this happened to a friend of mine(545iA sport, prod 11/03,CIP 16)3 days ago.He came out of the office after work around 7 pm(already dark here in NYC) and noticed that left side windows were opened(first he thought they were broken),looked closer-all 4 were rolled down,nothing was taken out of the car(leather jacket,sun glasses,cd were not touched),sunroof was fully closed(which tells me it was not accidental push of a button on the key).The possibility of him leaving the car with opened windows is out-its been raining non-stop here for the past 8 days.He had this car for almost 2 yrs now-never had any "phantom trunk opening",but he recently had discharged battery mishap twice.Anybody here had that happened?I live in the city and park my car on the streets-i must say i start felling uneasy about these "phantom openings".Is it something we have to live with or it can be corrected somehow?

 

There are a few theories that might explain what happened...

The first one deals with an accidental (unintentional) press and hold of the unlock button on the key fob.

The second theory is that there's a bug in the software of the car.

The third theory is that there was some sort of nearby radio interference which caused the car to think that someone was pressing and holding the unlock button on the key fob.

Hopefully the first theory is what's happening to your friend...

 

Thanks for thoughtful reply Rudy,however neither of these theories would explain why the sunroof was fully closed unless we presume that the button on the key or radio interference was lasting just long enough not to initiate sunroof opening(it does start opening as soon as the windows opened).i think it is more of the second theory given the fact that quite a few people here had this "phantom trunk openings" without being close to car or having car key in the pocket.Recently i had AC/heater/fan/(entire unit/operation) not working for about 30 min despite rebooting/restarting car and CCC unit,finally it came on while i was driving and already calling my dealer to make an appointment.I wish BMW would somehow improve the CCC unit in E60(can't be that big of a problem!)even if it comes at the expense of higher premium on the car(can't be that much more expensive either-we all know how much computers cost nowadays).Doesn't BMW realise that the cost of dealing with complaints/diagnosis/repair/reprogram of these "small" software problems under warranty would by far outweight replacing current CCC unit with better,less error-prone,slightly more expensive unit even if it comes at small increase in price(we are paying in excess of 60K already!) This also greatly damages BMW reputation in the long run which may hurt the sales in the future.I always knew that BMW cars have been all about handling/brakes/suspension/engines(which is why i've been driving them for past 5 years and intend on doing it)but it is time to catch up with competition on the electronic front.

 

Theres too many incidences of openning trunks and windows to lead me to believe that theres that many people who can accidently hold the key fob down that long and not know it. *maybe they can* but to me it seems like its software bug... or radio interferences... :thumbsdown:

I hope it never happens to me.

 

I accidentally opened everything, except the trunk, while working under my car on its B&B. I kept hearing electric-motor-type noises, but had no idea what was going on. When I got out from under, everything was open.