Door card removal question

[ANT MAN]

On the E46 coupe, is it easy to break the plastic clips on the door card when you remove / refit it? What steps can one take to not break any and how much do they cost from the dealer?

Cheers

[Afif]

On my saloon. 27p - Ive broken 3 in the 6ish times ive taken off the doors.

[Chaos]

When you take the door card off, start at the bottom and work your way along slowly (wide screwdriver in a thick rag is a good way to ease the first one off), I've never seen one break taking the card off. When you put the card back on, just get underneath so you can see the lugs (using the MysticM3-patented carpet cutting to avoid dirty clothes lol) and position each one over it's hole. If you work on the one you're about to pop back in and the one along from it, that's sufficient to avoid bending/breaking them in my experience. Had both my cards off 3 times and not yet bust one doing the above.

[ANT MAN]

Thanks guys.

You see my driver's door has a rattle when I close it firmly, this only started the last couple of weeks....I think. If I'm very gently it doesn't.

Does this sound like the clips are broken or something more sinister? :(

[Chaos]

Could be that something like a clip has come loose and fallen into the door frame. Worth a look, just make sure you don't forget the 5 screws when you're worrying about the clips. ;)