DMan7

This post combines some information from prior posts, and hopefully some new info on window removal.

If anyone has recently tried to remove rear door panels, these two posts are very good information:

https://5series.net/forums/topic/295...-panel-removal

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?s=&sho...ost&p=23054

Yesterday I followed the instructions in the 2nd post (last attachment) to remove a rear door panel in my 06 525xi. The window stopped working all of a sudden. It went down and stayed down.

Long story short, the windows us an elaborate bi-directional 2-cable system that simultaneously winds/unwinds to raise and lower the window. I should have taken pictures, but was too lazy to grab my camera. So I'll post a hacked drawing:

http://cid-53792dc2e82c7c6a.photos.l...c/Untitled.jpg

The window motor is attached directly to the spool (green). The spool has two cables attached to it - one that goes to the lower pulley, another that goes to the upper pulley. When the motor turns, it lets out cable on one end and takes it in on the other, thus moving the slider up or down the rail. The slider is made of metal, has a threaded hole in it, and thats what the window (shown in blue) bolts into. This whole assembly - spool, pulleys, slider, and window motor are all bolted/riveted/mounted on a single stamped piece of sheet metal (shown as white rectable with black outline). The assembly has two bolt holes in it, one at the top and bottom, which allows you to remove the assembly from the door. BUT, you must remove the window to remove the assembly.

Once you have the door panels removed, removing the window is simple -

First, remove the horizontal trim piece on the outside of the door - the one that runs the length of the window slot. Just pull straight up on it and it will pop off.

http://cid-53792dc2e82c7c6a.photos.l...ent[2].jpg

Then, pull out the window channel gasket that runs around the window opening. Start at the back of the door. This is just squeezed into place, you can pull that right out as well. No glue here.

http://cid-53792dc2e82c7c6a.photos.l...0%5E52%5E6.jpg

Then, remove the interior plastic trim on the inside of the door. We mostly want to remove the area covering the vertical pillar of the rear window.

http://cid-53792dc2e82c7c6a.photos.l...ent[3].jpg

Once you remove this interior trim, it will expose 3 screws. Undo the screws and remove the vertical metal channel (also seen in the last two photos). Now that the channel is out, unbolt the window from the sliding carrier and slide it out the top. Now you can remove the assembly.

The reason why my window stopped moving is the steel cable came unattached from the sliding carrier, and got all tangled up around the spool - similar to when your fishing line comes off the spool and gets tangled around the mechanism.

Once I removed the window assembly, I could unbolt the window motor from same. The motor has a toothed gear and slides right into the green spool. The hardest part of fixing the window was 'respooling' the steel cables onto the spool and attaching the wires to the carrier, which are mounted with springs into the carrier. You need two sets of hands. I was able to put the cables back into place on the carrier, glue the plastic cover back onto the carrier (which had come off).

When putting the assembly back together, first slide the carrier to the bottom of the rail, then re-attach the motor. You want the carrier at the bottom of its travel to make window installation easy.

Then assembly is the reverse of the above.

Any questions - please post or email.

AchtungE60

Great info. Thanks

NguyenAzn

nam11b

Great write up, my rear window failed today and it looks like I have the exact same problem. I pulled the panel and the wire is wrapped around the spool exactly like you described. Wish me luck! Too bad this has to wait until the weekend to get fixed.

stoic1

No rain in the forecast at least until next week, so no worries there. Good luck.

so.cal1

I had the exact same problem (07 530i) with the cable all wrapped up around the main/center reel. The culprit is the broken plastic clip that holds the two wire cable ends to the fitting that does the lifting/lowering. It is light-blue in color and is about 1.5 in long. Mine broke, and since it was 10:30pm I decided on some judicious use of epoxy adhesive to hold the broken clip in place. If you have not started, you may want to see if you can get some replacement parts ready. I checked realoem but could only trace the parts down to the window lifter 51357184745/746, but could not identify the clip part number. The other tricky part is if your cable ends came out of the fittings like mine did, you have to wind the cables back in, and stretch and install the cable ends back into the fitting. I found that as the fitting tracks down, it comes to rest on a rubber stop. Wind the two cables accordingly, and attach one cable end, so that the fitting come to rest against the rubber stop. Stretch the other end, compressing the springs on the ends, and press hard against the rubber stop. With a little work, you will be able to stretch the cable/compress the springs just enough to push the spring/end into the fitting. From what I can tell, the light blue plastic clip has a slight raise/bump on the bottom side, and act as a spacer to keep the (metal) fitting from grinding against the window lifter track, so I think this part must be installed correctly, to avoid damage to the window lifter main bracket. My window is back together, and I have reset the window to get rid of the "window anti-trap function deactivated" error message, and within 24hrs the epoxy adhesive should give me some peace of mind on the cables staying put. I'll be glad to answer any questions that anyone have on this. Start to end on one door was 5.5 hrs, as I am a newbie, and this was my first time taking the door apart.