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How BMW's Soft Close Doors Work
A nightmare scenario: you're traveling with two or three work mates
and every time one of them steps out of the car he slams the door
so hard that you almost hear the car crying. This is one of the
things many drivers hate the most these days and some are even
going nuts, telling everyone in the car to gently close the door
every time.
But you don't have to worry about that anymore. Because technology
evolves so fast nowadays that new and innovative systems see
daylight every day to make our lives easier.
Such an example is the so-called BMW Soft Close system. As you may
find out just by reading its name, it's a technology aimed at those
who don't want to see their car doors slammed, providing a much
more gentle manner to address the process of door closing.
The idea behind this feature is pretty simple: why close the doors
real hard when the car can take that of this for you? Simply close
any of the four doors lightly and the system will automatically
take it over, without any unpleasant noise, as BMW promises.
It's not rocket science and just like in many cases, it's a sensor
that makes the whole thing possible. Whenever you closing the door,
if you're not doing it hard enough to close it just like a normal
door, the sensor detects it. For example, it's designed to detect
the door when it's halfway there, which is at approximately 6 mm of
the lock.
The sensor detects your attempt to close the door and once the
latch catches the handle, an electric motor is turned on (an
electric motor is installed for every single door, plus for the
trunk if it's remotely controlled). The electric motor has the sole
task to pull the door firmly, with a noise that can be barely
noticed. Obviously, all door locks are brought to the original
position, BMW says, which means that you can always open the door
at any moment. Manually, that is.
There's something however that really needs to be mentioned. If
you're pushing the door hard enough to close just like a regular
one, the Soft Close system still works. But only to check whether
the door was properly closed.
As you can see, it's all just a pretty simple system, so that's why
owners of older BMWs try to install it on their cars. It doesn't
cost too much and a simple search on Google reveals that the whole
package, including the sensor and the four electric motors are
priced at less than 1,000 euros. Obviously without installation
costs, but there are plenty of forums online to provide assistance.
It's not rocket science and just like in many cases, it's a sensor
that makes the whole thing possible. Whenever you closing the door,
if you're not doing it hard enough to close it just like a normal
door, the sensor detects it. For example, it's designed to detect
the door when it's halfway there, which is at approximately 6 mm of
the lock.
The sensor detects your attempt to close the door and once the
latch catches the handle, an electric motor is turned on (an
electric motor is installed for every single door, plus for the
trunk if it's remotely controlled). The electric motor has the sole
task to pull the door firmly, with a noise that can be barely
noticed. Obviously, all door locks are brought to the original
position, BMW says, which means that you can always open the door
at any moment. Manually, that is.
There's something however that really needs to be mentioned. If
you're pushing the door hard enough to close just like a regular
one, the Soft Close system still works. But only to check whether
the door was properly closed.
As you can see, it's all just a pretty simple system, so that's why
owners of older BMWs try to install it on their cars. It doesn't
cost too much and a simple search on Google reveals that the whole
package, including the sensor and the four electric motors are
priced at less than 1,000 euros. Obviously without installation
costs, but there are plenty of forums online to provide assistance.
Short clip showing the Soft Close doors in action. Notice the gentle push of the driver.
ADVANTAGES | BMW's Soft Close was initially installed on the 2002 7 Series,
which seems just about right given the fact that this particular
model is one of the most expensive model in the entire lineup. It
was regarded like a feature more appropriate for luxurious cars
that need to impress their rich buyers to the fullest. There are several “pro” things for such a system and the most obvious one is that the door is automatically closed, which means that you don't have to repeatedly open and close the door to make sure it's properly shut. Secondly, imagine you have kids who aren't powerful enough to close
the door. All they need to do is to simply push the door and the
system will take care of the rest. That's pretty helpful in case
you have a dog for example, so just let it get inside the car and
push the door. |
DISADVANTAGES | Believe it or not, not all drivers enjoy such a system. One of the
main reasons? The price. BMW only sells Soft Close as part of a
larger feature package (this obviously depends on the market), so
the overall costs are much higher than the price of this particular
system. Aftermarket? Not a good idea, you may lose your warranty. This is how the Soft Close system works on a BMW 5 Series. In typical BMW fashion, this feature is only available as part of a larger optional package that also includes some other goodies, such as the power tailgate. |
In addition, some drivers complain that their Soft Close feature isn't working anymore, so the electric motors need to be replaced every once in a while. They do a lot of work, especially because they also check if the door is closed properly when you push it hard enough to close completely.
There are people that claim that their electric motors aren't silent at all and produce a very unpleasant noise. Others report that the system works even when the door is completely open.
Last but not least, try driving a car that doesn't have Soft Close after a few months spent behind the wheel of a car that does have it. How many times did you have to open and close the door again? And how hard did you do it?