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From: lethin@ai.mit.edu (Rich Lethin)
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 11:28:48 EDT
To: bmw@balltown.cma.com
Subject: power window
Hi Bimmerophiles. Not sure if I'm that much of a Phile today; I spent a
good afternoon on Sunday cleaning and waxing the burgundy beast (now
nicknamed the Knarr, after the viking ship, having now visited St. Anthony,
Newfoundland a few weeks ago) and being very nice to it. I even removed
and unfreezed and lubed that pesky power antenna - only one year old and it
was only expanding two of the 4 links!
How does the Knarr respond? By refusing to open the driver's window.
(Passenger window works just fine). When I press the down button I can hear
a slight (very slight, only barely preceptible) hum in the door. Is there
a common failure mode for these things?
I took a look at Bently and it suggested looking at voltages at the switch.
Come to think of it, the illumination on the driver's side switch was out
for a while... suspicious. Bentley also shows what looks like an
unlabelled fuse at the motor - but if that was blown, I wouldn't get a hum.
Hmmmn.
Rich
1986 325
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Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 11:49:36 EDT
From: dave@xait.xerox.com (David Draper [Contractor])
To: lethin@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: power window
In-Reply-To: Mail from 'lethin@ai.mit.edu (Rich Lethin)'
dated: Thu, 1 Sep 94 11:28:48 EDT
>
> How does the Knarr respond? By refusing to open the driver's window.
> (Passenger window works just fine). When I press the down button I can hear
> a slight (very slight, only barely preceptible) hum in the door. Is there
> a common failure mode for these things?
>
> I took a look at Bently and it suggested looking at voltages at the switch.
> Come to think of it, the illumination on the driver's side switch was out
> for a while... suspicious. Bentley also shows what looks like an
> unlabelled fuse at the motor - but if that was blown, I wouldn't get a hum.
>
> Hmmmn.
>
I recently had a simialr problem in my 87 325is except it was the
passenger window. I got no hum at the door but rather a slow moving
window and sometimes no movement at all. (The driver side window
was going about 2x the passenger side in speed.)
I removed the switch from the console and gave it a good squirt of
my handy tv tuner cleaner ($4.95 a can at Radio Shack) and put it
back in. The window has been working fine since then. Some people phave
informed me that this is a temporary solution at best and I will have
to eventually replace the switch but it has been 2 months and I
haven't had any problems.
You might want to try it. It takes about 5 minutes or less to do.
> Rich
> 1986 325
- Dave
87 325is 108k
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Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:11:30 EDT
From: Frederik Kjeldsen
To: lethin@ai.mit.edu (Rich Lethin)
Reply-To: kjeldsen@cs.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: power window
In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 1 Sep 94 11:28:48 EDT
>How does the Knarr respond? By refusing to open the driver's window.
Check the switch itself. Often they get carbon'd up and only pass a
litttle voltage, so the window moves slowly or not at all.
Pull it out by popping up the shift boot and pushing up on the bottom
of the switch. Disassembly is obvious. Watch where pieces come from.
Clean the contacts. Reassemble.
good luck,
rick
'87 325es (PW switches cleaned many times)
'90 325iX
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Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 13:52:56 -0400
To: lethin@ai.mit.edu
Cc: bmw@balltown.cma.com
In-Reply-To: <9409011528.AA28003@kiwi> (lethin@ai.mit.edu)
Subject: Re: power window
From: Jim Shank
Reply-To: shank@cbsgi1.bu.edu
>
>How does the Knarr respond? By refusing to open the driver's window.
>(Passenger window works just fine). When I press the down button I can hear
>a slight (very slight, only barely preceptible) hum in the door. Is there
>a common failure mode for these things?
Yes, the switch. Try swapping switches with the passenger side. If the
problem stays withthe switch, you can try taking it apart and cleaning
it or get a passenger side switch out of the junkyard. The dealer will
want $20.00 for a new one.
--Jim
From: Larry Schuette
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 17:40:19 GMT
Subject: repairing window switches
hi,
This may have been covered already, but, this info. belongs
in a FAQ. Have the windows in your BMW stopped going up/down? Do you
have to push harder and harder, or find a sweet spot with the switch
to get the window to go up/down? (Have you swapped buttons from the
rear with ones from the front that have died?) If so, the switches,
while expensive to buy, are easy to repair.
1) Remove from car
2) Using thin screwdriver, pry the bottom off the switch. Becareful
not to break the plastic, or upon removal, not to loose any of
the springs or metal clips.
3) Clean all metal with a carb cleaner, or electrical contact cleaner.
The amount of gunk was truly amazing.
4) There are two primary contacts. These contacts were formed by
putting raised bumps into the metal. When you press down, you make
contact on a raised bump. After a while, the raised dimple is
squished down. I simply soldered a new bump onto the old one.
If you don't have access to a soldering iron, you could simply
reforce the metal up with a sharp nail, but access to a soldering
iron will provide a more permanent solution.
5) Lightly apply White lithium grease on the slide rails and reassemble.
Congrats, you just save $22.00.
Larry
Lawrence C. Schuette, Ph.D. schuette@ait.nrl.navy.mil