MyE28.com

Posted by RonW on October 25, 2001 at 20:32:23:
(posted from: ool-18b9f38e.dyn.optonline.net (24.185.243.142))
Even if my car is off, whenever I open a door, I can use the power windows. Very handy.

I just added this feature to my US '86 535i. It turns out that most of what you need is already in place- I guess this was a feature available in Europe but not the US.

There's an empty relay socket on the firewall above the driver's kick panel. It has a red wire that goes to two terminals, two brown & violet wires that go to one terminal, and two green & red wires that go to one terminal.

Here's all you need to do:
-Find the other ends of the brown & violet wires, splice one into the brown & violet wire at one of the door jamb switches, and tie off the other one so it can't short against anything. On my car, one wire was tucked below the passenger's footwell speaker. The other was under the driver's footwell carpet, near that speaker- I think it should've been tucked into the speaker compartment, but it wasn't.
-Put a regular relay (like the power window relay) into the socket.
You're done! When you open a door, you should be able to adjust the windows. In Europe, you had to open either of the two front doors, but you should be able to use any door. If you have illuminated switches, they should turn on when you open the door.
Hope this helps someone.
PS- The sunroof is NOT on the same circuit- you still have to start the car to use that.