So I'm getting ready to take a short drive somewhere today, and I have a strange feeling that I'll need to wear a cap, even though I don't plan on standing around in the sun. I traipse out to Lucy and hit the winged button on my key to lower the windows and put the sunroof back, to vent the day's accumulation of freakishly hot air, and ... the passenger side window doesn't roll down! Well, when this happened with the driver side window a few months ago, I was at least still able to lower the window using the toggle switch inside (a few times), but alas ... no luck. So, I put the sunroof all the way back (whereas I normally would just keep it tilted open since having the windows down does well for air circulation; and the trip is too short to bother with a/c) and kept my cap on to protect my delicate skin, and resolved to call MoH tomorrow to get the passenger side window fixed.

Interestingly, this time, when I hit the toggle switch for the passenger window, I do hear a subdued clicking noise coming from the door ... didn't get that with the driver's side window.

I'm actually interested in knowing why, now, this is happening. I was wondering if the noise people complain about when the windows roll down or up is due to excessive friction between the window and that rubber protective lining on the door, that wears the window motors out too fast. Just my guess.

(sigh) another trip to the service department.

MINIangelD

 

<-- that's a scary, angry face!

good luck with your service appt tomorrow. hopefully, they can replace the motor, if that's what is broken. i never had windows that were fully stuck...but i do remember a few times when i would push the toggle to roll the window up or down and it would hesitate as it was going up/down hopefully, the dealership won't attribute the problem to window tint!

 

<== I agree...that's face is scary! I'd hate to encounter anyone so upset that his/her face actually starts shaking like that! Angel, I surely hope you are not that frustrated...and maybe a little more like this ==>

No worries....we've been hearing great reviews from folks having good experiences with the service lately at the dealership. I'm sure they'll take great care of you!

I get that noise when my windows go up and down....it seems to only happen when it's hot out, though. My windows haven't been giving me ANY problems lately...I'm not sure why...so I just knocked on wood.

Hope are you start feeling a little more like ==> soon!

 

MINIangelD,

Sorry to hear about your demon window(s).
Report them to the authorities and say they are unsafe.
Tell them the story on how they are misbehaving.
Hope they get properly fixed. Are your windows tinted?
If so I hope they don't need to replace the window glass itself or you might loose your tint. We'll see.
I'm partial to roll down windows and manual AC.
Take care.

 

I actually had this problem fixed only a couple weeks ago. Wound up being the motor, which had to be replaced. However, it took the dealership three working days to get it fixed. According to Mike McDonald at MoH, it's a long fix time-wise. The windows work fine now though.


Just out of curiosity, what year is your MINI? I've got a 02 (Feb 02 build).

 

Lucy had her driver's side window motor (WM) replaced a few months ago, hence the , because it has happened again! Of course, today the passenger window was working fine, so when I do call the service department (forgot to do it today) I'll ask them if they are willing to fix it even if they can't duplicate the problem. The driver's side WM performance was on and off for several weeks before it finally quit for good (before it got replaced).

When Lucy was in for the previous WM replacement, she ended up staying in the BMW garage for over 24 hours, although I'm told the car wasn't even touched the first day, and the replacement was done the next ... so at the very least, it takes several hours. They better not keep the car for 3 days! Not unless they give me a loaner. And even loaners are inconvenient, because I need to access a military base, which means I have to get a pass, etc, which is annoying.

And if they have to replace the window (I hope not) they ought to be willing to pay to have the tint replaced, I think.

Speaking of stuff on windows, my Cooper Flag has arrived, a sunroof Hawaiian flag decal. Anyone know where I can get it put on the car? Don't even tell me I should do it myself! I have better things to do with my time, and I also want it done right.

 

<-- the scary, mean face is very warranted!

you go, girl!

 

i assume t-n-t tinting would be a place to go if you don't wanna fuss and chance making a mistake. heard on some thread here that one owner paid $50 for the install, which came out pretty perfect, so he/she was satisfied. but i don't think it was in hawaii. hopefully, there's no price-of-paradise add-on to the cost.

i just got my replacement white sunroof cover a few days ago and am currenlty leaning toward doing it myself. supposedly the current material allows air to pass thru, so i imagine air bubbles is not a problem. basically, it sounds like the biggest challenge is getting it lined up.

i helped my brother install his hawaiian sunroof flag, but that was with the wet method, which allowed for little corrections for alignment. matt told me the current install method is dry only. so once it's on, it's on. no adjustments are possible, i don't think. the biggest problem was getting the stripes lined up.

btw, today i experienced my first passenger side window failure, although temporary. hopped into my mini, started it up, tried to roll down the windows with only the driver's side going down. looked at the temp gauge which read "90 degrees". drove down fort weaver to the freeway and tried again a few miles later when the temp read "87 degrees", and the window worked, no problems. so it appears excessive heat is a problem?

 

I don't think heat is a factor in the window failure, since this is a very common problem for all MINIs. Hawaii is hot, but most of the mainland gets much hotter during the summer, so if MINI didn't plan for a lotta heat, that's their bad!

I called the service department today, and they told me they wouldn't replace the window motor unless it was not working, or if they found something wrong with it. I'm not willing to make an appointment to get it checked out, only to be told they could not duplicate the problem. It took several weeks for Lucy's other window motor to conk out, so I guess I'll just have to wait.
And I don't see why the dealer would attribute the window motor problem to window tint (were you joking about that, mini-t, or serious? ). There can't be that much of a difference, friction-wise, between window glass, and a plastic film.

Thanks for the decal application recommendations, kbseto. I'll give a few tinting places a call and ask them about it.

 

i was half serious. i don't think that the broken motors are caused by the tint as it's a very common problem in MINIS...but i wouldn't be suprised if the dealership tried to pull that BS on you & lucy. and if that's the case, i'd look like this -->

 

When/If you decide to take Lucy in, here's a thread about the window squeak. Maybe you can ask the dealership to look into that since they'll be in the door looking at the motor anyways. Just a thought!

maybe one day we can all do a Grease your squeaky window party!

 

does squeaky window problem cause broken window motor?

 

did your passenger side window motor finally konk out? if so, how did the repair go?

reason why i'm asking is i've got the same problem now. just this past week when leaving work i noticed the passenger window doesn't work at all. and just like you, there's 1 or 2 faint clicks, but no action. i tried resetting the window also, but no go.

had it for a few days now and still no change. think i'll be calling up tony for a service appointment. if it's gonna take a few days, i might be needing a loaner. i'd like to drive a bmw once in my life...

 

I've had no further problems with the passenger side window, so I haven't had it looked at. I did, however, have a scary moment with the driver's side window yesterday ... I hit the roll down toggle and the window had a jerky movement and sounded funny. Ever since that motor was replaced, I always thought the window sounded a bit loose, but it's such a pain to keep taking the car in! I think the problem may be the lubrication, as discussed in the link that Keikilee posted earlier on this thread. Or it could be the loose-sounding fit, who knows.

The window motor replacement should not take more than several hours, but when I took Lucy in to have it done, the service department had overbooked itself and they had to give me a rental to get home that night (I originally told them I wanted to wait for the car). The work was done by the next afternoon when I went to pick it up. They may strongly encourage you to leave the car overnight. (BTW, the rental was a huge Chevy, a Caprice Classic?? something like that. It rode real smooth, though, and had great A/C. :smile: )

However, another totally different glitch came up a couple of weeks ago ... Lucy's power steering failed. Turned out the power steering pump needed to be replaced. That's not a common glitch like the window motor failure (so Randy tells me). That truly was a genuine inconvenience, unlike all the other problems Lucy has had. Fortunately, I was able to drive my roommate's car for the next few days so I didn't have to drive Lucy during that time with no power steering. The failure happened on a Tuesday evening and the service department was able to see her by Saturday morning. IMHO, MINI Coopers are just pretty piles of junk without that go-kart handling!

I haven't posted in quite a while because I no longer have my own computer, and my roommate's computer is really slow AND I didn't feel like digging out my NAM password from the pile of paperwork I have in the corner. However, I received the e-mail notification with kbseto's post and I knew I must respond! I hope everyone is doing well. I moved out of my home when my household goods were packed out July 20th, and moved in with a friend who also lives in MINIlani. I've been lurking though, and reading everyone else's posts (when I had the patience to wait for all the downloads).

If I get any further work done on Lucy, I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

I think the power steering IS going to be a common problem. Mines went out, along with Keikilee, Mike the Service Advisor said he knows of 1 other Mini that had power steering problems. So watch out for those power steering..

 

 

I've had intermittent problems with my driver's side window too. It seems to be correlated with rain and will straighten up and act right after a bit. It is very frustrating to hold the wings down and only have the passenger side and sun roof open . That is followed by gingerly opening the door (because the window also doesn't shift down a bit), gingerly closing the door (again because the window didn't shift down a bit) and trying the toogle switch every couple of minutes. Eventually, the window does come down.

So, what's going on? If water is getting in the door, maybe something is getting shorted and starts working when it drys out again. Then again, maybe it's a software glitch that clears itself after some events happen the appropriate registers are reset. It's curious to me that it only happens to one of my doors and that it always clears itself.

Any clues, hints, solutions, ideas and expressions of sympathy are appreciated.

:smile:

 

to update my passenger window problem...somehow after 2 weeks, my window now operates w/o problems. every so often i'd test it out w/o success. but just the other day my co-worker hopped into my car and just rolled down his window to my surprise. of course, i was skeptical that it'd roll back up, but that was no problem either. and there's no associated weird noises or anything like that.

ontop of all that, i did notice that when it wasn't working the window didn't even do the jiggle thing when you close and open the door. but now the jiggle has returned as the window now works perfectly fine.

sounds so similar to miniangeld's temporary window problem.

 

I'm having a similar problem with my driver's side window. It doesn't do its "step-down" thing when I close my door to take off; furthermore, at that point the window function is frozen. I swear one day the window will snap! This happens maybe once every two weeks lately, when I have just forgotten about it.

 

Well, you guys can always do what a MINI tech I know does, just give the door panel a good rap from the inside of the car. For some reason, this usually helps it out. Also, I was told that this problem happens after it rains.

 

Well, Lucy is going to BMW next week to get her passenger side window looked at. It's not frozen up, but there is a new and different problem (but so far, at least it is duplicate-able!). When the window is rolling up, there is a slight hesitation at one point during the movement. It seems to happen at a different point in the movement each time. It's at least been consistent, unlike the problem which started this thread, which hasn't happened since.

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier ... but I've never been entirely happy with the repair job on the driver's side window. Since that motor was replaced, the "fit" of that window doesn't sound right when I close the door ... it just doesn't sound as tight and well-fitted as it did before; it almost sounds loose, but I don't think the average person would notice it. Since this is a very subtle difference, and the window is still working (and keeping the rain out), I'm simply not willing to put up with BMW's probable bull^&!@ if I try to point it out.

I'll keep you posted on what happens with the passenger side window.

Oh, and I've noticed that on really humid mornings (after a night of rain) Lucy's motor (or something) produces a loud high-pitched whine for the first several seconds after I start her up. I've always associated this sound with old crappy cars that need engine work. The sound doesn't happen when I start her up when she's warm and dry (say, on a hot afternoon after work) ... it only happens on cool, very humid mornings after a night of rain. Any thoughts, folks?

 

That rain and humidity thing affecting your window motor is well known. My MINI tech friend said the same thing. He said after a big rain, give it a couple days and they start to see the MINIs come in with window motors that are on the fritz.

If you guys think I'm BSing about having a friend who is a MINI tech, JCIP can vouch for me as he also knows the guy. In fact, many of you guys have met him and probably talked to him.

 

Aloha,

So a week ago Sunday the driver's window would not go down. Not with the wings on the key, not with the toggle switch and not even the jiggle when opening/closing the door. Okay, I've seen this before and everytime I've taken it to MoH they say, "We can't duplicate it." I figure that if I motor on and give it some time...

Monday and still no operation. On Tuesday I call MoH for an appointment because we all KNOW that you can't just drive up! Overbooked is a way of life for MoH - could second rate componets be a factor? Got an appointment for Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning and the window still doesn't operate. Good! Maybe this will finally get fixed! I get to MoH and the first thing I'm asked is if I can come back some other day. Really? I took a day of vacation to get this taken care of and I have two previous documented reports of this intermittent problem! As soon as the SA looks at it, the window starts working again. !!!

I drove off. Now I'm tracking two intermittent problems: drivers side window and passenger side xenon headlight. I love the design of the Mini but think the OEM parts are second rate. Does anyone make quality replacement window motors and voltage regulators? How about high quality, reliable xenon headlights? I'm willing to replace these things myself to stop the frustration of intermittent problems and potential safety issues.

Attention vendors! If you have quality replacement parts I've got cash. Don't offer me any OEM crap!

Aloha Anyway

 

Did you try banging on the door panel? Lots of times this gets the window working again.

As for the passenger Xenon, try and get in touch with Minihune as he had the same problem. I believe he said if you play with the light switch, it would light up after 5 or more tries. I'm not sure what MoH did to fix the problem, but I'm pretty sure Minihune still has the paperwork on it and can explain it to you.

 

I had the same thing happen to my passenger window. It usually happened when it was hot and when it cooled down it would start working. I was told when the car is hot the door panels expand separating the connection. When it cools the connections come back together. Temporary fix. Hit the door panel with your fist several times while using the toggle switch. It should start working until you get it fixed.