I know there are lots of door lock issues, but this one's a bit odd, and I want to make sure I've only got one problem and not multiple.

A week or two ago, I got out of the car, hit the lock button on the key....nothing. Got it, fiddled with the windows, making sure they were all the way up, opened and shut the doors and hatch, tried again - nothing. Manually locked from the driver's side - fought me by popping up a few times, but then locked. Ha.

Starting yesterday morning, I got in my car, started it, and the interior light wouldnt go off after I shut the door. What's worse, the driver's side window started going up and down rapidly - the movement it makes when you open/shut the door. Up-dowdupdownupdown. Every time it went down, interior lights came on. If the window stayed still for a few seconds in the up position, the lights would go off...until the window moved again. I hit the overhead light button, but it just came back on. Get to work, get out, window still updownupdown. Finally stopped - for no reason.

Get out of work, open driver's door, no interior light. Afraid battery dead, opened pass door - light comes on. Start car normally. Get home, try to lock, can only do it manually and with a fight. Manually lock passenger door - hatch won't lock (because it's locked by the driver's door I guess?)

Are these all related to the same thing? Maybe the dome light switch in the driver's door, which also controls the window cracking to clear the gasket?

Let me know....thank you!

 

Just a guess but I would be looking at the driver door switch.
Most of the things you point out are related to the driver door being open, or seeming to be open. A bad switch could be telling the control unit incorrect info.

 

That was thought too - but where the heck is it? I searched the door and jambs, can't find anything that resembles it...

Any idea?

 

it is in the door lock actuator assembly. Sounds to me like yours is definitely faulty and time to replace. Can be done yourself if mechanically inclined but would rec. finding someone who knows how to do it.

 

The door latch mechanisms (driver and passenger) contain micro-switches for door position information.

The micro-switches are open (Signal-High) when the doors are closed, and are closed when the doors are (Signal pulled low to ground) when the doors are open.

The drivers door key has a lock/unlock micro-switch that provides a low signal to indicate position request.

Door lock motors (one lock and one double lock) have polarity reversed by the BC1 to operate in either direction.

The motors and latch mechanism provide no feedback to the BC1 as to position and are driven with each lock/unlock request irrespective of their current position.

To avoid overloading the motors are blocked out after 10 operations in 1 minute, the motors will be placed in the unlock state for approximately 1 minute.

The interior central lock switch is a three position spring loaded switch. When pressure applied to the switch in either direction is released the switch will return to the middle position.

The switch supplies two signals to the BC1, one for lock and one for unlock. When the switch is put in either of these two positions the signal for the request is pulled low at the BC1.

Terminals 42 44 at the BC1 connector X255 (J2 54-pin Blue) are responsible for the inputs.

The BC1 has internal relays which are used to energize the two motors in the latch mechanism, the amount of time the relays are energized depends on the battery voltage, when the voltage is low the relays are energized longer

However, in the event of a sticking relay inside the BC1, a fault code will be stored. The BC1 will drive the companion relay so all outputs are at the same potential and the lock motor stops!

BC1 is BMW speak for Body Computer.