seized BMW X5 handbrake repair

How to remove and repair a BMW X5 electric parking brake. One day when I put the handbrake on, there was a nasty grinding noise, and the handbrake would not release. I pulled the emergency release cable in the boot, then took it to a garage to get a quote for repair. They wanted £750 for the part, plus 3 hours labour, so I decided to have a go myself. It turned out that the force sensor had failed, which meant that the motor had not known when to stop when tightening the handbrake cable. Because it had been so tightly done up, it couldn’t be undone. A new force sensor cost £60 on eBay, and after the repair I had to spend £40 getting the handbrake module recoded (because it had spent 2 weeks unplugged from the car). This latter job took my local garage 10 minutes with a laptop.