Replaced my window regulator today!

Afternoon All

Had a day off work today in lieu of some recent weekend work, so thought I would attempt to replace my drivers side window regulator.

It's been troublesome for the last 9 months or so, it would go up and down ok but starting making horrible noises the further down I put it. And on a couple of occasions when I forgot and put it all the way down it wouldn't come back up until I restarted the ignition. This was quite a pain as every time I wanted to lower the roof I would have to remember to manually put my drivers window down half way first, as the roof button sends it too far down.

Anyway, I purchased a whole new OEM regulator from Euro Car Parts for about £130 (with 25% discount code). It arrived a few weeks back. I read up a few guides on here which were very handy to get me started.

Begun at about 10.30 this morning, and finished around 14:30 this afternoon. However I was taking my time, drinking lots of tea, having kit kat breaks and I did have to pop up to Halfords in that time too.

I'm no mechanic. I work in IT. It's not a technically difficult job it's just a bit fiddly and definitely something to take your time with.

Few pics below which may give others confidence to do it.

Door Card Off
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Membrane Off
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Old Regulator out
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

New Regulator ready
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Close Inspection of the OLD regulator you can see what was making the noise (freyed cable ready to snap)
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Compare the above to the cable on the new regulator below
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

This Spring looked worn on the old regulator too
Z4 Window Regulator by danrobinson7, on Flickr

Put it all back together, tested and all appears to be working fine. I didn't even have to do a window reset, the auto up and down works fine.

No airbag lights on either as I was very patient each time I disconnected the battery (3-4 times during the whole task)

Lost half a day of my life that i'll never get back. But I gained some self satisfaction and a fully working window ready for summer!

Dan

Worth noting that a BMW indy quoted me £400-£500 for the above work. So by doing myself I saved between £270-370!

Looks brilliant, good work! Saved yourself a fortune Danderton. The photos are good too, interesting.

Cheers, I did see recently another member was charged about £800 for this which is crazy money.

Not sure if the old regulator is of any use to anyone else for parts!? Thought I'd mention it before I throw it in the bin. Probably not, but If so let me know, I'll be at the Duxford meet this sunday.

Dan

A good job well done

Thanks for posting - interesting stuff. That cable looked in a right state!

:driving:

Good timing, I'll be doing mine tomorrow.

All done. 3hrs to complete which included sound proofing the door and door card while it was all accessible. Haven't been out in it yet to test the window fit for wind noise, hoping it's fine as it looks like a good tight fit.