Replace white regulator slider clips only or entire window regulator?

[pearlpower]

I recently swapped the white and black clips on the drivers door-perfect. Definately buy both.

[Crowz]

I just glued them with jbweld.

As for length of use the oldest of these regulators I have was bought 4 years ago.

The newest was bought this past march.

None have completely failed just the plastic clip that holds the cable to the regulator which I have been jbwelding as they fail.

[cn90]

Just curious re ebay $25 WR.

How often do you lower and close your window?
I am trying to get roughly how many (hundred or thousand) cycles of going down and up before it fails...

[Crowz]

All of these were put on e39's. Two different cars.

My e46 has some of them too but none of the e46's broke anywhere. Just the e39 ones which is the same as the e53 design wise I think.

My e36 of course never broke but it has REAL window regulators made out of metal plates with teeth on them. No cables anywhere. So nothing to buy for it

[Crowz]

On my e46 every time I go thru the drivethru and every time I smoke a cig.

I don't go to the drive thru that much but I do go through 2 cartons a week

Sooo every time I am in a car the window is rolled down some.

The e39 was driven by my wife and the other one randomly by her and me.

Her e39 was daily since she likes rolling the window down.

Basically the drivers side window is worked more on our cars than I imagine anyone you will ever likely meet aka tons.

The rest of them? Not that much. I personally threaten strangle people that think about touch the other windows switches....

[Crowz]

I think the main way to determine are the $25 ones worth a flip is how long they have lasted vs the other ones.

All of the other regulators lasted about a year maybe 2 tops. 90% died from the cables getting mangled with 1/2 of them having broken or mangled pulleys too. The others ones had cable issues too but it was like they wound into the motor spot wrong.


None of the $25 regulars have completely died. The only thing they have done so far is to break the plastic piece that holds the cable to the regulator. More of a chipping off than anything. Just enough to allow the cable to get out of the holder. Glued them back. The gluing fix isn't that old. Maybe a year so I cant say how long they will last glued but I cant see them messing up in that spot again with all of that jbweld on it.

So far they do decent but I wouldn't of cared if they died at the same rate. $25 is much cheaper than the others ones so all they had to do was last as long of the other ones. But amazingly they have out lived the other ones so far.

[Ohsoslow]

I got one of the $25 ones off ebay, and it lasted maybe 3 months, before the cable broke out of the white plastic slider thingie.. I haven’t looked at trying to fix it yet though, maybe I could just glue it back together as crowz says.. or perhaps get new slider thing, then glue it..

I smoke too, so window was being used at least once every day for that 3 months, so maybe 100-200 cycles?!

[cn90]

So, this is what I am thinking: buy the $25 thingy and install brand-new slider clips (I have quite a few of these that I bought recently) upfront.

This is b/c I hate opening the door panel and hate peeling the vapor barrier!
Not to mention airbag disconnect etc.

[Crowz]

Glue sure seems to hold well from my test. I cant see it failing there again.

[Crowz]

Worth a shot. If it fails at the clip even after that then just jbweld it.