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Old 01-26-2008, 05:27 AM  
cooljess76
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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Default PERMANENT WINDOW FIX***DIY***

There's been plenty of threads, but none as detailed as this one. I'm confident that I have identified the source of our problems and developed a permanent solution.

I "fixed" my window many times before I finally got sick of dealing with it and was on the verge of retrofitting...

Last edited by cooljess76; 07-08-2010 at 09:42 AM.
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  #135  
By jimmypet on 05-16-2012, 10:43 PM
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Hey Guys,
I am a future Ti owner, hope to be closing on a car this week.
Is there a parts list of "while you are in there" to replace all these sliders and clips with part numbers?

I'm a long time BMW guy, race an E30 M3, restored an E30 M3 BTCC car,,, but this Ti window business is scaring the crap out of me.
I can see myself now going to crank windows LOL.

If there is a parts list of all these breakable / replacement parts it would be great to purchase them preemptively and have in hand for when it does break (sounds like they all do).

Also, is there any PM one can do to prevent this if it has not yet happened?
Obviously it seems cleaning the hardened grease out and re-greasing is step 1.
If nothing is bent, and say its never popped yet is there anything else?
thanks
jimmy p
Last edited by jimmypet; 05-16-2012 at 11:25 PM..
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  #136  
By 9644 on 05-16-2012, 11:23 PM
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Replace the sliders-they are worn. I believe this problem is good for most 36's. You can the sliders without ever leaving home. E_Bay-BMW 318-window sliders. They don't cost much.
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  #137  
By BlackBMWs on 05-18-2012, 07:09 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 9644
Replace the sliders-they are worn. I believe this problem is good for most 36's. You can the sliders without ever leaving home. E_Bay-BMW 318-window sliders. They don't cost much.
I keep 8 on hand as spares for the 8 windows on the 3 cars. Good in a pinch. Do Jess's procedure and you won't Ned them for awhile.
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  #138  
By RMF on 05-24-2012, 08:07 AM
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I'm having this problem now my my girlfriends 318ti. Very annoying to say the least. In my case it seems that the plastic sliders have deteriorated slightly and don't hold the ball joints in place properly, but also the regulator arms are slightly bent so I'll need to straighten those out for sure. The BMW dealer in my area has the sliders in stock for 5 euros for the pair so it's no biggie.

What's the best way to get this thing back into shape again? It's fairly sturdy and I don't want to risk ripping it off of the mechanism when I'm trying to bend it.

Many thanks in advance.
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  #139  
By RMF on 05-24-2012, 05:58 PM
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OK, this turned into a nightmare for me and maybe my problem can be a lesson to anyone who wants to try this procedure out in the future.

I managed to get the arms straight again and put in new sliders. Everything went great. I tested the window at least 20 times and it went up and down as it should. It was working perfectly.

That was until I did the slam test! Slamming the door with the window all the way down is not a good idea if the weather strip is not back in the top of the window to give it a little support. Bare in mind that these are old cars and have weakened over time. In my case the internal guide rail broke off when slamming the door. I didn't know it until I tried to operate the window again but anyway, here it is:



As you can see, the entire rail is held on by 2 tiny flimsy spot welds that snapped off when slamming the door.

Here is a picture of the inside of the door itself.



The 2 spot welds are at the bottom end of the rail, and in actual fact I would not be surprised if they were failing anyway and the root cause of the problem to begin with.

A word to the wise...DO NOT SLAM YOUR DOOR SHUT WITH THE WINDOW ALL THE WAY DOWN AND WEATHER STRIP NOT IN PLACE!

As for me, I guess it's off to BMW to have them fix it. Oh well.
Last edited by RMF; 05-24-2012 at 06:06 PM..
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  #140  
By cooljess76 on 05-24-2012, 07:51 PM
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by RMF View Post
The 2 spot welds are at the bottom end of the rail, and in actual fact I would not be surprised if they were failing anyway and the root cause of the problem to begin with.

A word to the wise...DO NOT SLAM YOUR DOOR SHUT WITH THE WINDOW ALL THE WAY DOWN AND WEATHER STRIP NOT IN PLACE!

As for me, I guess it's off to BMW to have them fix it. Oh well.
It's an $11 part. part# 51328146243(left) part# 51328146244(right). Comes out really easy, one bolt through the door jamb and a slot up top. Or you can take your old one and have it re-spot welded or riveted. It wouldn't hurt to have the weather strip at least partially in place, but the slam test is absolutely necessary. It's the most important part of the procedure and subsequently the most often overlooked step. But you're right, it only takes a second to position the weather strip or stuff a rag between the window and opening to provide some cushion. I highly doubt a couple millimeters of travel caused your welds to fail. I mean the physical action of the window coming off track puts more stress on those welds than slamming the door does. It's probably a good thing that it happened now as it most certainly would've eventually happened later. Best of luck, hope you get things sorted out.
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  #141  
By RMF on 05-25-2012, 07:39 AM
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cooljess76 View Post
It's an $11 part. part# 51328146243(left) part# 51328146244(right). Comes out really easy, one bolt through the door jamb and a slot up top. Or you can take your old one and have it re-spot welded or riveted. It wouldn't hurt to have the weather strip at least partially in place, but the slam test is absolutely necessary. It's the most important part of the procedure and subsequently the most often overlooked step. But you're right, it only takes a second to position the weather strip or stuff a rag between the window and opening to provide some cushion. I highly doubt a couple millimeters of travel caused your welds to fail. I mean the physical action of the window coming off track puts more stress on those welds than slamming the door does. It's probably a good thing that it happened now as it most certainly would've eventually happened later. Best of luck, hope you get things sorted out.
I ordered a new one from BMW for 11 euros, so I'll get that on Tuesday. My only concern now is that the regulator arms are pretty badly bent again so I may need to replace the entire mechanism which is a real pain in the behind.
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  #142  
By RMF on 06-02-2012, 04:04 PM
Default

I'm still struggling with this window

I replaced the rear track today and the windows seemed to be working. I cringed but slammed the door anyway a few times and what do you know, it popped outwards from the front track.

So, I took the window out again and twisted the front track anti clockwise, refitted the window and slammed the door at least 20 times. The window stayed in and operated normally.

I then proceeded to put the door card back, got everything in place and screwed on and rolled the window up...it came out of the track again! LOL, I have to laugh but at this point it's getting beyond a joke. I'm almost giving up on it now.
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  #143  
By L84THSKY on 06-02-2012, 04:40 PM
Default

I have had issues with my windows in the past, and I just recently swapped the driver's side door. Yesterday my window was still giving me issues, so this is what I did.

Make sure the control arms of the regulator are straight, that is important. Next, pull out the rubber track that goes around the front of door aligning the glass. Put some glue on the rubber track, and glue it back into the metal guide. Then pull out the rear rubber guide and glue that one in it's track. Then apply some silicone spray, or other lubricant into the felt area that the glass glides against. Next, make sure the regulator is bolted down tight, check all the screws.

I ended up taking the whole glass out, gluing everything in, then putting the glass back in and trying it. The glass was still shifting somewhat when reaching the fully up position. That's when I noticed the rear most mounting arm of the regulator was not bolted down tight. When I bolted the rear arm snug, all the slop in the glass went away.

Do not try shortcuts, study the problem and go through the motions. There are many causes to this problem, but each window may have a different solution; find out yours.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RMF View Post
I'm still struggling with this window

I replaced the rear track today and the windows seemed to be working. I cringed but slammed the door anyway a few times and what do you know, it popped outwards from the front track.

So, I took the window out again and twisted the front track anti clockwise, refitted the window and slammed the door at least 20 times. The window stayed in and operated normally.

I then proceeded to put the door card back, got everything in place and screwed on and rolled the window up...it came out of the track again! LOL, I have to laugh but at this point it's getting beyond a joke. I'm almost giving up on it now.
Last edited by L84THSKY; 06-02-2012 at 05:04 PM..
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  #144  
By vogageur on 06-26-2012, 02:50 PM
Default thank you for the window fix

This is a work of art let me tell you . Quite a few times my windows have popped out and the arms twisted. My passenger side popped after this winter and it was always the best window never had any problems, but now after reading this I understand what had happened, its the grease, the bmw grease, this winter was hard and exactly as you have said happened, the plastic runners didnt move and the ball joints popped out, I got new ones and put them in its a dirty crappy awkward job that I am not very good at. But I wouldnt be surprised if even bmw garages would have known about this grease clogging and sticking. Thank you for this. I will take off both my panels now and do exactly the right thing, I really was at the end of my patience with it but now I can go with confidence, thank you again, Dean, Luxembourg, 318ti 1995 330, 000 km and still going strong on every original part
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  #145  
By 318me on 06-29-2012, 06:43 PM
Thumbs up Thhhhaaaannnnk YOU!

Just picked up a 96 318ti and gave it a brake/rotor job all the way around / replaced pass trailing arm outside bushing... and THOUGHT I fixed the window regulator... guess not! But I'm heading out now to give this a go! Thanks for the details! Peace
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  #146  
By nc318tigurl on 06-29-2012, 07:28 PM
Default

My 96 ti coupe has some funky things going on with the passenger side window. I may give this a shot.
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  #147  
By deathsled on 07-01-2012, 11:53 PM
Default

Love this write up. Just had my driver's side window derail itself the other night. A little convincing with my hands got it back up and closed for now. As soon as this heat dies down a bit I'll be ripping things open. Thank god the AC works haha.
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  #148  
By cooljess76 on 07-02-2012, 01:10 AM
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Glad to help guys. I'll be fixing member GoEZ's windows on Tuesday. Let me know beforehand if you need pictures or details on any part of the procedure.
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  #149  
By indiejack on 07-18-2012, 04:07 PM
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Man oh man I wish I had searched here before the past few times I've fixed my windows. I followed the writeup on understeer.com and have had to pull my door panels a few times when they pop out again. At this point I've been driving around for over six weeks without door panels in so I can cowboy repair them at will, and of course every kid on the road with a stock Mustang thinks "Because Race car".

After reading the post (and subsequent pages and pages of comments) I will be checking my tracks as they're probably the culprit. I have a new regulator arm assembly for the passenger side because it's tweaked so very badly but the drivers side was replaced a little over a year ago. I hope that I find this method to be the end all be all for this because I'd really like to throw my door panels back on and not have my mid and tweeters just duct taped to the door so i can live with a little sound (yes, because Ghetto).

Thanks for the writeup and comments, have no idea why I didn't come across this sooner! Possibly because I'm pig-headed and "know everything" as my wife suggests
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