Locksmith/Mobile BMW Specialist in London

[GP87]

SOS people!

My M4 is sitting dead two levels below ground in a basement car park, and to add to my woes, the blade key doesn't unlock the drivers side door for some reason.

Impossible for any kind of towing vehicle to navigate the narrow turning circles in the car park.

Can anyone recommend a mobile locksmith in the Greater London area?

Cheers,

G

[t5pilot]

Call BMW assist is my only suggestion. The blade key should work. Someone's obviously put the wrong one in at some point. Have you another blade key at home?
If BMW assist can't help you, then tbh, I'd have someone at home post you the spare key, Royal Mail Special Delivery guaranteed next day.
Then at least you can get into it & get it jump started.
Considerably cheaper than having to change locks etc.

[9M71]

Honestly, smash a window. Probably one of the front windows will be cheapest to replace.

[t5pilot]

Originally Posted by 9M71

Honestly, smash a window. Probably one of the front windows will be cheapest to replace.

If you smash a window the doors will remain deadlocked. Never mind the mess & possible paint damage.

[9M71]

Originally Posted by t5pilot

If you smash a window the doors will remain deadlocked. Never mind the mess & possible paint damage.

On the surface it sounds like terrible advice but this is how I got out of a similar situation a few years ago. Dead car, no physical blank key (my fault). I could have uber'ed to the dealer, go through the hassle of proving ownership / getting raped for a new key, OR tape some bags on the side of the car to protect the paint, smash the passenger window, pull the hood latch, jump car and be on my way. New window costed me less than $200 and they cleaned up the mess as well. All in I was out maybe 2 hours max at the glass place. We all know how quick the service departments at dealers are.

[GP87]

Thanks all for your advice.

I have both keys with mean neither blade key works - I can only conclude that the barrel lock is damaged or has always been defective. The car is '14 plate and I have never had to use the blade, so it is unfortunate that 6 years down the line that I am to discover this. I was hoping some smart locksmith would be able to get me in, but it doesn't look hopeful.

Advice from BMW (both UK and a local franchise) is to recover back to base, but impossible for my recovery provider to get any kind of vehicle to recover the car from the car park safely and without damage. Only option is to pay a specialist recovery company circa £400 to get the car out, and that's without any costs to get into the vehicle that BMW would have the pleasure of charging. BMW UK did mention the prospect of some form of goodwill contribution but realistically this is very unlikely as all they care about is selling cars, with aftercare being provided at the bare minimum they can get away with- Rant over!

I did come to the conclusion that putting a window through is the path of least resistance. Pop the bonnet and my recovery people can jump start the car. Front driver's window is indeed the cheapest to replace, and costs circa £115 for the window alone without labour. Autoglass can replace it for £330 inc cleanup and labour, so my man maths is telling me to ready a hammer (after taping some card to protect the bodywork). If I can find someone local who can install the OEM window for less, then I think id be happy to resign this to history.

9M71 - I'd be interested to hear how you did it. Did the window shatter nicely into marble sized pieces, or were there any small shards etc? Any damage to your interior?

The worst thing is the feeling of shame for actually letting my M car battery die from lack of usage!

[9M71]

Originally Posted by GP87

Thanks all for your advice.

I have both keys with mean neither blade key works - I can only conclude that the barrel lock is damaged or has always been defective. The car is '14 plate and I have never had to use the blade, so it is unfortunate that 6 years down the line that I am to discover this. I was hoping some smart locksmith would be able to get me in, but it doesn't look hopeful.

Advice from BMW (both UK and a local franchise) is to recover back to base, but impossible for my recovery provider to get any kind of vehicle to recover the car from the car park safely and without damage. Only option is to pay a specialist recovery company circa £400 to get the car out, and that's without any costs to get into the vehicle that BMW would have the pleasure of charging. BMW UK did mention the prospect of some form of goodwill contribution but realistically this is very unlikely as all they care about is selling cars, with aftercare being provided at the bare minimum they can get away with- Rant over!

I did come to the conclusion that putting a window through is the path of least resistance. Pop the bonnet and my recovery people can jump start the car. Front driver's window is indeed the cheapest to replace, and costs circa £115 for the window alone without labour. Autoglass can replace it for £330 inc cleanup and labour, so my man maths is telling me to ready a hammer (after taping some card to protect the bodywork). If I can find someone local who can install the OEM window for less, then I think id be happy to resign this to history.

9M71 - I'd be interested to hear how you did it. Did the window shatter nicely into marble sized pieces, or were there any small shards etc? Any damage to your interior?

The worst thing is the feeling of shame for actually letting my M car battery die from lack of usage!

i smashed the passenger window, as not to have to sit on shards of glass while driving. Taped some industrial trash bags on the exterior to protect the paint. Interior was fine and the shop did a great job vacuuming out all the glass from the crevices.

The glass does break into little pebbles. but instead of using a hammer, used one of those pointy devices meant for breaking glass. Small/light hit was enough.

Wonder if you can tape the window as to keep the mess to a minimum? Someone smashed one of my tinted windows before (love cities) and that mess was minimum as the tint held the glass together...

Best of luck!

[SteveChester]

Originally Posted by GP87

SOS people!

My M4 is sitting dead two levels below ground in a basement car park, and to add to my woes, the blade key doesn't unlock the drivers side door for some reason.

Impossible for any kind of towing vehicle to navigate the narrow turning circles in the car park.

Can anyone recommend a mobile locksmith in the Greater London area?

Cheers,

G

Should be possible to put some wheel dollies under it and move it out though?

[t5pilot]

If you have both keys, and both blades are wrong, they were probably supplied wrongly in the first place.
Surely BMW systems will have your lock code on record?
In which case they should be able to supply you with a correct blade key?
Poor show really imo if they can't help you out.

[GP87]

SteveChester It is an option but I would need a rugby team to shift it up a couple of very tight ramps, in a controllable manner. In most recovery agreements, there are limitations on specialist equipment which patrols would not reasonably/normally carry with them.

There is also one other potential way in - Pull out the wheel liner on the drives side in order to get to the bonnet release cable. But I've parked front-in and a column to the right prohibits access to the wheel.

Recovery people coming to take a second look at logistics of getting the car out to fully exhaust that option. Failing this, my emergency break glass hammer is at the ready, along with copious amounts of duct tape to try to control the dissipation of the broken glass.

My advice to you all - Make sure your blade key works and test it periodically in cylinder lock. And drive your cars to keep those batteries charged!

[t5pilot]

Originally Posted by GP87

SteveChester It is an option but I would need a rugby team to shift it up a couple of very tight ramps, in a controllable manner. In most recovery agreements, there are limitations on specialist equipment which patrols would not reasonably/normally carry with them.

There is also one other potential way in - Pull out the wheel liner on the drives side in order to get to the bonnet release cable. But I've parked front-in and a column to the right prohibits access to the wheel.

Recovery people coming to take a second look at logistics of getting the car out to fully exhaust that option. Failing this, my emergency break glass hammer is at the ready, along with copious amounts of duct tape to try to control the dissipation of the broken glass.

My advice to you all - Make sure your blade key works and test it periodically in cylinder lock. And drive your cars to keep those batteries charged!

So, how did you resolve this in the end please?

[GP87]

With great difficulty! Good job time was not of the essence. After 3 callouts from my recovery company, who in effect sub-contract out recovery services, and many telephone conversations, they finally found the right sub-contractor who has a machine called the Eastract. See the link below:

https://en.eastract.com

Apparently there is something like 6 of these in the UK!

However to my surprise and dismay, their people turned up with what i'd describe as a half pickup and half tow-truck type vehicle. In conjunction with some wheel dollies on the front, they got it out of the car park successfully, albeit slowly.

Car then went onto a low loader and over to Berry Chiswick and straight into their garage for them to deal. I left them with the suggestion that the bonnet latch release cables may be accessible via the wheel arches, having consulted with Youtube.

A few days later and £300 lighter (2 hrs labour to remove both wheels and wheel liners to access both cables to the two catches either side) with no sacrificial damage and a charged up battery, I picked up my car.

The lock is still defective and the car was due to go back for this to be repaired/replaced. On the back of this I hope to reclaim some of the outlay, but I hold little to no hope.

We all know that BMW AG/UK Customer Services are shit and don't give a crap about anything other than ramping up sales. Same applies to the majority of the Dealer franchises, although in this case Berry Chiswick were very good, with the slight exception of a miscommunication when collecting the car, but this was resolved at the time fairly quickly.

Note that it is the first time I have dealt with them so have no long term experience, however a shocking historic experience with Park Lane BMW who are based literally less than a mile away led me to go 10 miles further afield so as to not give my money to a load of f***wits.

On a side note, chatting with someone else who owns a DBS in my Apartment block, when his battery died and had a similar issue, Aston Martin arranged to have this taken out and resolved at no cost to him!

[SteveChester]

Glad you got it sorted - anyone know where these cables are to pull?

[t5pilot]

Glad you got this sorted.
I'd really be pushing BMW to provide new physical keys free of charge, entirely not your fault the car was supplied to you with the wrong ones. Surely the key/lock code will be recorded somewhere on their systems, even if only at the factory. It should be retrievable.

[GP87]

Originally Posted by SteveChester

Glad you got it sorted - anyone know where these cables are to pull?

This is the video that I looked at before I made that suggestion to the dealership:

There are two latches either side hence removal of both wheels in my case.

[GP87]

Originally Posted by t5pilot

Glad you got this sorted.
I'd really be pushing BMW to provide new physical keys free of charge, entirely not your fault the car was supplied to you with the wrong ones. Surely the key/lock code will be recorded somewhere on their systems, even if only at the factory. It should be retrievable.

Thanks. Worth noting that both keys work in the lock, and so it is the barrel lock that appears to be defective.

The Workshop manager mentioned that the BMW barrel locks have had the same issue going back to the E46. His observation was that people let their remote batteries die and then reverted to using the manual key, way back when in the heyday of the E46.

Locks would often stop working, albeit in this case a new battery would enable access, alongside unlocking the boot and accessing this way, if you had the folding seats option.

[SteveChester]

What does the manual key actually do - would it actually open the door in event of a dead battery?

I've never used this key on any of the BMWs I've owned.

[t5pilot]

Originally Posted by SteveChester

What does the manual key actually do - would it actually open the door in event of a dead battery?

Should I've never used this key on any of the BMWs I've owned.

That's exactly what it's for. And locking the glovebox.
And even that's got me wondering... used to lock the glovebox on my F30 regularly. I'm gonna have to check the F82, just can't remember if it has one. Surely it has...
And on the E90, they used to give you a keyhole for the boot too. Not anymore.

[SteveChester]

Does the glovebox lock with the doors as normal or is it separate? (and manual).

[t5pilot]

Originally Posted by SteveChester

Does the glovebox lock with the doors as normal or is it separate? (and manual).

No. It's not linked at all. If it's lockable it will be with the key blade.
Unless you check before me, I'm going to have to look when I put the car in the garage later

[SteveChester]

Originally Posted by t5pilot

No. It's not linked at all. If it's lockable it will be with the key blade.
Unless you check before me, I'm going to have to look when I put the car in the garage later

Ha the things you learn! I'm not going out to my car tonight so let me know the results of your findings.....

[t5pilot]

I don't know why I doubted it... Yes, glove box lockable with the key blade too...