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Question

My wife climbed into our 2000 323it today, inserted the key, turned it to start, and reports that the doors locked by themselves and the car would not start. She waited a bit and tried it again and all was fine. Now she's scared to drive the car. Any suggestion as to the cause?

Submitted: 269 days and 21 hours ago.

Category: BMW

Value: $20

Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION

Year: 2000
Make: BMW
Model: 323it

Already Tried:
nothing yet

Accepted Answer

Without actually reproducing the issue myself.
It sounds like an ignition switch issue, these tend to go bad on high mileage vehicles, and cause alot of different electrical issues and random things to operate.

Expert:	bimmaster
Pos. Feedback:	99.7 %
Accepts:	935
Answered:	6/24/2009

BMW Technician

3 years dealer experience, master bmw tech

269 days and 21 hours ago.

Reply

Is there any "normal" situation where that would occur otherwise? The car does not have an alarm.

Posted by bimmaster 269 days and 20 hours ago.

Answer

There really is no normal situation where this would occur if the vehicle is stock.
If it has an aftermarket alarm, all bets are off, this issue could happen then.

If it gets more frequent, a good starting point would be the electrical part of the ignition switch. It should be less than $100, and changes fairly easily.
Also I would check the battery voltage, and the tightness of the terminals, and ground point on the chassis near the battery.

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