[porsche959]

just had my passenger rear regulator break on a e90 sedan.

is this the most common one that breaks? i dont really hear much about the front regulators.

[320IN54]

I feel like the one that isn't used the most breaks. I rarely have passengers in my e90 and the one time I did they opened the window and out went the window regulator. It might be that the regulator seized due to the low usage but that's just my theory.

[smass]

My passenger rear also broke.

[vilord]

I've only had the regulators break on an E46 coupe. Something about the weak plastic bits in the regulator coupled with the window opening and closing itself in jolts while closing and opening the doors.

In my E91 I'm at 161K and 12 years and never a failure. I do open all the windows with relative frequency... so... maybe just use them more?

[Greyfox]

Left rear is the one that broke on me last summer....

[C408]

left rear has broke twice on me. currently the issue its having is it womt roll back up unless I click up lightly a couple times to get it started. need to adjust the tension on it a little better so it doesnt get got at full down.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by vilord

I've only had the regulators break on an E46 coupe. Something about the weak plastic bits in the regulator coupled with the window opening and closing itself in jolts while closing and opening the doors.

In my E91 I'm at 161K and 12 years and never a failure. I do open all the windows with relative frequency... so... maybe just use them more?

So there are two of us...

[mecheng77]

Right passenger rear broke on me during a rain
Storm, on the highway. Under warrante the drivers rear broke, so I’d say both are shit but aftermarket parts are pretty cheap

[mweisdorfer]

Originally Posted by porsche959

just had my passenger rear regulator break on a e90 sedan.

is this the most common one that breaks? i dont really hear much about the front regulators.

Drivers side rear

[Twin_Snails]

I think it's super common in the rear that the window regulator breaks. On my Mom's E90 her passenger rear regulator went out first and within a month the driver side rear passenger regulator also broke LOL.

[Pladi]

Hahahha bmw fans be like. What is the most likely regulator to break. Its not IF one breaks but which one is more likely to break. Thats it that sums e90 reliability. As well as owner trust on this platform. Issues that other car make owners NEVER worry about. Bmw owners discuss not whether it will break but how often.

[Yngvejos]

The least used regulators will probably break first.
I had an e39 touring registered as a cargo van (stupid Norwegian tax rules) with back seats removed and a fixed wall behind the front seats.
Nobody had been sitting in the rear seats for the last 10 years when I hit the wrong button and lowered the rear window instead of the front. The wire snapped and the window fell down inside the door.

[fumigator]

my 07 335i passenger side rear first showed erratic behavior in December. went down and could not convince to go up. after messing around up it went and seemed fine.
then a little over a month later coming down I385 at i85 interchange i hit a bad spot of pavement and first it dropped part way and before i could get off highway dropped all the way. moving door around i could hear the cable rattle around so figured the regulator was broken. ordered up a new, swapped the motor, installed, went through initialization process and works but still see some erratic behavior if i take it all the way down. have lubed the tracks and tried to make sure there does not appear to be any restrictions.. have not had to replace any to date on my 2001 convertible nor my 2000 coupe.

[mecheng77]

Originally Posted by Pladi

Hahahha bmw fans be like. What is the most likely regulator to break. Its not IF one breaks but which one is more likely to break. Thats it that sums e90 reliability. As well as owner trust on this platform. Issues that other car make owners NEVER worry about. Bmw owners discuss not whether it will break but how often.

Dude, what is the point of these types of posts, is your wife not giving you enough attention? Nobody told you to buy one of the most unreliable
BMW models and nobody is forcing you to keep it.

My model is very reliable, drives amazing and is safer than any Japanese
Car for its era. If it wasn’t I would sell it and not post on here. We are here
To help each other out, not continually rant.

[gde061]

Originally Posted by Pladi

Hahahha bmw fans be like. What is the most likely regulator to break. Its not IF one breaks but which one is more likely to break. Thats it that sums e90 reliability. As well as owner trust on this platform. Issues that other car make owners NEVER worry about. Bmw owners discuss not whether it will break but how often.

Not sure what other manufacturer you think are great... I had window regulator fails twice on GM truck-platformed SUV... once passenger front, once driver front. Both cases it happened from shearing force when the window auto-down was interrupted... there were so many design corners cut on that car I would never by anything GM again.

As for Chrysler, their window regulators don't break as much -- they just leak around the seals and get ice jams.

The question to ask is how many of these regulator failures happened with regular maintenance of the window seals?

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by mecheng77

Dude, what is the point of these types of posts, is your wife not giving you enough attention? Nobody told you to buy one of the most unreliable
BMW models and nobody is forcing you to keep it.

My model is very reliable, drives amazing and is safer than any Japanese
Car for its era. If it wasn’t I would sell it and not post on here. We are here
To help each other out, not continually rant.

I have helped more people than u have. I have helped u too on ur posts. So don't go there because u have no cards.

And don't get personal because you know nothing about me. Maybe ur offering ur wife ? Is that what ur doing. So that kind of talk is low life. When you try to offend with no information that's like 5 year old talk.

And third I am voicing my opinion. Share ur experience... That's all.

[phillycx]

I had my rear passenger regulator break, but this was because my daughter kept pushing it down when it was trying to pop up. Kids!! If that weren't the case I assume I would've gotten many more years out of it. All of the other regulators are original to the car and I'm at 109,000 miles.

[gde061]

Originally Posted by phillycx

I had my rear passenger regulator break, but this was because my daughter kept pushing it down when it was trying to pop up. Kids!! If that weren't the case I assume I would've gotten many more years out of it. All of the other regulators are original to the car and I'm at 109,000 miles.

After pulling doors apart for the repair, I now have turned into that grumpy dad who yells at the kids -- stop playing with the windows or you'll break them. It's like we've gone backwards in time. My wife thinks I'm being an ass, but I tell her: you want to spend the weekend taking the door apart and putting it back together? Which might be why I can't talk to her about car stuff and I like to come on forums like this for a laugh or two and maybe learn something! Honestly, I ask how many men would prefer to listen to the wife jabber on about her new purse and who she saw at the hair-dresser than read about engine tear downs and cars blowing up?!

[335ivin]

Originally Posted by smassey321

My passenger rear also broke.

Mine broke last week, fixed it this week

[delmarco]

Originally Posted by smassey321

My passenger rear also broke.

YUP! It is always that rear right side passenger window to break first!!!!!

[hassmaschine]

None here on either of our E9x's, mine all work just fine. I don't think this is a super common issue, although obviously it's possible.

E46 regulators were so bad, people would keep spare sets in the garage because they only lasted a couple years.

The old scissor lift style are better though. Well, better in that they never, ever break - all 4 regulators on my E30 are original and all 4 still work after nearly 30 years. They must have cost more to make though because all BMWs have used the cable style for a long time now.

[tisdrew]

Both rear regulators have broken on mine. Everyone I've spoken with in person who has had a regulator go out, it has been one of the rear ones.