With the advice of another member, I tried to locate the comfort relay to resolve my electrical issue on my 1995 M3. The three relays on the left of the steering column did not seem to be the comfort relay. Two of the relays were only 4-pin and the larger relay was a 9-pin, but not all of the pins were being used. I did some pin checking and the turn signals were on this relay. I do not think it was the comfort relay. To recap my problem, all of the power window functions as well as the operation of the sun roof are gone. The courtesy interior lights are gone. The lights still work if I manually switch them on while the engine is on. I have searched high and low for any additional fuses other than the large block under the hood. I did find a blue, 15 amp fuse up near the fire wall in the far left corner of the under dash. I could barely pull it out and check it but it was okay. Could there be any other auxillary fuses somewhere?
Contact Mike Miller at Techtalk@roundel.org. He is always quick with a reply (don't know how he does it... I think there are six of him!) and he appears to to online this evening.
Did you do what I suggested by putting 12V to fuse1 to see if the sunroof works? Here is a link to a pic on bimmerforums with a guy pointing to the relay: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=173925&d=1166386506& but you need to join. It may or may not be the right one because that is a pic from a 93.
I was just looking at the wiring diagram again. Need to know the production date of hte car or the last 7 of your VIN to make sure I am looking at the right stuff.
Paul: I misunderstood your earlier directions for testing for the problem and was checking pin #1 on the relay base. I applied 12V to fuse #1 and was able to actuate the sunroof. I guess I should just order a new comfort relay and then match it up as to where it goes by the new unit. I was unable to access the link for the bimmer forum with the photo of the '93. My vehicle was manufactured in February of 1995 and the last seven characters of the VIN # are EH04530. Any suggestions on where to order the relay from? Is it a "dealer only" item.
Do you see the relay on http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BF03&mospid=47486&btnr=61_0066&hg=61&fg=25 I buy my parts from http://www.getbmwparts.com
However, the diagnostics won't necessarily end here. If the relay is cheap enough, I would try it, but if not, you may want to try opening it up to see if there are any bad solder joints. If a new relay does not fix it, you have aproblem with the ZKE (body control module) or the relay module.
Paul & Steven: Thank you for the info. I looked at the relays from OEM parts and printed off the page. The pin configuration for number two does not match any of the three relays that are under the dash on the left of the steering column. I looked at the relays in the fuse/relay box under the hood and could not find that pin configuration either. Is it possible that they did something different for the 1995 year?
Yes, there are differences from what they call early production and late production. The early production is probably up to 12/94, so yours may be different. As I look at the diagrams, though, I find it odd. If you can put power to fuse 1 and all of a sudden your sunroof works, it should be the early production. With late production, it is just supposed to have power to fuse 1 at all times, and that power goes straight to the sunroof module without any relay or anything in line with the power circuit. With late production, the sunroof module is tied into the ZKE for alarm and control purposes, but the power is always supposed to be there. Also check fuse 7 (test it or replace with known good.) It is horribly complex and hard to diagnose without having the car in front of me, but keep at it and we'll see what we can do.
The relay layout that Steven posted is correct for my vehicle. Relays #1, #2, #3 are there. #4 & #5 are missing, and there is a small unit that should be #6 EWS ll transmitter. There is no Fuse 48 that I can see. The #1 relay is the four-pin, mint green unit. This seems to be a common relay on the car and I have swapped it out with one from under the hood and there is no change. The unit matches up to #16 on the relay sample sheet except that it does not have the auxillary 87 pin in the center
I have read that sometimes the relay positions are changed around, and have seen it myself (much to my dismay) sometimes. Like I said, post a pic and part number of the relay you suspect is the comfort relay so we can see if it is the right one.
BTW: http://www.unofficialbmw.com/e36/electrical/e36_window_sunroof_failure.html says it is a 5 pin relay. According to the wiring diagram, the pin numbers go up to 9, so that is because of the socket configuration and there are not actually 9 pins.
Paul: You were correct about applying 12V to fuse #1 to actuate the sunroof. Which fuse feeds the side windows?
Fuse 14 powers the ZKE to process the signals, and fuse 19 powers the relay module which actually puts power to the window motors. Both should have battery voltage at all times. If they don't, let us know.
