All four windows opened by themselves? Edit: issue now sorted

Head_The_Ball

Hello, we have a three and a half year old BMW 116i Series 1.

A few evenings ago I parked it for about 3 hours on a road outside a pub.

On leaving the pub I noticed that all four windows were open and fully down. The doors were all locked.

My wife, who had not drunk any alcohol, was driving us home and neither of us had yet unlocked the car with our remote key fobs. In any case there is no window function on the key fob.

I am certain that I locked the car and that all the windows were fully closed.

There was nothing missing from inside the car and no evidence of anyone tampering with anything.

As far as I know the windows are only operated by the buttons on the four doors. These buttons do not function unless a key fob is inside the car and the ignition is switched on.

Could this be an electrical glitch or is there some other possible explanation?

Thoughts?

chrisw

Are you sure there's no window function on the fob? Many recent cars will open all the windows by holding down the unlock button and close them all by holding down the lock button.

neilmcl

^This. There isn't a dedicated window button as such but if you keep the unlock button pressed all the windows will drop.

cajef

^^^ Yep! had the same experience with my Honda Civic, been out for a meal with friends walking accross the car park busy talking and used the unlock button twice got to the car and found all the windows open.

Pays to read the manual fully.:D

RichardD1970

^^^^ Same with my Ford Grand C-Max

k3lvc

Thinks yourself lucky it's only the windows - on my convertible it takes the roof down too. After the first time you learn not to keep your keys in your pocket - particularly as sods law says it's !!!!ing down when you do it

Head_The_Ball

chrisw wrote: »

Are you sure there's no window function on the fob? Many recent cars will open all the windows by holding down the unlock button and close them all by holding down the lock button.

Thanks, you and the others are correct. :beer:

A long hold on the unlock button does indeed open all the windows and a long hold of the lock button closes them.

If a door isn't opened within about a minute the doors all lock but the windows stay open.

That is presumably what happened and explains the open windows and locked doors.

The car was parked right outside the pub door across a fairly narrow pavement and we were sat near that door so there were two key fobs within radio range of the car.

My key was in my pocket and my wife's key in her handbag.

One or the other of us must have inadvertently pressed and held the unlock key long enough for it to activate the door unlocking and windows open function.

We will be more careful in future. Thankfully nobody took advantage of the open windows this time.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Head_The_Ball

cajef wrote: »

...Pays to read the manual fully.:D

I'm old school.

Only when all else has failed do I RTFM.


Or maybe I should read my signature carefully.

Stoke

You can disable the feature if you want. I wouldn't because it's one of the better features in my opinion

facade

Stoke wrote: »

You can disable the feature if you want. I wouldn't because it's one of the better features in my opinion

Why?


I can see the point in forcing them all closed from the living room if you realise that one might be partly open, but why do you want to open them when you are nowhere near it?

Stoke

facade wrote: »

Why?


I can see the point in forcing them all closed from the living room if you realise that one might be partly open, but why do you want to open them when you are nowhere near it?

Well firstly that isn't what happens, at least on my 3 series. If you hold the open button, the drivers window rolls down about 30% of the travel first, then the rest follow suit in unison.

Lovely summers day about 3 weeks ago, having a nice drink with some friends sat outside a pub. The black interior on mine gets a bit warm, so rather than go over, open the door, and make a meal of the situation, I simply held the unlock button down for about 5 seconds which pops open the drivers window only. I pressed lock again, but as the OP said, if you don't open the door, the car locks itself.

Just mildly convenient on occasions and convenience is a good thing.