So this is the story....i live in southern California and as everyone knows, it get hot here!....well one day a couple of weeks ago there was a heat wave where the temperature got into like 90's and low triple digits... well my car was sitting in the sun outside my house and i went out for a drive that night and i tried to open my driver side window but it will not go down. This has happened in the past but it would start working the following day or two but this time the temp has been cold ever since that heat wave. It only does this when it gets really hot... im guessing something in the door is melted inside that is preventing the window from rolling down. But today i got really annoyed and wanted to see what was going on inside the door so i opened it up to see if there was any melted parts and to simply see if i can fix the problem but it did not work!! :-( ..... my car is not under warranty anymore so i dont want to take it to the dealer because i dont have the money right now.....so please help me out with some advice/ suggestions!!!

Thanks,
Vik

 

the motor may have just gone out. mine went out two days after i got it (used). i live in socal as well and cant imagine our weather melting components... ive heard of peoples windows going out, and working intermittently. i had a window post when mine stopped working as well and peoples advice to me was to hit the door panel and then try. goodluck!!!

 

Hey Vik,

I had the same thing happen to me one time. Holding the switch and a firm hand knock to the door inside got it going again and it's never happened since.

Hopefully that will get you back to normal. Worked for me!

Jim

 

I doubt the heat will melt any plastic. I think it's the motor or maybe even a connector. Do the other windows work? If not maybe it's a fuse.

Pull the door apart and get a multimeter and test.

Pat

 

Same thing happened to me on the passenger side. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. finally got sick of it and took it in and the motor and regulator needed to be replaced. blah.....

p.s. im jealous of your nice weather. its in the low 20's here

 

Some folks give the door panel a firm bash right above the speaker--if the window then works they say that it may act as a temporay fix prior to a repair.

 

Thanks for all the advice :-)....i'll try checking the fuse and try giving it a hard knock above the speaker... hopefully it works then!!....if not then i think im going to try and wait til it starts to get hot around here so i can see if it is the heat that is causing the problem.....and last resort is to take it in to dealer :-(.....and Bluecoop05 how much did it cost you to get motor and regulator replaced at dealer??

 

Honetly i cannot remember.....it was around 700 parts + labor.

maybe go on the net and see if you can find the parts cheaper? Good luck!

 

I've found that if I press the window switch up, and then down, it will some times do the trick. The cables attached to the pulley in the regulator would sometimes bind, but the slight upward motion would un-stick them and then they'd go down.

The bash above the lower speaker works extremely well also.

BTW, I think that you can get the regulator from the dealer for about $114.00 or something like that, the motor is pretty expensive though, at least $80.00 if not around $100.00. The replacement is fairly simple, however it can get a little tight in there. If you do choose to repair it yourself, when the bentley manual says that you need a BMW special tool to take the cogs off that hold the window in place, they don't mention that there is also a place to use an Allen Wrench.

-Chase

Good Luck!

 

I had the same problem in the summer, I just have someone close the door while i hold the switch, it works every time