Passenger Window DEAD

R

Rui725

Member
Hello everyone,

I know i know, first thing I should do is search the forum, and indeed i did. Found a post that was "similar" but not exactly the same as mine so I made a topic anyways. This afternoon i went into a parking lot in the city, very busy day, lots of cars, just annoying in general. Parked by car, then the owner of a ford to the right of me comes walking towards my car with a computer stereo system in his arms. I saw him, thought to myself, you better not *f'ing* hit my car or else i will keel you, then he went ahead and his box hit my passenger side mirror. I thought, "no big deal, just a small nudge, what harm can that possibly do?" To my astonishment, my passenger side window suddenly malfunctions. The motor to the window still works, since i can hear the sound, but it just doesn't move. At first, when i press up, the window goes down at a random speed, and same happens when i press up, it will go down instead. The other posts on this forum said that it is possibly a window regulator malfunction, but my question is, how is it that a small nudge on the passenger side rear view window possibly cause this kind of problem?

-Rui725
 
Its a 2003 model, factory date I am not sure of, perhaps 4th quarter 2002.

So, 6 years?

It was squeaking a lot as of late before this total meltdown. It was given a some oiling but the squeaking came back eventually. The window is movable by hand. Which, is a good and bad thing. The window will even move down with the doors locked...

edit:
i looked through the real oem, but could not figure out which item is actually the "regulator". if anyone knows, would you kindly point me to the right direction so i can get an idea of how much i'm going to be shelling out. (according to the other posts, appro. 100 USD or more).
 
It's the regulator, don't keep pressing up and down cos the cables inside the door skin will start to wrap round things and continued use could put too much load on the motor and cause it to burn out. I doubt it was the box hitting the window that actually caused the problem, it's more than likely just caused the problem to come to a head. Regulator would have went sooner or later.
 
regulator and clips problem

a common problem for the Z4

my window regulator for both sides also had premature failure back in 04 or 05.

a symptom before complete failure (wont move anymore) is squeaking.

if your windows are loose (can be pulled up by hand without much force about a few cms then your clips are busted and needs replacement.

don't worry they're easy fixes as long as you have money to buy the parts and your shop knows what its doing.

if i may add, make sure the inner door membrane is resealed properly or leaks WILL occur :wink:
 
It was an indie garage that fixed it for me. When opening up the door panel i did realize the foam covering stuck to the door with some gum material. unfortunately i was not there when they placed it back on, but i trust on them for putting it back on. It cost me about 90USD to fix without buying a new regulator. A new regulator where i live is double what is listed on real oem. The shop did some engineering and made a replacement for the broken part. The local BMW dealers here are very greedy and I have a tendency of not bringing my car there. Everytime i bring it there for small maintenance such as oil change oil change, my bill comes out tremendous because they said "other" problems needed to be fixed without fully:
1. authorizing with me. And when I ask them why, they said its a "must fix" or else you will die kind of deal.
2. explaining what the problem is. The print outs are all in traditional Chinese and unfortunately my comprehension of it is weak. So now, I read this forum everyday to learn more about the z4, so I don't get cheated out of my money. Plus, i imported the car from the US myself a few years back, and the local distributor hates people like me, because they don't get a slice of their pie.
Cars like the z4 are a rarity in Taiwan, from a car logistic catalog only 12 were sold in 2008. 2nd hand and new car prices are easily double of what is seen in Europe and the US. Gas is a at a good stable price though, but I wish there were more places to drive to honestly. I've been trying to devise a way to upgrade to a M from my 2003 model, but the draconian import laws, especially on "luxury items" like bmw's, porsche's, mercedes and such are impossible to avoid without getting jailed and tax is exceptionally high. Anyways, enough of my ramble, not sure why I ended up bitching about import taxes.
 
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