Yeah.. I was too.
I had replaced the cable for the second time and it lasted about two months before I started getting the grinding noise again.
This time I decided to take it all apart and set it up on my workbench to see what was going on
well, turns out there's a small rubber washer that seperates the motor from the winder, and mine had turn when the last cable had snapped, and been injested into the motor mechanism.
this led to two problems - the first being the cable wouldn't stay where it was supposed to, and would get "stuck" to the motor arm, pulling it off the winding spindle, creasing it and eventually snapping it.
Secondly, the rubber washer had managed to somehow get jammed up between the motor arm and casing, and this seemed enough to push it off center slightly, thus wearing down the coil inside, making it not work properly! :headbang:
A call to BMW indicated £150 for the regulator and a further £150 for a new motor! F*ck that! ebay here I come.
So I find one on ebay, with motor, for £70.
second hand, but with a 3 month guarantee and from a car with just 17k on the clock... perfect!
Checked the part number given, and it matched up with the part number listed on realOEM, so I bought it.
The problem arose when it arrived.. both the winder housing AND the motor connections are completely different.
there's only one BMW part number on the whole thing, and it's exactly what the buyer said it was.
I checked my old one, and it's an exact match...
the problem seems to be that BMW changed the motor and housing for the facelift version, and whilst they do sell the motor seperately, this wouldn't fix the problem, as the winder housing was also different, doesn't come with the motor when bought from BMW, and isn't listed as a seperate part number for whatever reason!
So, I got at it with a hacksaw, pliers, fibreglass and swearing, and managed to get my old motor casing to fit the new winder housing assembly.
I was then able to take the internal parts of the new motor and move them over to the old housing.
hooked it all up, and it works seamlessly.
So my advice here is this... if you're looking to replace the whole assembly, MAKE SURE it's from the same era as your own (eg, pre-facelift for pre-facelift, facelift for facelift) as they are NOT interchangeable despite what BMW or realOEM may lead you to believe!!
(or, you can attempt to bodge it, but I wouldn't recommend that, as it was a real PITA)
I had replaced the cable for the second time and it lasted about two months before I started getting the grinding noise again.
This time I decided to take it all apart and set it up on my workbench to see what was going on
well, turns out there's a small rubber washer that seperates the motor from the winder, and mine had turn when the last cable had snapped, and been injested into the motor mechanism.
this led to two problems - the first being the cable wouldn't stay where it was supposed to, and would get "stuck" to the motor arm, pulling it off the winding spindle, creasing it and eventually snapping it.
Secondly, the rubber washer had managed to somehow get jammed up between the motor arm and casing, and this seemed enough to push it off center slightly, thus wearing down the coil inside, making it not work properly! :headbang:
A call to BMW indicated £150 for the regulator and a further £150 for a new motor! F*ck that! ebay here I come.
So I find one on ebay, with motor, for £70.
second hand, but with a 3 month guarantee and from a car with just 17k on the clock... perfect!
Checked the part number given, and it matched up with the part number listed on realOEM, so I bought it.
The problem arose when it arrived.. both the winder housing AND the motor connections are completely different.
there's only one BMW part number on the whole thing, and it's exactly what the buyer said it was.
I checked my old one, and it's an exact match...
the problem seems to be that BMW changed the motor and housing for the facelift version, and whilst they do sell the motor seperately, this wouldn't fix the problem, as the winder housing was also different, doesn't come with the motor when bought from BMW, and isn't listed as a seperate part number for whatever reason!
So, I got at it with a hacksaw, pliers, fibreglass and swearing, and managed to get my old motor casing to fit the new winder housing assembly.
I was then able to take the internal parts of the new motor and move them over to the old housing.
hooked it all up, and it works seamlessly.
So my advice here is this... if you're looking to replace the whole assembly, MAKE SURE it's from the same era as your own (eg, pre-facelift for pre-facelift, facelift for facelift) as they are NOT interchangeable despite what BMW or realOEM may lead you to believe!!
(or, you can attempt to bodge it, but I wouldn't recommend that, as it was a real PITA)