Hello everyone,

Looking for a little advice. I have an '04 Cooper S. Today on my way to work I rolled down all the windows and turned up the radio to enjoy part of my day before the grind. When I got to work, I tried rolling up my windows but the passenger side window was jerky and not going up properly.

I pushed the switch back down and the window went down. When I tried putting it back up again, the switch just went loose! No power to the window at all! The switch feels completely loose from the mechanism inside the consol. The switch is just sort of loose and floppy and is not working at all.

So I have two questions....

1) Has anyone had this problem before and what did you do to fix it?

2) Does anyone know how much it would cost at the dealer or if it is possible to do it yourself?

I called down to my closest MINI dealer which is 100 miles away and the tech there told me that it was going to take them at LEAST three hours to fix it, plus parts and shop charges but he wouldn't give me a price. When I asked him why it would take so long he told me they had to take the whole door apart! When I question the disassembly of my door (since the window is working fine and the switch itself is the problem) he mumbled a few things and told me that he better transfer me to his MINI S Specialist. ????

Well the MINI "Specialist" didn't answer so I had to leave a message and still have not gotten an answer back.

Looking for some help from the real experts on NAM! If anyone could provide some insight into this issue I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks everyone!

 

You can find them used on eBay at reasonable prices. They are pretty easy to replace, the hardest part is removing the uprights. Once you have the upright off the whole switch panel unbolts and you just unplug the wire harness. My switches were acting flakey, sometimes they work sometimes they wouldn't so I bought another switch panel off eBay. While waiting for my new panel I took my original panel apart (the housing just unsnaps), figured it doesn't work now whats the worst I could do. I cleaned all the contacts on the circuit board and switches and reassembled it. It has worked perfectly for 8 monthes now and I have a spare for when it really fails. You might want to give it a try, I fixed mine for $0, priceless

 

Another thought, if you are unsure of taking the switch panel apart I can post a few pictures on how to do it using my spare panel. Once you see how the switch panel is put together you will realize it a pretty simple design.

 

Since the switch went loose you probably either popped the clips on the back of the switch housing or broke them. If the back pops off there will be nothing to keep the switches from flopping around. Here's what to look for.

These clips will remove the front fascia.



Flip the unit over and carefull pop these clips on the backside. These are the ones that may be broken.



You can see where the white plastic slides on the bottom of the switch make contact when you push the switch up and down.



Taking the white contact layer off you will see how the conacts on the underside work on the circuit board. These are the contact I cleaned on my unit.



Here are all the layers in order, everything just snaps together. If any of the clips are broken you will have to either glue the housing back together or secure the pieces with strong tape, like a packaging tape. If the pieces are loose the switch will not make consistant contact to the circuit board giving you intermittent problems. The windows will be the first switches affected since they are on the outside edge and prone to the most backplane deflection if any of the clips are broken.

 

He initially was talking about the window motors which fail so often it is their goto thing for $400-450 book rate.

As pictured this can be very easy to handle on your own and it is easy to find complete switch assembly new or used online.

 

Hey you guys,

Sorry I am sooo late in responding but I wanted to say thank you for your input and responses.

I still have not gotten the switch fixed, figured it wasn't really necessary in the winter months here.

Recently had a MINI dealer open up about five miles from my house. Went in for a quote and was told it was a $130 part and a 30 min job for the tech time. That I can handle!

Thanks again and hope you are all well!