I have gone through over a half dozen regulators on my ex-X5. I could never pinpoint what started the destruction and was usually to angry to play detective. It was never the motor, that I can say for sure. I was sometimes the cables, sometimes the plastic clip, and sometimes some part of the aluminum nut/plastic washer plug thing. I don't know if cables came off track because of one of the smaller parts failing. The end results was always the window not coming back up and usually some awful noises.

I would just replace the regulator and the plastic clips as a matter of course. It's a pain to do and if you have window tint, you risk messing that up while manipulating the glass. The clips are cheap and break easily so even if they look fine, you might as well renew them while you're inside your door.

Don't wind up like me. It's a sad sight to have to perform emergency window repair while on a road trip.

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