So the other day I close my door and WTF!? The wood trim falls off the door handle.
At first I thought, "Damn, they sure don't make 'em like they used to!" I try to snap it back on but it fits loosely. Then I remembered that my dealer took apart the door last month in order to replace some wiring or module to fix the mirror not adjusting. Perhaps that had something to do with it...

I notice that the trim seems to be attached only by some glue/adhesive. Is this how its attached at the factory? Or was my dealer lazy when they put my door back together and just glued it back on?

I ask because I recall reading here that the door trim is very difficult to remove. I can't find the details via searching but I doubt its just glue. If its supposed to be so hard to remove, how did mine just fall off on its own?!

I'll take it back to the dealer soon but here's some pics -
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:blink: :blink: :blink:

You see on your door how there are three metal squares that line up with the spots of glue on your trim. Those squares are actually bolts and on the other side there are nuts that hold it in place, the head of the bolt (the square) is supposed to slide into a little plastic slot but it looks like your dealer broke the slots off and then just tried to glue the bolts back in place.

I am definitly staying away from this service department, who is the dealer?

I'll tell you after I bring the car back. Its only fair that I give them a chance to correct it and hear their explanation.

Remind me about it if I don't post an update.

I dont think door handle should attached with hot glue.. :nono:

looks like they broke the tabs and dont want to replace for a new one. :wacko:

Since I replaced my wood door handles with brushed aluminum a few weeks ago I can definately tell you that there is supposed to be no glue holding the metal screws on. The square plates on the back of the screws slide in some plastic tracks and on yours it seems that they have been broken. In their defense I would like to add that I can see how they could have broken the plastic parts. The problem is that BMW has put some sticky loctite type material on the threads of the screws so that the nuts would not vibrate out. This makes it very hard to open the nuts from the other side because the nut grips the screw and turns it in its place and breaks the plastic parts that retain the rectangular screw heads. In my case out of 10 screws for all front and rear handles I think 3 or 4 had the loctite on and therefore broke the plastic parts when I unscrewed the nuts.

The problem with their work is that they did not use the right type of adheisive to attach the screws back to the door handle and that's why it came off. Had they used two part epoxy or even Propoxy it would have been fine. But it seems like they used regular glue of hot glue.