My windows go down and sunroof opens up on their own when the car is just sitting parked and in the off mode. It only happens when it rains. I think that something in the computer gets wet. This is a 1999 bmw 323i. What causes this? How can I stop this from happening? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

its definitely an electrical issue. Probably a case of crossed or exposed wires. There really is no other option but to take it to a dealership and have them fix it.

I have been dealing with this problem for 3 months while parked at the train station. Thankfully, it has not happened on a rainy day but it is disconcerting to find the car with four windows and moonroof fully open when I return to the car after riding the evening train. I think I have isolated the problem to the driver's door handle key lock. I sprayed some lock lubricant into the opening to disperse any water that may be causing a short. For now, I remove the central locking fuse #49 and lock the car manually after I park at the train station. I performed overnight tests locking the car in the garage to see if the windows are open in the morning. After a half a dozen tests, the car stayed locked.

dont know if youve found an answer yet.. im having the same problem with my 2000 323i.. talked to a guy a while ago and he said its prob the door lock actuator.. for me it only happens when its hot out... anyway. if you hold down the unlock button on the key it sends a signal to the actuator telling it to unlock then roll all the windows down.. its a problem with the actuator... its faulty and thinks its getting that signal.... there have been times where ill walk away after locking it and ill hear it unlock and turn around to c them all opening up.. im still working on finding out more.. if i do and fix it ill post here..

and yea i would recommend doing what addict said about the fuse for a temp fix for now

Interesting topic, just ran across it. I was thinking it could be the relay that controls the circuit. I know mechanical relays are sensitive to climate changes over time. The spring pre-load gets weak or the contacts (similar to ignition points) get corroded. Sometimes simply taking it out, take the top cover (metal or plastic) off then cleaning the contacts will bring the relay to life. Of course, purchasing a new relay is a better option also.

Hey Jace..I have a '99 323i and I was told the same thing (door lock actuator)...after doing some initial research online I was getting scared and I thought it was a faulty General Module but now it looks like it could be this...did you get yours fixed? Did you replace both front door lock actuators or how did you determine which one it was? Thanks in advance!

Matt as for the relays. ..I want to see if I could be something as simple as that but when I opened the cover that I just looked completely different to the one you showed and I was confused as to which relay I had to clean exactly... I don't know if you could help me out on this one it would be greatly appreciated!

This was just an example (relay panel in a 96 Mercedes C280) All relay or typically the same just located in different areas for different cars I know BMW usually have a covered box in the engine bay that has a clamp or lever that holds the cover down of course there are more relays and fuses under the rear seat for other circuits

water is getting in the switch in drivers door thats attached to the lock if you hold the key in lock position and windows are down they will close and so will sunroof, if you hold in unlock position with windows closed the lot will open. rip the door panel off and check the switch thats next to the lock

there is no relays or anything under the bonnet that control windows or locking, the control box is behind the glovebox although you could have a leaking windscreen and waters dripping onto it but that very unlikely check the doors its comon that the micro switches play up

I dont know what shape u have because your car is the time change for the E46 if its an earlier E36 car like the 1 in the picture, there is a switch on the door catch that over time wears down this can play around with the full closure locking if its really worn the interior light wont go out when the door is closed but have a look I had it on mine and I stuck a small bit of rubber on the end to make the door push it in further and everything was fine, my window would drop a quarter way down and it wouldnt seal when the door shut.

LOL yea I have dealt with E21, E28, E30, E32, and E34 but not with an E36.... And MBZ W124, W201, W202, W210 chassis models.

just happened to my 2003 330XI. Worth noting my auto key lock's been failing for 2 weeks now-started in extreme cold. Works on rare occassions but usually have to unlock manually

Wow, thanks for details. This just happened (sometime before) this morning when we walked out wondering if we had a poltergeist! Called the BMW remote team & HQ, both had no idea, nor did dealer. Much relieved.

Just happened with my x3 and now its raining buckets outside. Gonna try that key lock stuff as soon as it stops. Even tthough the battery is going out in the key also. Never knew these bmws would be so tricky.

I found a very easy and effective solution for sitting on my key fob and opening my car's windows by accident. I bought a leather key fob pouch through Amazon.com. Then I glued one of my pet's old aluminum dog tag inside the leather cover so that the tag covers the buttons on the key fob. I used a hammer to beat the dog tag into a curved shape approximating the curve of the leather cover. I then used a leather/metal glue to affix the do tag to the inside of the leather cover. If you know how to sew leather you could stitch another piece of leather around the dog tag so that it can't possibly pull away from the leather key fob cover. I hope this helps.

This just happend to my 07 328xi and it was raining but what do you mean when you say it's in off mode

I'm not sure what causes it and not sure what the definitive solution is but I do have a fix. It's a simple fix and will be temporary until it goes into that mode again, but just disconnect the positive cable on your battery for 30 seconds and it will reset whatever is causing the windows to deploy. Last time I did that it lasted almost a year. Hope that works for others with this irritating problem.

i have an '08 528i, wife went to run errands and each time she came out from a store the driver side passenger window would be down.

BMW is not the only one. It also happens to our '07 Lexus IS250, very sporadically. But (to date) always in our garage. Not outside. Not correlating with rain (or any other event I can think of).

I have a 2003 BMW 530i. Just started to have this problem yesterday. Car parked and locked. After perhaps 10 mins or so, the car unlocks, all windows an sunroof roll open ?? Have tried clearing with the internal BMW transmitter - holding positions 1&3 down but the light does not flash. Now I'm stuck. Any ideas ?

For all that are experiencing this problem, check out this link before you start pulling things apart. You don't want to sit on your fob! http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php? t=437009

HELP!! The same thing is happening to my BMW 325i 2003.. but this happened after I got a replacement key... right after i close my door my windows go down after a few minutes.. normally this is happening while it's hot outside.. sometime when it's raining... any suggestion??? Don't want to take it to the dealer when they going to charge me out the a**!! When it's something simple.. please help!!

I have a 2002 525i where the windows will roll down and the sunroof will open upon locking the car. The key fob doesn't work and has no battery so there is no issue with hitting the button by accident while in a pocket. It happens only when I lock the car. It doesn't matter if i quickly turn the key or hold the key in the lock position, the windows and sunroof will always open; this is counter productive to locking the car, for sure... I'm thinking that the actuator might be jacked up in the door or the convenience feature is not working as it should. After looking through the postings, there isn't anything that resembles what I have going on, however, there was one post that referred to "when it rains", which might be revealing as the water might be getting into the door lock and shorting it to complete the circuit as if the key were inserted somehow.......

I had a 330i 2006 BMW. I would leave town for 4 months at a time and often had to charge the battery. Then I went to Toronto and while driving the radio and the head lights would go on and off by themselves. Strange. When I got back to Cleveland I took the car into BMW and they said two items that were causing these problems and when they did a scan on the car many items were reading error. They said a new battery and a new intelligent cable would fix everything and it did cost about $800.

Im a gril..i hv no help i need a fast fix...im so done with this car2003 325i

Thought it was just in hot weather last summer 1st time on my 2001 330i but the polar vortex triggered it. I’d read about the manual lock driver side trick and that worked for 8 months but doesn’t now in this freeze. I’ll try the battery trick and let you all know

Just happened to me today with a 2018 340i. It has been raining but not today.

Happened to me yesterday but only one window rolls down. (back passenger) locked the car and came back later to find the window down. Also when I get in the car it happened again and I roll it up and it rolls down, around 10 times before it stayed up. 2011 328i.

This happened to me yesterday and it was raining, 2018 328i. Rain soaked my interior but I’m so lucky no one took anything from my car, actually shocked that nothing was stolen. I’m taking it in tomorrow to BMW San Francisco to see what the issue is.

DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR< DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR< DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR, I am dealing with this right now, 99% of the time this is the culprit, sometimes GM5 module which controls central locking fails too, but doors and windows ghosting is the actuator

I think you might be screwed

My 2007 525i is garage kept and I find it in the morning when I enter the garage. Does not have anything to do with rain or heat.

Same thing just happened to me. Securely locked my 2013 BMW 328i at night, then found it in the morning with all four of the windows down, along with the sunroof. Rained all night and the car was drenched. There definitely seems to be a correlation with the key fob buttons being unintentionally held down for a prolonged amount of time. I found mine wedged between a seat cushion on the morning of the occurrence

I've had a similar experience with my X1 today. Left it locked and came back an hour later to find all windows down, sunroof open, all doors unlocked and boot open...wtf???

I think it may be battery related. It has happened on several occasions on my 525i . On the last occurrence, I was having also to reset the clock every couple days. I had battery check at auto parts store, voltage was ok. Talked to mechanic and recommended I have the cranking amps checked. A battery supply store did so and determined battery was going bad. I replaced the battery and windows lowering on their own has not re-occurred and clock is keeping time. In reflecting back on previous occasions of these occurrences, it may have been about the time I had replaced the battery.

Same thing happened on my 2016 320i. looks as a programmed issue to go the the dealership to me.

I got a problem on my 318i e46 1999 BMW when it's raining it opens all windows and unlocks itself it started last week. I opened the driver door panel then disconnect the cable on the lock then it stopped could be the problem on lock or something else. Somebody help please

I am in Canada and the dealership here told me that the car unlocks and all the windows roll down when you push all the buttons at the same time on the fob.

Someone might have an extra key to your car. Some lowlife who has nothing better to do with their low-class time.

i have the same thing happen on my 2000 BMW 323i, all four windows roll down and the moon roof opes up. I didn't check the door lock actuator yet but I will. Temporarily to fix the window from deploying by itself, I lock the doors then disconnect the negative on the battery while parked and when I came back the door windows stayed closed and locked. I might have to do this all the time until I fixed the problem.

I have a 2003 325i... my dream car. I've had it for about a month. The window problem has happened to me 3 times. I haven't been touching the keyfob nor has anyone else. I got up this morning and found all windows down and sunroof wide open. Closed everything and pulled fuse 48. This afternoon, rain, and the back windows opened and so did the sunroof. It rained in my car. Pulled fuse 49 too. I'm not happy at all. As expensive as these cars are, you'd think something like this wouldn't happen!

I’m having the same issue I have 325i 2005 and I lock the car but randomly the windows will roll down and the sun roof opens up! At first it started on hot days now I notice it even does it on damp nights. Does anyone really know what the issue is?!! So frustrating.

I also have that problem and it’s definitely frustrating. I figured if you unlock your car with the key in the car lock it doesn’t do it anymore. No need to pull a fuse just use physically your key and it’s a temporary fix. At least with my Beamer

I own a 2018 BMW X3. Twice now I’ve walked out in the morning to find all windows down and sunroof open! I have my purse with the key fob clipped to. I suspect I’m accidentally stepping on the fob and pressing down all the buttons at the same time. I haven’t tested my theory yet. My bedroom is the closest to the vehicle. I’m reading “actuator” and someone mention the key fob

Hey listen everyone. The answer to this question is if you down your push down on your key fob the one that unlocks it long enough then all the windows will go down. This can happen if the key fob is in your pocket. Kapish?