Locked In - Lol

[stx133]

Here you all go, a free laugh for you at my expence.

I attempted to fix my rear electric blind, no electrical diag in the bentley manual, started by removing the switch dissasembling and removing the melted chocolate left from PO. Then while testing the switch blew a fuse, radio dies. lifted the rear seat and replaced fuse that was blown for the motor of the blind. still no radio. Opened the bonnet and looked at the fuses found another fuse blown for the radio -(18) replaced that, radio works i think all good. still no rear blind.

Now for the funny part:
i attempted to lock my car with the remote, the doors locked then unlocked. locked the doors with the key and after about 30 sec the security alarm goes off, horn and lights. open the door with the key, get in, turn the get in the ignition, alarm still on. close the door and press unlock on the remote, still alarm on. then the mistake "warning" do not try this at home... pressed lock on the remote, doors lock with me in the car. alarm continues for 30 sec and then stops. i try to unlock the doors with the remote. no good. hold the locking button up and try to open, no good, i turn the key in the ignition to try and open windows, no good. alarm starts again. try and unlock doors with remote. still no good. try and start car, no good. wait for alarm to stop then get owner manual out and read for further direction.
Manual directions for disarming alarm, turn key to pos 1 and wait 15 min. i do so and the alarm soungs again for 30 sec then 15 min later alarm is off. have read the manual more carefully by now and it says that doors cannot be unlocked from inside while security active. try to unlock doors again with remote. no good.
i was starting to get a little PO'd at this time. had been in the locked car for about 1/2 hour. Had checked the Bentley with no success on the security system, also checked the wiring diags to work out what was happening.
Found the BMW help line and gave it a call. they suggested a couple of quick fixes; check battery etc. then sent a service tech. spoke to the service teck on the phone and he was going to jemmy the door poen so i could pass the key out. i said no thanks and told him not to bother coming for his $99 service call.
I remembered that there is a manual override on the sunroof. had allen keys in the boot. opened the hatch, kicked in the metal pannel that had not yet been removed (had some pent up frustration to burn at this point being more than 90 min from when i got locked in). got my allen keys opened the sunroof and got out, opened the drivers door with the key and all the doors unlocked properly. put the key in the ignition (with doors and windows open this time) and turned the key. she's alive.

Now i have 3 problems.
1 The remote seems completely non functioning now. will replace the batteries today but the led still lights up when pressed. have tried the reinitialising as per ownres manual with no success.
2 security system deactivated and owners manual says return to BMW workshop for re-activating. unknown cost.
3 rear bling still not ****ing working....
sorry but this had taken me to the edge last night, i said some things about my bm baby that i regret saying.

Would appreciate help on any of the 3 issues i still have.

[Kalevera]

What's wrong with the sun blind? I've hacked a few of them apart. Usually, the gear teeth strip (slightly fixable), whether they be metal or non metal. The gear can also malform where it meets the linkage. And the motors/control units are known to be faulty, as well. So, lots of stuff to consider. Are there any noises/signs of life when the switch is pressed to indicate that the motor is moving?

A new motor with gearbox at the dealer costs me ~ $150 USD.


best, whit

[uscharalph]

Here you all go, a free laugh for you at my expence.

I attempted to fix my rear electric blind, no electrical diag in the bentley manual, started by removing the switch dissasembling and removing the melted chocolate left from PO. Then while testing the switch blew a fuse, radio dies. lifted the rear seat and replaced fuse that was blown for the motor of the blind. still no radio. Opened the bonnet and looked at the fuses found another fuse blown for the radio -(18) replaced that, radio works i think all good. still no rear blind.

Now for the funny part:
i attempted to lock my car with the remote, the doors locked then unlocked. locked the doors with the key and after about 30 sec the security alarm goes off, horn and lights. open the door with the key, get in, turn the get in the ignition, alarm still on. close the door and press unlock on the remote, still alarm on. then the mistake "warning" do not try this at home... pressed lock on the remote, doors lock with me in the car. alarm continues for 30 sec and then stops. i try to unlock the doors with the remote. no good. hold the locking button up and try to open, no good, i turn the key in the ignition to try and open windows, no good. alarm starts again. try and unlock doors with remote. still no good. try and start car, no good. wait for alarm to stop then get owner manual out and read for further direction.
Manual directions for disarming alarm, turn key to pos 1 and wait 15 min. i do so and the alarm soungs again for 30 sec then 15 min later alarm is off. have read the manual more carefully by now and it says that doors cannot be unlocked from inside while security active. try to unlock doors again with remote. no good.
i was starting to get a little PO'd at this time. had been in the locked car for about 1/2 hour. Had checked the Bentley with no success on the security system, also checked the wiring diags to work out what was happening.
Found the BMW help line and gave it a call. they suggested a couple of quick fixes; check battery etc. then sent a service tech. spoke to the service teck on the phone and he was going to jemmy the door poen so i could pass the key out. i said no thanks and told him not to bother coming for his $99 service call.
I remembered that there is a manual override on the sunroof. had allen keys in the boot. opened the hatch, kicked in the metal pannel that had not yet been removed (had some pent up frustration to burn at this point being more than 90 min from when i got locked in). got my allen keys opened the sunroof and got out, opened the drivers door with the key and all the doors unlocked properly. put the key in the ignition (with doors and windows open this time) and turned the key. she's alive.

Now i have 3 problems.
1 The remote seems completely non functioning now. will replace the batteries today but the led still lights up when pressed. have tried the reinitialising as per ownres manual with no success.
2 security system deactivated and owners manual says return to BMW workshop for re-activating. unknown cost.
3 rear bling still not ****ing working....
sorry but this had taken me to the edge last night, i said some things about my bm baby that i regret saying.

Would appreciate help on any of the 3 issues i still have.

I can't help, but I feel your pain.

[stx133]

No sound from the blind at all. do you know where the relay is that feeds it power? do you have to remove the back of the back seat to access the blind.

[stx133]

I will now always leave the appropriate allen key in the glove box in case of emergency.
does anyone know if the same thing happens with a dead battery? no Battery?

[Kalevera]

Yes, the seat has to come out (all of it) to inspect it as the blind is built into the parcel shelf...and you'll be lucky if it's one of the cardboard backed parcel shelves that breaks on the way out (or if you're EXTRA lucky, on the way in) and rattles all the time on reinstall.

I'd get access to the PS motor and get a voltage on the leads when pressing the switch, then work backwards accordingly. The harness can't be removed completely without more disassembly of the interior. There could be multiple problems (has it ever worked for you?), but I'm relatively sure that the relay is part of the general module, if not internal to the control module itself. In fact, I've never seen or heard a reference to a rear blind specific solenoid. The control module harness runs down the seat back and meets a serial arrangement ~ 8 pin connector in a block of 3 similar connectors (assumed to be heated seats and perhaps power rear headrests on the other two) at the rear power dist box. I have a picture of it somewhere from when I ran the wiring for my car...

With a multimeter and the skills to use it, this should be a 30 minute troubleshooting session, max.

They really are pieces of ****. Ask Erich about it -- he'll rattle your ear off with stories of Germany's finest devising new and improved gears, then selling them on eBay

best, whit

[2fast]

Lucky you got out without to much damage.
What a story.

[stx133]

Thanks whit, i have owned the car for 8 months and it was not working when i bought it. the melted chocolate in the switch gave me the impression that the PO had not used it for a while either. the fuse under the rear seat for it (it was marked as rear blind on the coding sticker) was blown but i doubt the chocolate had much to do with it.
#Note, the switch is easy to dissasemble by springing a couple of tabs, but reassembly can take many attempts as there is nothing holding half of the bits in place as you try and push it back together.