e36 328i electrical problems. ideas?

[rb5230]

a friend is looking at a 328i which is for sale very cheaply due to it having an electrical fault whereby the windows and heaters are not working.

obviously the fuses would be something to check but does anyone know if these are common problems and possibly how they would be fixed? other than that the car seems pretty decent.

thanks in advance.

[AV12]

Is it normal heating or climate? If the climate's broken it's a common problem.

Not sure I'd want to be in a car without heating and unable to crack the windows though.

Whats the details of the car. I loved my 328.

[rb5230]

AV12 said:

Is it normal heating or climate? If the climate's broken it's a common problem.

Not sure I'd want to be in a car without heating and unable to crack the windows though.

Whats the details of the car. I loved my 328.

its just a 328i coupe, i think its climate.

he is going to buy the car either way as it will break for more than the owner is asking for it but he was just wondering of heating and electric windows was an easy fix.

[AV12]

If its climate, budget £200, (easy to fit) for a new part from BMW. However, there is a Ebay service which will swap a reconditioned one.

Look here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E36-3-Series-Climate-Con...

Unsure about the windows though. Is it something silly like fuses?

Once that's all fixed tell him to supercharge it!!

[rb5230]

AV12 said:

If its climate, budget £200, (easy to fit) for a new part from BMW. However, there is a Ebay service which will swap a reconditioned one.

Look here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BMW-E36-3-Series-Climate-Con...

Unsure about the windows though. Is it something silly like fuses?

Once that's all fixed tell him to supercharge it!!

thanks for the advice, very helpful. I dont think he will be spending silly money supercharging it just wants to keep it as an every day car.

[defblade]

It will almost certainly be 2 different faults:

as said, the climate control often fails, you can replace, ebay swap or if you're handy with a soldering iron, there's plenty of places that will tell you which resistor/capacitor/whatever to replace (it's just one component that burns out usually).

The windows - first stop on the coupe is the microswitch in the doors that drop the glass on opening and raise it when the door's shut - they can cause all sorts of trouble. After that, the motors are pretty strong and the rest of the system is pretty straight forward so shouldn't be too hard to sort.

[AV12]

The only reason I mention it is because I wanted to do that to my old car. Mad money, though.

Very good as a DD. The engine is a masterpiece, in a half assed way.

[Saddlebag]

Both of my recent BMWs have had electric window issue-and both were just the switches that you use to open them!

[rb5230]

thanks for the tips guys, any other just keep em coming.

[rb5230]

well it appears he wont be buying the car now due to some mega insurance quotes, so looks like i might get my hands on it.