E30 Zone

my electric windows only work when the doors are open in my 1990 318is and the buttons light up with the doors closed and ignition off! any ideas?

my 1990 325i does the same mate! strange..

Check the smallest terminal on the starter motor and make sure it is making a decent connection.

could this be a door connector? where the loom leaves the door itself and goes into the body? I had a car once did something similar but wasnt my e30

scottidog wrote:could this be a door connector? where the loom leaves the door itself and goes into the body? I had a car once did something similar but wasnt my e30

Most unlikely

I seem to remember that there is two feeds going to the electric windows. One from the ignition and one from the door pin switches (so you can close the windows with the ignition off)

It sounds like the main feed or something in that circuit

I also have the same problem but a bit diffrent

When the pass door open the window lights lite up and work all ok but when the drivers door open nothing works

Please help its driving me nuts

Any body

318 wrote:Any body

Remove the door light switch from the drivers door and make sure BOTH of its electrical connectors are present and that the switch itself is working as it should.

Check the fuse under the bonnet, sometimes it the simplest thing

Thanks guys I will go and have a look

all e30's I've had do this, if ignition is off you open the doors, when the interior lights come on it powers the window switches. Why or how I don't know but its not a fault. The 325i I bought back in 87 did this and that was brand new.

mite sound daft but have you got the window disable switch pushed so its pushing up with the red ring around it as i think the windows will still open when the doors open wheather switch is on or off.

snake-eyes wrote:my electric windows only work when the doors are open in my 1990 318is and the buttons light up with the doors closed and ignition off! any ideas?

Mine are the opposite - only work with the ignition on and the doors closed.

I noticed something similar on my iS the other day while sat waiting for someone with the engine, lights & ignition off - the switches for windows & roof were all lit up still and still opened the windows. I tried it with me locked into the car too - all stayed lit up and working!!! No idea what's going on there - haven't even looked at it yet...

aj_mckay wrote:I noticed something similar on my iS the other day while sat waiting for someone with the engine, lights & ignition off - the switches for windows & roof were all lit up still and still opened the windows. I tried it with me locked into the car too - all stayed lit up and working!!! No idea what's going on there - haven't even looked at it yet...

It'll be a fault with the door switch fella

SPADGE wrote:

aj_mckay wrote:I noticed something similar on my iS the other day while sat waiting for someone with the engine, lights & ignition off - the switches for windows & roof were all lit up still and still opened the windows. I tried it with me locked into the car too - all stayed lit up and working!!! No idea what's going on there - haven't even looked at it yet...

It'll be a fault with the door switch fella

Sounds about right, cheers Jules. I'll take a look and maybe give you a shout if a new one is needed. Wouldn't be surprised if that contributed to the untimely death of my old battery - don't wanna kill another one just yet!!

The main window feed can come from two places, and it is decided where it will get the power from by a relay which is energised with the interior lights (via a separae take off from the drivers door light switch.)
I have a funny feeling there is two fuses for the windows, ign off and ign on.
CHeck the drivers door switch and the purple relay behind the glovebox. Very common relay fault btw, also kickable from the passenger seat.

Try cleaning the switches...take them apart with a little flat headed screw driver use alcohol and a tiny wire brush to clean the metal contacts...mine started doing the same after I spilt "fake" burgerking cola..seems ok now...and also clean the push/pop switch which operates the cabin light..try it might work

still have this problem myself, posted a thread on it a while back:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=117065

just haven't had time to have a poke around yet....the description of how the system works is somewhere in that thread....

This has just hapened on my 318is, everything was fine got the m50 fitted and they still worked. Toook door cards off so i could get the locks out to get it painted and now he windows only work with the door open.