I have an E46 2003 325i The Driver door passenger window barely made it up and was making noise. Any idea if this might be fixed by lubricating tracks or associated parts? Thought I would ask you guys orior to surgery with the Bently manual... thanks Rich
Window regulator? Worst case, the window regulator is toast. Very common problem in E46. Relatively easy DIY to replace (door panel needs to come off.) Search around and you'll find many DIY on this.
I just tried the silicone and I suppose it helped, there was some mechanical type crunching noise during up and down and I suspect there are plastic parts in there that are broken and its a matter of a few more cycles and it'll porbably be toast. Thanks for the help.
Is your door panel moving inwards when you raise and lower the window? There are plastic rollers that often need replacing. Be sure to fix this before the winter. Not a hard job but the brackets that hold the door panel sometime loosen. On E36s anyway. Probably the same on E46s.
Be very careful if you have side airbags. Make sure you disconnect the battery before removing the door panel. I would also recommend consulting a Bentley manual or at minimum, forums on the internet that have performed this type of service. The last thing you want is for this to cost you even more money than you budgeted (such as a trip to the dealer to reset an SRS light you tripped).
I just replaced mine this morning. I did the both front windows. Its an easy job the hardest part is drilling out the rivets. Im sure you can find a DIY on the work and that will save you a lot of money and give you a good feeling. Thanks
There seem to be an inordinate number of problems with the window regulators, at least on the E46. I'm having problems with the two front windows, and will be replacing them (or trying the zip-tie fix). Is it my imagination, or is this problem unique to Bimmers? Have they developed new designs in the E90 series that eliminates this problem? Looking at the DIYs, the part itself does not appear to be terribly well designed, as there is a plastic part that tends to not hold up well to stress.
it's actually fairly common across many of the models BMW has released in the last few decades, not sure if it's been fixed in the E90 or not
