I have an E82. I opened the door one morning to go to work, the window rolled slightly down as usual, I shut the door, and then the window make a terrible grinding noise and rolled itself down. After that, it wouldn't roll back up. The motor still worked, though. So, I removed the door panel and took a look. I'm not sure how the window regulator is supposed to work exactly but it looked like this plastic worm thing was broken: http://imgur.com/a/LA3ls I took various pictures with the window "rolled up" and "rolled down." Rolling it up make the plastic worm gear-type thing move away from the larger plastic piece above it. So my questions are: 1) Does this indeed look broken? 2) Can I replace just this plastic piece? 3) I wasn't able to find a part number on realoem.com. Does anyone happen to know what it would be or could shoot me a link to it on realoem.com? 4) Will replacing this be troublesome? It looked like it may be since it seems to go behind a piece of metal a few inches tall on the door frame. Any tips? Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer.
This? http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=UC73&mospid=50622&btnr=51_6274&hg=51&fg=10 I'm not familiar with what the typical E82 window issues are, although apparently window motor regulators have been a bugaboo since, well, seemingly forever. Seems to be extremely common from E36's forward, which goes back to '92. Not sure if any plastic gear is a primary problem and easily replaced. Check with the odometergears.com gang, they should know about that.
Looks like the cable may be broken. http://www.getbmwparts.com/parts/20...p=GLASS & HARDWARE&component=Window regulator May want to put in your information to be sure it is the correct part. You will probably have to have it coded after replacing the cable assembly to get the motor lined up properly.
Sadly you will need to get a new regulator. Easy to install in the E82 though but they are kinda of a pricy part. Also when you remove the motor inspect to make sure the plastic gear didn't strip out to.
