[jefflad]

Due to frost my 4 series door refuses to shut properly. It opens but then won't close properly until (I guess) evrything has defrosted.

Anyone experience this and tips on getting it to work quicker?

What I can't understand is when I open the door the glass does drop as it is supposed to but from there it refuses to work. The window doesn't open or close I just can't understand how the window can drop and the automatic button refuses to work for a good 20 mins with the engine running.

Cheers

[cfm56d7b]

Is your winter season a cycle of wet snow which freezes and turns into ice?

This can happen as ice water drips into any available crevice. Then, it freezes and expansion follows, increasing pressure between surfaces expected to glide by design.

Almost every modern electrical motor and solenoid is designed with self protection logic: if something is preventing the expected function, no need to keep working and push the window up or down. This prevents expensive warranty repairs in different climates.

Does everything work as expected when the temperature is warmer and ice melts?

[Wires]

I'd suggest parking in a heated parkade for the afternoon (day?) and let it 100% thaw out to see if it's what cfm56d7b was mentioning.

[zeikei]

Not sure from the description what problem OP has but with my F36 I keep an old unneeded plastic card in my wallet to swipe the seal at the bottom of window whenever its frozen. You can easily slide it down from the rear of the door next where the window ends and then just swipe all the way to the front. Works every time.

[jefflad]

Thanks for the replies... the climate here is basically more wet and freezing. Its now happened a couple of times. I scrape the ice/frost of the window completely but still doesnt work. I have also tried running along the bottom of the glass.

I'll keep trying and update when I find a better solution.

[1QuikWS6]

Had the same problem with my 2009 E92 as I do now with my 2015 F32

No matter what, at some point apparently water gets in just enough to freeze the window once temps fall below 25 deg

Window will not jog down when door opened, hence you can't really close the door completely until you allow the car to set running with warm air blowing on it for 15-20min

To make matters worse, even though you can get the door closed (albeit the window is hitting the trim instead of where it's supposed to go when jogging correctly) - the car still 'thinks' the door is not closed, illuminates the 'door open' warning and the car will not go into drive until the window works as designed

My wife has a 2009 Pontiac vert that has the same window jog feature and we have never had a problem with windows freezing - apparently GM had a better design to prevent water intrusion

Now if I can find a way of coding the car so it will go into drive even if the door is open I'm all over it

Biggest surprise I ever got was when I was backing up and opened the door to see behind me better, & the car auto jammed into Park

[Billfitz]

Originally Posted by 1QuikWS6

Biggest surprise I ever got was when I was backing up and opened the door to see behind me better, & the car auto jammed into Park

That only happens if the seat belt isn't fastened. It's a safety feature, intended to keep you from killing yourself with your own car. Search: Anton Yelchin. His jeep did not have this feature.

OP, you can minimize this and other related problems by regularly treating all the rubber weather stripping and window seals with rubber preservative.

[1QuikWS6]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

That only happens if the seat belt isn't fastened. It's a safety feature, intended to keep you from killing yourself with your own car. Search: Anton Yelchin. His jeep did not have this feature.

OP, you can minimize this and other related problems by regularly treating all the rubber weather stripping and window seals with rubber preservative.

Good to know someone is looking out for me - been driving for 42 yrs & haven't managed to run over myself yet

[Billfitz]

I bet not so many of those years was with a car that doesn't put the car into park when you push the gearshift lever forward. It took me three months to get used to that. Because of it I don't let anyone else drive my car. It would be far to easy for someone to push the lever forward and think the car is in park, then get out of the car while it's actually in reverse. BMW engineers foresaw that possibility and accounted for it. Jeep engineers didn't. If Yelchin had bought a BMW instead of a Jeep he'd likely be alive today.

[zeikei]

Originally Posted by jefflad

Thanks for the replies... the climate here is basically more wet and freezing. Its now happened a couple of times. I scrape the ice/frost of the window completely but still doesnt work. I have also tried running along the bottom of the glass.

I'll keep trying and update when I find a better solution.

So just to confirm, you need to stick the thin plastic card about an inch down beyond the seal lip. That is easiest to do near the B pillar. Then swipe all the way to the other end of window. If your window has lots of ice then you need to scrape that first with a regular scraper, which you need to store in trunk

But perhaps in your case it freezes from another spot, for me its always the lower seal.