My driver side window has just started acting up. It goes up but has a problem coming down. I can toggle the switch a bit and it will start working again so I'm assuming it's a bad switch, however before throwing parts at this I was wondering if there are any other areas I should be looking at. Perhaps the motor, a relay(s), etc? I'm under the impression that when a motor goes bad it pretty much dies but I may very well be wrong. Any ideas? Thanks very much!

 

I think your right, sounds like a bad switch...

 

OOPS! I forgot to hit the post button....


Take the switch out and see if by-passing it helps. You sould be able to jump across the switch and get the motor to work.

I remember a thread about lighted BMW switches that worked well as a replacement.

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...t=BMW+switches

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...t=BMW+switches

 

It was the switch. I just replaced it and the system came back to life. The shop told me to stick with the OEM switch as they have had a lot of problems with the aftermarket units failing. OEM was $21.00 (CT Automotive, Campbell California). Thanks a lot for the responses!

 

One of the best tools I ever bought was my $30 electrical tester. Whenever I was unsure which device in a string of 5 devices connected with 5 cables and fuses failed, the tester came to the rescue. If I saw 12V come to life with the tester, then I was pretty sure I could continue down the path until - sure enough - one of the components had failed the test.

Just something to consider if faced with this same situation again.

 

I changed ALL of mine out with new OEM stuff.......did it when (just) ONE went intermittent on me..won't worry about those again for a long time...done....next?

Best,

 

Marty916,

+1 on your shop's advice to go with OEM ONLY on these switches. I recently got two from a national aftermarket/catalog source well known to all and they were JUNK!

They were about $16.00 US each at the time and now they're around $14.00 with the tag "New Lower Price!". I wonder why... ;-)

Both gave me intermittent performance during the installation test phase and withing five minutes of being installed did a fine job in blowing the fuse on the controlling circuit.

The 'rocker' portion of both switches was very 'imprecise' in its movement and would actually move from side-to-side in its surrounding mount and would sometimes stick in both the UP and DOWN positions!

They went back to them with a full report and I DID promptly get my $ back so they handled it OK I guess... Thank goodness I only torched two fuses!

The OEM units are not that expensive and will give you no worries. Glad this was your issue - simple (with quality parts!) fix.

Barry

 

OEM, for sure.