Anyone got any experience of the 456 window ECU failing ? got my pinging door lock fixed today - faulty solenoid, was forcing lock open when doors were locked, and now the window doesn't come down when you open the door ? presume ECU has failed ? cost is c. £480!
It sounds more likely that whoever has just been inside your door doing lock repairs has forgoten to connect something. I would take it straight back. It seems a bit of a coincidence?
believe if you read the manual, or I can scan my workshop manual, this can be reset. BUT I've also heard sometimes you need to see a dealer to reset it. Having never done it, it DID make much mention that reseting would be an issue if sequences were not followed. at work, will try to scan later and send to you.
fault turned out to be a poor connection inside the unit, Thankfully. All sorted now, and the agent didn't charge me labour either! nice to see Italian electrics don't change from Alfas to Ferraris!
unfortunately looks like the automatic up & down when closing/opening has stopped again. Really would like to get to the bottom of it this time, and maybe quell some of the fault window myths in the process SonomaRik - any chance you can scan that info from the workshop manuals for me please ?
Wonder if Part 18 Doors Locking Micro-Switch has anything to do with window up/down control ? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Exactly: I'm thinking it's just the switch/sensor to the handle. The ECU might be electro/mechanical, but I'm thinking more of a chip that is programmed. Therefore, programmin/software cannot break, hardware breaks. Software does exactly what it is supposed to do, so fixing the mechanical part would allow the programming/software to act like the design/programming intended. Take it apart, see if the sensor/switch that triggers the ECU/programming is either dirty, shorting, or both. One way to test is swap that part from the other side and see what happens: I'm also betting you are only talking about the driver's side which get the most wear/tear. rik
Rik, its actually the passenger door I'm having trouble with. Hard to believe I know! Thanks and Regards David.
and boy does it look complicated... Window ECU has 3 connectors with about 20 wires going to 2 of them, and about 5 going to the other. started checking connectors and all seem clean and ok. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them up.
will try turning off battery switch today to see if that resets ECU. if not, very tempted to switch passenger door unit with drivers door unit, as they are the same part. Part number 153096 £461.20!
Rik, just been reading your theory on driver's door glass mold - you realise my car is RHD, so the passenger side is the same as your drivers side! Your theory still holds. regards David.
David, You should find a micro switch on the latch pin fixed to the door post (body of car). this switch controls the auto up / down with the door open you can manually depress it and control that particular function. It's a BMW part. Also for the ecu to establish were full open and full closed is, insert the key into the door lock turn and hold one direction to go up and turn and hold in the other direction to go down. Once the ecu determines where full closed is it will open and close the window to a calculated distance via the door jam switch, whenever the door is opened or closed. Hope this helps, Adam
stripped the door down, and couldn't find anything obvious. Left window in full down position in process of doing this. Then decided to turn off the car battery and leave it overnight. Came back window wouldn't go up or down, just a groan (like the end of travel groan) - window now stuck in down . OH NO! then with power still on, removed the lower of the 2 plugs on the left of the picture below. Heh bingo - window goes up on its own, and stops 20mm from the top! inserted plug and works fine. Spent next 20 minutes testing it, and trying to flatten car battery in process - all works fine. I believe I've discovered the window ECU reset process!! (PS. Don't know why ECU has the word 'Green' painted on it - very strange). Image Unavailable, Please Login
This seems to be a feature of these cars, whislt on holiday I had the lefthand h/lamp flapping up and down and then both lamps doing it, disconnected the lefthand motor and the righthand h/lamp worked fine, so just used one lamp as I was not driving much in the dark, later in the week spent an hour checking wiring etc. unbolted the letfhand lever that connects the motor to the lamp, plugged it back in and it immediately reset to the down position, reattached the lever and now both headlamps go up and down fine !!!????
Every italian car I've had from Fiat, Alfa Romeo to Ferrari seem to suffer from Connection woes. Suspect an application of Stabliant-22 would help (as recommended by the VW and Lamborghini guys) Incidentally all 3 Italian I've had, use German Bosch Electronics - kinda dispels the idea of German quality!
Yes !! I laughed at this myself, the headlamp and rear spoiler motors are Bosch, the fuel injection system is Bosch and alot of the relays are label Bosch and I think the seats are very similar too, if not the same as the Peugeot 607??? coupe so are french although Italian design !!! I think alot of the issues with these cars is down to them being hand built and low volume production. The Italian bad reliability thing is abit unfair, so far, in my experience I have owned three Ducatis and one Alfa and the only thing that has gone wrong with them all was a duff flasher relay on the 900ss bike !! One thing that is frustrating with these cars is the lack of info and knowledge both online and within the specialist/dealer network. Maybe we should pool our knowledge to make a tech. info base online containing all our info on fixing the common faults associated with the 456??
All my woes with the 2 Fiats and 2 Alfas (a 164 and a 166) have been connection wise - with the exception of the suspension bushes on the 164, all faults/issues were connector based. Seriously, the 456GT (pre-M) is at least 10 years old, with only 3289 made of all versions (incl. the later Modificatos), the knowledge is going to be spread thin - I think the point of the forums like this one is to pool the knowledge. I also think a car has to be a certain age before the real faults show themselvees. Lets see what we can do together. I've started, but not updated my little trinkets in a while - take a look - www.456gt.com, and let me know what you think.
hi Mezzanotte, You site was one of the first I found when looking for a car, and it was very useful. I have registered my car on it. I was thinking maybe we could build up some 456 repair type tech info on this site as there seems to be alot of knowledge particularly from the US about problems with these cars. I have often found that people suggest searching on topics but when I do so there isn't much advice, perhaps the older stuff gets deleted from this forum??
