[chunky]

What if the battery died for some odd reason? would i be able to open the doors. i ask this because of the way the window shuts into the gutter. is there some sort of fail safe system?

[aphix]

I know exactly what you are getting at and to be honest i cant comment on how the mini system works.

However on BMW E46 Coupes, Mercedes SLKs, Audi TT's the doors open fine, and no, the window dosnt smash when you shut it. But i cant remeber what happens with the window. I suppose it must go down. Perhaps it uses energy stored in a capacitor to lower the window. Perhaps the Window mechanism works off the alarm backup battery.

Good question, and all i can tell you is that on other cars which require a similar window motion when the door is shut/opened the window dosnt smash.

I work weekends at a specialist car dealership, and we have batterys going flat everywhere especially in the winter, if it was a problem im sure we would have heard more about it.

Rob

[Root Ginger]

Window will not smash if battery runs out and you open the door.

The window is only held at the top by a rubber seal. You will however notice a funny noise as the window slides over the rubber. Similar noise to breaking the seal on a freezer!

You will also need a bit more force to get the door to shut and the window slide over the rubber seal.

Also if you open the door while the battery is flat/disconnected you will need to reset the window on this door by raising and lowering the window once power is restored. If you don't do this, the auto raise/lower function when opening/shutting wont start working again.

Did confuse me a little when I first worked on the car and wondered why the door was difficult to shut!