Window coming off track

[bazar01]

Pulled the door panel. Sliders are still good, but the front regulator ball popped out of the slider with the spring clip laying in the bottom of the door skin. The rear slider is still in place. Put the front slider back in place and lowered the glass. Popped out the front regulator ball and it is way too far from the ball towards the inside of the car about an inch away. Got a channel lock plier and straighten the regulator so it lines up with the channel where the slider sits. Put the regulator ball back in the slider, then the clip, and tested the window up and down a couple of times.
I will leave the door panel out for a few days to make sure the window does not fall again.

Thanks to Cooljess' write up.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by bazar01

Pulled the door panel. Sliders are still good, but the front regulator ball popped out of the slider with the spring clip laying in the bottom of the door skin. The rear slider is still in place. Put the front slider back in place and lowered the glass. Popped out the front regulator ball and it is way too far from the ball towards the inside of the car about an inch away. Got a channel lock plier and straighten the regulator so it lines up with the channel where the slider sits. Put the regulator ball back in the slider, then the clip, and tested the window up and down a couple of times.
I will leave the door panel out for a few days to make sure the window does not fall again.

Thanks to Cooljess' write up.

Did you slam the door a few times with the window down and check to see if it stays in the forward and aft vertical guides? Did you straighten/"tweak" the vertical guides? When the sliders bind up and the regulator arms bend causing the balls to pop out of the sliders, forcing the window to come off track, what do you think happens to the vertical guides? They have to bend/flex slightly as well to allow the window to fall out. If you don't straighten them out/realign them, they're not going to fix themselves. Sometimes they don't need any adjustment, sometimes they need a lot. It's one of those steps though, if you skip it, you'll probably end up doing this again later down the road

Don't forget to clean and replace that sticky white grease on the sliders and tracks, that's what causes the sliders to bind in the first place.

[bazar01]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Did you slam the door a few times with the window down and check to see if it stays in the forward and aft vertical guides? Did you straighten/"tweak" the vertical guides? When the sliders bind up and the regulator arms bend causing the balls to pop out of the sliders, forcing the window to come off track, what do you think happens to the vertical guides? They have to bend/flex slightly as well to allow the window to fall out. If you don't straighten them out/realign them, they're not going to fix themselves. Sometimes they don't need any adjustment, sometimes they need a lot. It's one of those steps though, if you skip it, you'll probably end up doing this again later down the road

Don't forget to clean and replace that sticky white grease on the sliders and tracks, that's what causes the sliders to bind in the first place.

I did not slam the door. The glass seems to be riding on the vertical guides really smooth. So the vertical guides must be straight.
I did straighten the regulator arms so they lined up with the plastic slider and it pops right in the slider and I did not have to force the ball into the slider to put the spring clip. It lined up pretty good.
I cleaned the slider guide and sliders of old hard grease and lubed it with new bearing grease.
Thanks for the tips, and I hope the window stays in place so I can put the panel back in. Otherwise, I will have to pull the vertical guides and be able to straighten the bent section if it pops back out again.

[cooljess76]

Yeah, a lot of people just straighten the regulator arms and pop the balls back into the sliders thinking they've fixed the problem.

The vertical guides are shaped like a bow. They have the same contour as the window glass itself. I wouldn't say that they get bent, more so that they get tweaked or twisted when the window initially pops out and goes off track.

Even when they're tweaked, you can usually still get the window to sit in them and operate normally. But after a while, usually when you slam the door with the window down, there's a little bit of play from the guides being tweaked that will allow the window glass rattle/wobble it's way back out of the guide.

I've worked on other people's windows before and sometimes the guides need very little if any tweaking. The easiest way to check it is by lowering the window and slamming the door a few times. I wouldn't slam it too hard at first, you don't want the glass to break, lol. But gradually increase your force until you feel comfortable. After you've slammed the door a few times, you can reach in there and feel if the window is still sitting in the bow shaped guides.

Check both the forward and aft guides. Note if the window is coming out of the guide on the inboard(towards the interior) or outboard(towards the exterior) side of the guides. Once you find out which way it's likely to come off track, then you can go about twisting that particular guide back into position.

It's kinda tricky and space is very limited. After you make your adjustments, raise and lower the window, then slam the door a couple more times with the window down and recheck to see if it's still coming out of the guide. Best of luck man, if you run into any snags lmk.

[justmanson]

just has this happen on both windows in the last week. For now i just jammed them since i hate working on windows.

I've been reading through the pages and it seems like its not a huge deal as long as every thing is straight. my problem is most all the clips are broken including the ball joint that slides up one of the rails. looked like this has been "repaired" a few times already.

atleast my AC works.

[GreeleyGal]

I have been fighting this issue for a few months now, first it was the passenger then the other day the drivers side went. On the passenger side here is what I have done so far. First I tried the DIY but it looks like that had all been tried before, I also replaced the sliders, didn't work. Installed a new regulator and sliders and still not fixed. The issue seems to be with the motor. The window will stay in the tracks but once it gets half way the window starts to go up at an angle as the front regulator starts lifting at a slower rate and pops out of the front track which then causes the regulator to pop out of the sliders. Is the motor no longer providing enough power to lift the window? The exact same thing is happening on the drivers side now. This issue has just about gotten on my last nerve.

[wht94lytng]

^^^ Mine is doing the same exact thing, its such a pain. Luckily its only the driver side for now. Hopefully the passenger side dosent have this problem!

[kyled]

Yes, it's funny till you have to fork out $300! But it is true that it happens on all cars, now just BMWs. I would recommend trying to do it yourself as well. Tedious but worth the satisfaction of not paying a BMW service center to do it for you.

[1996 328ti]

Old thread.
I replaced the sliders and the forward slider keeps popping out.
Is that a sign of a bent arm?

[3.2TI]

I would take the glass out of the door and clean the metal plate with degrease and a brush. This will remove the old gunk and allow the new grease to slide in and out without stress. Make sure that the glass is inside both window guides on front and back of door.

GL..

[1996 328ti]

Originally Posted by 3.2TI

I would take the glass out of the door and clean the metal plate with degrease and a brush. This will remove the old gunk and allow the new grease to slide in and out without stress. Make sure that the glass is inside both window guides on front and back of door.

GL..

That's the next step to pull the glass out of the door.
I read Jess' writeup.

[jenkinskg]

Mine comes off every 2 weeks, I even bought a new regulator, only $27 on amazon
Will try to straighten window tracks next

[chopperguy07]

My drivers side kept popping out. I messed with it for an hour or so until I noticed that the front vertical channel had broken the two bottom tack welds that held it in place. I drilled the vertical channel support where the welds were and riveted it back in place. Tweaked the verticals until the window operated smoothly. Then cleaned and re greased the horizontal channels and retainers. All good for now.

[SPHayes]

My window poped off track the first week I had the car. Replaced the regulator with a made in China $28 dollar part off Amazon. That lasted a week, went with a new BMW part and all seems well for now.

Patrick

[Mathieu]

I'll admit I haven't scrolled through all the posts but I've yet to see one where it's recommended to clean the rubber guides surrounding the window on it's way up. I used a silicon spray on them and it reduced a laboring regulator's job noticeably.