Found wire while working on window regulator

[Phil Marx]

When my wife called me while I was out of town to tell me the ti had tried to eject its window, I was relieved to hear it was the passenger's side---the one I had NOT worked on previously. So, I pulled the door apart when I got home and the regulator was mangled, as I suspected. I called the local dealer and they didn't have a new regulator in stock so I figured I'd attempt to straighten the arms while in place and replace both cracked slides/guides with the two extras I'd bought when I did the other side. It seemed to work well and has caused no problems since (three days so far xx) but I'll wait and see.

While in there I found a single wire with an odd round yellow connector taped to the door insulation panel just towards the rear from the interior door release handle. Anyone know what this is for?

And two of the plastic "supports" that stand off from the door panel and hold the "barb" that snaps the panel back onto the door skin had come unglued allowing a popping noise on closing the door. Anyone had any luck with a particular glue in refitting these? I tried hot glue for a quick fix but I'm not sure they made it past the first slam. JB Quick?

[1996 328ti]

I used epoxy to glue those things back on. Plus I needed to replace a bunch of those plastic nibs. I bet JB would work too. Silicone did not work.

Don't know what the wire could be. Maybe for a speaker? Can't be for an airbag, could it? I'm not sure if side airbags were optional or standard at some point.

[Jeff Spooner]

Steve,
All airbag connections on BMW are yellow, and all wires for the system have a yellow marking.

[Phil Marx]

It must be airbag wiring. Oddly enough, BMW said in 9/97 that side-impact airbags were to become standard on the ti from 01/98 production but mine is 04/98 and got the vented front rotors but not the side airbags. Probably a good thing since that would be one more reason for the airbag light to come on. I'll check the '99 information and see if it says when they actually put them in.