.

But I do notice I get quite a bit of road noise from the door, so I am not sure if that's door alignment or soft close mechanism. The door closes effortlessly and the soft close function works well.

Yeah the issue is just so intermittent that there's no absolute way to reproduce it. I did mention it during my last "free" dealer visit but they couldn't reproduce it either. However I do have an issue with my panoramic moonroof and they ended up replacing the entire module.

Originally Posted by tntp

Yeah, the soft close mechanism is the problematic one. That is why BMW removed that one from standard features for MY2015 forward. I think there was a recall on this. Mine is MY 2015, no soft close, but I still had issues of door unlock/door ajar error while driving. Complained to Dealer several times, and finally they replaced the door lock mechanism 2 years ago. Since then, no more door unclocked while driving.

Based on what you said, it seems like it is also an issue on non soft-close door?

Originally Posted by Kzang

Wow a lawsuit waiting to happen. Imagine the door swings open during a turn and your kids fall out of the X5!

Like this one? I lol'ed so hard at this a while back https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1479784

Originally Posted by CanadianLurker

Is this issue occurring even with the doors locked while driving?

Yup, just the other day I got into my car, started the engine, drove off, I could hear the auto lock kicked in. Then I hit a bump on the way out of my neighbourhood and "ding", the passenger's door jammed.

[puckybadger]

Not once

[sj22]

Originally Posted by ptm1nh

Did you get it fixed under the warranty?

Yes. Happy to post the service document if it helps you out. I was 99% ready to sell the car and move on. But luckily it hasn’t happened since. I was told it has to do something with iPhone 6 or 7 acting as a signal amplifier for 2014 models. Something techical like that. I upgraded both phones and got all locks replaced and no issue for over an year.

[ptm1nh]

Originally Posted by sahiljain22

Yes. Happy to post the service document if it helps you out. I was 99% ready to sell the car and move on. But luckily it hasn’t happened since. I was told it has to do something with iPhone 6 or 7 acting as a signal amplifier for 2014 models. Something techical like that. I upgraded both phones and got all locks replaced and no issue for over an year.

I just DM'ed you. Kinda interesting because I do have an iPhone 7.

I'm also toying with the idea of trading in the F15 for something smaller, like a Macan GTS. If I get this fix, I may hold on to it a bit longer.

[weareweird69]

Signal amplifier??????

We have had our 2014 do this twice on the passenger front door. One time it closed itself, and one time we opened it and shut it.

Its a minor issue, but could possibly cause an issue. I wish there was a recall for this.

[sj22]

I am attaching the document.

Maybe cheaper to upgrade the phone than upgrading the car, or switching to a 2015/16 model LOL.

[NERO X]

My 2014 50i has done this a couple times now, daughters read passenger door. This could be a scary issue, luckily she's always belted in. I'll have to see if this is a safety recall issue or see if I can make it one! My dealer is looking into it, but said he's never heard of this before. Bigtime safety concern. Of course my warranty is expired back in April.

[expertsedan]

Following, this should be a major safety recall.

[volc]

Does anybody know the bulletin number for self opening doors or details of a recall action?

It happened already few times in my '14 X5 with soft close and I'm quite concerned about it.

I do not have a warranty any longer, so I just want to check if BMW should fix this as a part of recall or should I just need to buy new locks and replace them on my cost.

[sj22]

It has been mentioned in this forum before a few times. You can search for the threads. I am copy-pasting it for you:

So BMW has issued a service bulletin for the doors as gpitts mentioned. SIB 51-16-14. For this bulletin they replace the bowden cables (these are the cables used to close the doors and tailgate according to my service advisor) and clips.

The bulletin doesn't fix the problem however.

So my dealer had to open a PUMA case direct with BMW. BMW engineering took ~2 days to respond once the case was opened, and overnighted the parts to my dealer. In case anyone else on these forums runs into this issue, the PUMA case number is 60320058. They replace all 4 door actuators with the newer model.