Expert: Don Berlan - 7/18/2010

Question
My friend was opening my electric cabrio top on my 1996 BMW 320i cabrio when it stopped halfway. I checked the fuses but all were fine. I was able to find the manual release lever under the back seat and close the cabrio manually.

At the same time the central door locks and heater/AC fan blower stopped working. I also get a dash indicator that the airbag is not working. A few days later the central door locks "repaired" themselves, but the other 3 things still don't work (electric cabrio, fan blower, airbag).

Looks like some type of central electrical problem and my repair manual is in Italian. (I am living in Italy this summer.)  Please help!

Two (2) questions:
1.  can you suggest any repair ideas?

2. can you suggest an on-line English repair manual

Thanks so much for any help you can offer.

Donna

Answer
The best manual I can suggest is the Bently repair manual.It will help with the top and door locks but the air bag you will have to have the system scanned to determine what may be wrong.With both issues happening at the same time I would look for broken wires.Once found and repaired the air bag light will go out.As for the online I would maybe use Google translator for the book you do have,I don't know of others.