E30 Zone

the lights on the electric window switches stay on all the time in my cabrio, causing my battery to drain..
any ideas on where to start looking to fix this?

check the door light switches, the system works with ignition on or doors open so if you have a bad contact the system may think the doors are always open and thus stay on.

check both doors, there are two wires one for the interior lights the other for the windows..

mrlee

First of all, pull out fuse 28 to confirm that the power is coming from where it should, as it's just possible that the fault could be connected to the unloader relays.

pulled out fuse 28, lights go out..so i guess that means power is coming through the right place?

oh and i changed all the relays for spares i had and it didnt make a difference

is your interior light on too? I had some work done on my cabby and they forgot to put the little door plug back on which turns the interior lights and the elec windows lights off when you close the door...

If fuse 28 puts the lights out, the power is coming from where it should, so it can't possibly be anything to do with the unloaders.
Take the panel above the glovebox off, and find a (usually) blue relay in the front left corner of the space revealed. This relay (a changeover type) is either faulty, or (more likely) being held on by a faulty door pin switch, or a short to earth of one of the wires to them.

Brianmoooore! ur a genius! it was the doorpin switch messing around, put another one on and its fine! many thanks for the help!