Passenger Side Power Window Problem
 

1993 BMW 325i

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to roll down the front passenger side window in my car and found that it wouldn't go down. My first instinct was to try the other windows, starting with the rear passenger side window. It went down...but won't go back up!

I've been focused on figuring out the rear window since I'm freezing my a$$ off driving around with it down. The result is the same whether I use the center console switch or the door switch: If I press the down switch, I hear a click from the motor. If I press the up switch, I hear nothing.

Since most of the mechanics in the rear door are obscured by a layer of sheet metal, I can't even get at the area of the motor where I could manually crank up the window. So, I guess I need to fix this right away.

I read a bunch of similar postings on the forum but answers seem to be all over the place. Most would point to the motor for the rear window but I have the additional weirdness of the front window not working at the same time. When I press the up or down switch for the front passenger window, I hear the same noise that I hear when pressing the down switch for the rear window, although the response can sometimes be delayed.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-Lyle

I imagine some people might get discouraged by their post getting almost 300 views without a single reply but I know that it's the overall wisdom of the forum experts pushing me to work a little more on the issue on my own!

So, I went back out to the car for a little more investigation, this time on the front window. If the rear window was, indeed, a motor issue, then the front window was some unrelated matter. The switch seemed a little suspect to me since pressing it in the up direction didn't make that friendly clicking noise the switches make. I popped out that switch and tried the one from the rear passenger door. Surprisingly, that switch does fit the females for the center console (can you tell I'm a novice yet?) so I tried the center console switch for the rear passenger window, instead. This time the front passenger window rolled down but wouldn't roll back up. This is the exact symptom I had with the rear window. So now it looks like the switch for the rear passenger window has issues, which is encouraging.

When I put the switch from the front window in the console for the rear window, I got nothing. When I put it back in the front console socket, I was able to roll the window back up. So, now it looks like I have 1 switch with a faulty down and one with a faulty up. I took the switch out of the console for the rear left window and tried it on the front right window. The window goes up and down! However, I'm still getting nothing when I put it in the console for the rear right window.

Recalling some rudimentary knowledge of electrical wiring, I thought maybe the circuit to the rear window was broken because I had removed the switch in the door. I plugged that back in, tried the left rear window switch in the right rear console spot and, HOOORAY! The window goes up and down!

So, looks like I just need a couple of new switches. A huge sigh of relief and a few hours of weekend brain activity and I'm a happy camper.

One interesting point that might help someone as clueless as myself down the road. Based on the behavior of the window with a faulty switch in the console and a good switch in the door, it seems that you need BOTH switches to be in good operating condition for the window to work properly. Otherwise, I should have been able to roll up the window with the door switch from the get go.

Thanks to everyone who gave this a read.

-Lyle

I'm glad you figured it out. I find those view counts to be dubious.