Drivers window stuck in down position
 

As it says in the subject line, the drivers window in our 03 4.4i is STUCK in the down position, but it seems to be a little different than other threads I've searched on this problem. I can jiggle it a little at the back, but it's really stuck at the front - no matter how hard I tug, I can't get it to budge.

I assume the regulator is toast, but I need to get the window out in order to replace the regulator. Ideally, I'd like to move it to the up position while waiting for a new regulator to arrive.

Has anyone had this particular problem? Any tricks to getting the window to come free? I can't even get a flashlight to shine on the area that's stuck to give me some ideas as to what I should do to get it loose. Should I remove the bolts holding the regulator to the door frame, or is this going to just make a bad situation worse? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I am going through this issue at the moment.

Are you sure it's the regulators?

My window gets stuck when it's all the way down. The way I got it up was by sticking a flat head screw driver in the corner of the frame to the rear of the window so it could slide up.

I am going to replace it with a clip that looks like this:
BMW X5 WINDOW REGULATOR CLIP FRONT RIGHT | eBay

I've heard this is a common issue and worth trying before replacing the whole regulator

try the window glass set screw
 

Hi , it is common for BMW,s, the driver side window to get suck down, basically the window is off track,pick up a new screw from a dealer and bring it to a auto glass repair shop.
It happens when You close the door when the window is down, and shakes the screw loose.

Thanks for the replies. No, I don't know for certain that the regulator is bad, but I had to take the panel off to try to figure out why it's stuck anyway, whether it's because the regulator broke, or a bolt holding the glass to the regulator just came loose (I'm hoping for the latter!). So, I have the panel completely off, but, as I said, I can't get the glass to budge. The odd thing is that it's stuck at the front, where most of the posts I've read on window problems have indicated the issues tend to be at the mounting point at the back.

I'll keep struggling with it to see if I can break (I didn't really just say that, did I...?) it loose. Then I'll be able to assess what's wrong.

By the way, on the E46, a common issue is that the clip that holds the window to the regulator tends to break, so people often repair them with zip ties. In fact, you can even reinforce the clip with a zip tie to help prevent future failure (I've done that on both front doors of my daughter's 04 325i). Is there something similar that can be done with the X5? Thanks.

Well, I've spent a very frustrating afternoon wrestling with this thing, and I'm at my wits end - the window won't budge. I've completely removed the foam vapor barrier to give me maximum access to the door cavity, and I've removed the inner and outer (without creasing the aluminum) trim pieces at the base of the window, but I can't see what might be causing the window to bind up.

The window didn't fall down on its own. My wife, who was driving it at the time, told me it was making strange noises for awhile, and yesterday, she rolled it down completely, heard a clunk, and then it wouldn't roll back up. The motor seems to be OK, because if I quickly depress or raise the switch, I get a bit of movement.

But my fundamental problem is that I can't raise the window enough to get a look at the connector pieces that hold the window to the regulator, so I can't see what might be wrong. Ideas? Thanks.

Can you get at the two bolts that hold the window to the regulator?

Can you get snips to the cables from the regulator?

Can you see if the front of the window is still in the track?

Worst case take out the two top bolts. Collapse the regulator in the door and lift window with the regulator enough to get at the two attachement bolts.

Nope - I can't get at the bolts that hold the glass to the regulator, since the window is at the very bottom of its travel. And I'd rather not cut the regulator cables until I'm sure the regulator is bad. I checked, and yes, the front of the window is definitely still in the track, which surprised me.

Your idea to remove the top two bolts and collapse the regulator sounds like it's worth a try. I'll look into that tomorrow. Thanks.

You will be able to collapse a little, depending on the condition of those plastic clips holding the window, so do not force it too hard. As long as the 4 screws holding the regulator to the door are out, you will be able to get wiggle room. Just have some painters tape handy, so that you can tape the window to your door, so that it doesn't drop on you when you lease expect it.

Would there be any harm in simply removing all the bolts that hold the regulator to the door, and then lifting the regulator and window out as a unit? My suspicion is that the regulator is actually OK, and the problem is just that the clips or clips holding the regulator to the window are broken, and in the process of breaking, it caused something to get jammed up in there.

No you won't be able to pull both out at the same time. When you collapse the regulator, you should be able to lift the window up, with regulator, enough to get to those bolts securing the window to it. Once you remove those, you should be able to lift the window all the way up, and tape it to the door. Then you can try to test the regulator.

Thanks; that's very helpful. But the thing that has me worried is how incredibly STUCK the window is. It's like it's somehow jammed up against something inside the door frame. I'm not sure that collapsing the regulator will help get it un-stuck, but I won't know until I try. As you say, I just need to lift it high enough to be able to get at the bolts securing the window to it. I hope I'll have enough time after work tonight to give this a shot.

I have a feeling one of your rollers, or the cable got jammed. That is why I was suggesting reaching in and cutting it.

As far as I can see, the cable looks fine. I can't see the rollers, though. I'm hoping the clips that hold the window to the regulator have broken, and somehow some of the pieces have fallen somewhere and jammed the window. But I won't know until I can get the window rasied far enough to see what's going on.

This happened to me on my 01 E53. Exact same thing. Ended up being on of the clips for the regulator, cable slipped out and bound up on the take-up pulley/roller.

Cut the cables, raise window and tape to hold in place. Replace window regulator and buy a couple of new clips for the window.

So it sounds like the chances of the regulator being OK are pretty remote.

Next question - I noticed a very wide range of prices for regulators, from as low as $30, to well north of $100. Any recommendations as to brand, and source to buy? Thanks.

This is getting massively aggravating. I removed the top two regulator nuts, but can't get the regulator to collapse more than maybe a half-inch. So I removed all the regulator nuts, and am tugging with everything I have on this cursed window, and I can only get it to rock maybe an inch or so. It's still completely stuck in the front, but I can't for the life of me see what it could be stuck on. I've followed the regulator around with a flash light as best I can, and as far as I can tell, the cable is fully intact, and doesn't seem to be wrapped around anything it shouldn't be. In fact, I can't see any evidence of any problem with the regulator, so I'm very reluctant to cut it - I still think it might just be that the clips holding the regulator to the window have broken, and a piece of one of them is wedged between the window and the door frame, or something like that. Any other ideas on how to get this wretched window loose without breaking it? Thanks.

There are 5 bolts total. Did you get all 5. There is one by the speaker too.

How can you tell if it's jammed, what are you looking for? Mine is f88ked today, couldn't see anything wrong with the plastic clip, window move a little, around 15-20mm and that it.

I personally have not had too many failures, but when I did, the cable frayed on me, and was actually stuck inside the tube thing it runs in. Two times this happened to me, I cut the cable right away.

Like mentioned here, you need to cut the regulator cable with some wire clippers and then the window will lift up enough to unscrew all the regular bolts and then tape the window all the way at the top. Remove all the old parts of the regulator and then replace with a new regulator and plastic clips.

I did this exactly this way.

Buy an original BMW regulator from a discount dealer online.

Mine came out today ....

No tangle in the cable, no jammed up .... all looks good except it just won't move, strange. Maybe it's f**ked up in the mechanism.

Well, I can't explain this, but here's what ended up happening:

After struggling for a long time, I decided, against my beter judgment, to see if the motor would drive the window up, knowing there was a risk of burning up the motor if I tried turning it very long against a jammed window. So I held my breath, grabbed the bottom of the window with one hand, and quickly flicked the switch with the other. Lo and behold, the window moved up. In fact, I can raise it almost all the way to the top with the motor.

The reason the motor can now move the window is that while struggling to get the window free, the clip that holds the regulator to the window at the rear popped out of the window. In fact, what looks like the part of the regulator that connects the cable to the clip fell to the bottom of the door frame, so the regulator is definitely toast (I ordered a new one from autohausaz). So, somehow the regulator must have been jammed up in the rear, and once it came loose of the window, the motor can now drive the window up. I still don't understand why I can't move it manually - I don't know anything about how power windows work - I guess the window can't be moved by hand as long as the regulator is connected to the motor.

Once I get the new regulator, I'll hopefully be able to figure out how the whole contraption works, and will hopefully be able to do a post mortem on what happened, so the whole job will be a lot easier the next time one breaks. Also, by comparing the old one to the new one, I'll be able to see exactly where the old one broke, and I'll see if it's possible to reinforce the weak spot, like you can on an E46.

Take pics.

Will do.

Ran into a window problem right at the end of my break during work. Rolled down the window, which always seems to work fine, but when i roll it back up, it gets stuck half way.if i push the switch down the window will go down back more but when i pull the switch up the window won't roll up past a particular point.im guessing something is caught in it?

Same situation here. The glass is stuck at down position. I removed the door panel and tried to lift with my hands, not even an inch. Even with some thing jamming, I would expect some wiggle room. Also, operating the switch, I only hear an short, ie, fraction of a sec on and nothing else.

Cut the wire with bolt cutters and replace the regulator.

Thanks Brit6, that did the job.

So, let me recap for the group. This is on my right (passenger) door. The plastic nut holder worned out. That might been gone bad for a while because both of them are shorter than new. After that, the guide on the right rail was broken so the glass is not being held tightly by the guide. The left guide is still attached to the glass. On the top, the right edge is some-how touching the door carrier internally. Before the fix, when I tried to power sliding up, it would move 1/8 of inch upward and my door handle from outside would pop out a bit.

So, I order a new regulator online and parts arrived today. I cut the long cross wires, and that didn't help because the glass is attached on the left side. The left wire is thicker than the long cross one and I had a hard time cutting it. So, I went to Lowes and bought a heavy duty cable cutter and that did the work. Once the cable is cut, I would be able to slide the guide up. After a bit wiggling, I was able to move up the guide to line up the hole to remove the screw that tied to the glass.

After that, it's down hill a regular regulator replacement like any other.

BTW, the most difficult part of this job is connect the internal door open lever from the panel back to the door. That connector looks easy, but hard for me to align to snap in.

Ok so I think I had the similar issue. My window is stuck down so far I can't roll it up far enough to access the window clip. Which I have a feeling I'd s the culprit. What is your final suggestion?

Good day!!

You do know you revived a thread that is almost two years old... You may get a response from multibeemer... You may not...

In reference to your issue, you may need to remove the motor from the regulator first... If you are sure your regulator is dead, pulling the motor won't matter if the wire rope comes out... You might be able to get to the mounting hardware, but if you can reach the two bolts that mount the glass to the regulator, that would be better...

I have to do some research cause I can't view anything from time to time at work...

Cheers for now!!