After the 2nd time of wondering why my ds window won't go, I decided to investigate,as warranty is passed. For those mechanically talented, here is what I found. Remove door cover for access. Remove 4 torx screws to remove window motor assy. Must unplug connector for access to rear most screw. Remove motor commutator from casing. Clean burned commutator/brush area w/fine emery paper. Clean brushes with alcohol to remove window regulator grease, reassemble and test. Voila! It works like a charm. I suspect the cause was grease from the regulator assy. getting on the brushes due to the vertical orientation of the motor. We will see what the long term result is with this fix. 60,102 miles with no major issues so far. This was it! Hope it helps some of you! Carl

 

Thanks for that info, Carl! Occasionally, Wanda's windows shimmy on being raised. I will show this post to hubby, a talented mechanic!


Clover

 

Great info Carl,,, Thanks a Bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you Carl for the insight. I just finished the job. Here are a few more details to make this job just a bit easier to understand and undertake.

1. Remove Door panel.
2. Remove lower speaker.
3. Hopefully the window is fully raised to make room to work.
4. Unclip the wiring harness pins into the door for the wire that leads to the motor. This give some slack to work with the plug.
5. Squeeze the narrow sides of the plug on the window motor and pull.
6. The 4 torx screws that Carl mentions are the 4 that hold the motor body to the plastic gearbox. These are T-25 headed screws. Work them all out.
7. Pull the plastic collar on top of the metal motor housing down with the motor housing. Wiggle back and forth to get the commutator helical gear shaft to disengage from the gear in the gearbox. Keeping the commutator, the plastic bit on top with the brushes together with the metal housing will keep you from having to chase the brushes back into their slots.
8. Clean as Carl suggests. If the three bits get apart, it is kind of fussy to put the brushes back onto the commutator shaft. You can pull the plastic pins that hold the springs in so you are not fighting with the springs as you try to reassemble the brush assembly. Plastic pins just clip back into place.
9. Reassembly is the reverse.

Not sure how long this will work, as there was not much evidence of debris in my housing. Just some fine powder dust.

Thanks again to Carl.

 

I'm a little lost at steps 4 to 6.
4. Unclip the wiring harness pins into the door for the wire that leads to the motor. This give some slack to work with the plug.
5. Squeeze the narrow sides of the plug on the window motor and pull.
AM I PULLING THE PLUG FOR THE WIRE LEADING TO THE MOTOR? dOES THIS REMOVE IT FROM MOTOR?
6. The 4 torx screws that Carl mentions are the 4 that hold the motor body to the plastic gearbox. These are T-25 headed screws. Work them all out.
HOW DO I GET TO THESE SCREWS WITHOUT PULLING OUT THE REST OF THE WINDOW DRIVE MECHANISM??

 

Doug,

This is a fussy job and I will try to help you as best I can without photos.

Step 4 is intended to loosen the wire leading to the motor so it has some slack for you to unclip the connector at the motor and pull the wire (including the plug) away from the motor. The wire is clipped to the inside of the door with plastic bits that can be easily pushed into the door interior from your working point.

Once the wire is loose, then you have to pull the plug away from the motor. This will give you access to all four torx scews. Like most electrical fasteners on the MINI you have to release the locks to get the male part of the plug to separate from the female socket on the motor. Squeeze and pull and now you have the wire out of the way.

I put a flouresceint shop llight in the door and used an inspection mirror to see what is going on, as you are separating the motor from the gearbox, whilst not disturbing the gearbox or the regulator assembly (what you termed window drive mechanism). You are doing surgery on the motor while it is still in the door.

It is a daunting job but since I figured at worst if I screwed up the motor I would be replacing the entire motor and gearbox assembly, which does require partially or fully removing the window regulator assembly.

So lots of light and a mirror will at least show you what I was attacking.

Now a week later the window motor is still working but I have a new motor in a box on the shelf just in case.

drkane

 

Thanks DRKANE:

Thanks for the clarification. After removing the door panel I was preparing to remove the window motor. I decided to try the "Fonzi" trick one last time and it worked. So I put the panel back on and will wait for the next time window to stops operating.

How much was the new motor?

Doug

 

You can look up parts diagrams at www.reealoem.com/bmw
I ordered from www.bimmerspecialist.com one of their advertisers and the motor was $92.99 (BMW list is $100.18).

drkane

 

just a heads up.
BMW's have had faulty window motors since the begining of time. Even under warenty BMW dealers in germany just bang on the door to get the bugger moving again.
The big issue is getting the motor/guts out of the door to disassemble and clean

 

So I've got the door panel off and the window working again (for now)- excellent.

However, I cannot seem to get the door lock "operating rod" (#5 below) aligned when I put the door panel back on. This is the little part that sticks up through the door so you can see if it's locked or not, which seems kind of pointless item anyway, since you cannot really use it to lock/unlock the door. When I reassemble, there is some binding that prevents it from unlocking. Any thoughts? I've had the panel on/off many times, and the frustration is mounting...

 

Your point about functionality is right on.
I had the same type of problem with my wife's mini van. I took the lock rod out. That was 4 years ago and no problems.
Not sure if it is a fair comparison to the MINI because I have not take a look inside the door yet, but I would think you can just leave the rod out.

 

I did not have any problems with the lock rod, although it has been some time since I had the door apart. I seem to remember hanging the top edge on the frame of the door and alinging the rod at that time.

Sorry I cannot be more specific.

Damon

 

I took my window motor apart and cleaned as detailed here about two weeks ago and everything has been wonderful ever since. Greased up the regulator slides while I was in there and it moves faster than the other one now!


vitaminC: I didn't actually finish in one evening and had to drive to work the next morning without the interior panel replaced; the lock rod was flopping around so I took it out. With that goofy shape it took me a little while to figure out how to put it back in: it looked to me with all those bends like it should go outside the regulator, but it does not. It goes INSIDE the regulator and inserts pointing 90 degrees, toward the interior of the car.

 

Could this be why my windows don't go down once in a while when opening the doors? Still work fine with switches, but won't lower that .5" or so and get hung up on the drip rail(?) when closing doors.

 

<sarcasm>you guys suck.</sarcasm> #1 should be, "wack door where window motor is located. if that does not work, remove door panel..." I discovered this only after trying to remove the motor casing for 3 hours. 45 minutes were spent trying to remove the wiring assembly from the motor. In my frustration, i tried the "Fonzy Method" and it worked. Anyways, I've uploaded some pictures for reference.

 

this was an excellent source to get my window fixed, however I can add a few pieces of advice. My car is an 06 and my window was stuck down. The motor is held in by 3-3mm allen screws and the clip is an impossible POS to get off, but there is a trick. I am also going to walk through cleaning the commutator and putting the motor back together.

So from my first picture you see the motor with the yellow connector to the side. to get your fingers on both sides of that clip while it is still attched is near impossible. I wedged a #2 Phillips screwdriver between the motor can and the clip to press the inner clip. Then use your fingers to get the outer clip, pull on the wire and there you go.. I got the clip off once with my fingers, not sure how though.

Next you notice the 3-3mm screws holding the motor in. When your window is stuck in the down position the easiest way to get these out is to move the window rails. Undo the 2-10 mm bolts on the bottom of the door and there are two more at the top, one behind the lock rod and the other behind the tweeter, both are covered by plastic caps. I also took the inner and outer weather stripping off of the top of the door to give me a little more wiggle room. Grab your window through the middle of the door lift up and slide it towards the outside of the door. Now the allen screws are a lot easier to reach. Reach up and grab the motor and pull down. Be firm the gears could be bound since it is stuck but it won't hurt it. Once the motor is out you can pull your window up to get even more room.

Now you have the motor out. you need to take apart the motor, first you have to remove the leads from the connector to the motor. There is not much extra wire so use your soldering iron to remove them. On the pic below I marked where to pry the plastic cap away from the can. No need to remove the worm gear you will have enough room to work. Clean the commutator with some emory cloth and electrical contact cleaner, then reassemble the motor. Using a punch and a hammer reattach the cap to the can at the marked areas. Resolder the leads back on then put everything back the way you found it...

 

!

 

This thread is awesome.

The window is dead on my 04 MCS, and i'm going to attempt this repair myself.

For anyone else that needs some electric window repair information, I also found this handy how-to: http://www.z50ak1.com/mini/default.htm.

 

Hey all, In the effort to be up front about my experience, I have been doing just fine with the cleaned out commutator that I did almost a year ago, until about two weeks ago. It seems that the warmer temperature moves the plastic debris around inside the window motor unit to cause the unit to stop.

I am so busy with work and my limited diversions that I did not want to take the time to clean again, or install the new motor that I have sitting on the shelf waiting to be used. So...bang. I have been using the "bang the door panel above the speaker" method (AKA "Fonzi" Method). I have to do this every day, or every three days, but for now it is easier than digging into the door!

I'm sure I'll have to get back into it sometime soon.

Damon

 

All previous posts are really helpful, but there are cases where the clean and replace just won't work.

FYI, I just replaced both the window regulator (lift mechanism) and the motor when mine stopped working(2003 Cooper). In hindsight, in my case it was only the motor that needed to be replaced. I saw today (7-27-09) that there was a used motor for sale on eBay for $.99 from another person who replaced a working motor, but only needed the regulator! Dang - I could have saved over $100!

 

Well, banging on the door just stopped working. So I installed the new motor I bought last year. The job went well. The advice on this web page and referenced by this page is good. I decided to make my own tool to take out the star shaped fasteners that hold the glass in place. I used a piece of paper to get the outline of the teeth and then bent a 1/8 inch thick rod into a tool and it worked very well. So I guess I am ready for next time.

DRKane

 

Anyone have windows that squeal when they are raised or lowered? How do I fix this...? It's driving me crazy!

 

Yep, I had this problem too, and also a bit of jeddering when the window was operated. Basically the window is mounted to two plastic blocks that run up and down in two steel channels. When the lubricant gets wiped away or dirt mixes with the lubricant that was oringinally installed you get this noise and juddering.

A friend of mine is a MINI mechanic and recommended a product called "Miracle Lube". This is a spray type lubricant that comes out with low viscosity (so it is runny) and then after a few moments it becomes more viscous. This change over is useful as you can squirt the stuff in at the top of the track and run the window down and it will distribute nicely, then turn to a more solid form and stay in place.

This proudct contains PTFE (teflon). I checked a local hardware store and found some spray lubricants that contain teflon. The two critial features should be compatiblity with plastic and medium viscosity.

The viscosity change over feature of the Miracle Lube is not necessary if you take the entire window regulator assembly out of the door (for example if you are changing the motor). Otherwise the limited access to the tracks through the door opening (with inteior trim removed) makes the viscosity change over feature really nice.

I had to order the Miracle Lube off the interet. The product has the "As seen on TV label" on it. I had to buy 2 cans, a lifetime supply. Now that I know what it's essential features are, I think you could find a similar product like 3M Spray Lube more easily.

Good luck.

Damon Kane

 

Not that I have this problem YET, but wanted to say thanks to everyone for contributing, love these DIY's and this is one to add to my Fav's for future reference. Thanks again

 

After I posted that, I ran down to the auto parts store and described my window situation along with my squeaky sunroof. The "specialist" showed me a product (Dry Lube with PTFE) by CRC and is used for marine situations as well as autos. Since I am in AZ. he said that the common lubes dont work too well for high heat and they just collect debris and dust. Hopefully it works like I want it to. The squeak and squeal is annoying and driving me mad!


As far as a DIY information, it would be nice to have everything consolidated into one source instead of having to search and search for the "right" information. During my search sessions I ran across this site that may be very helpful: http://www.soopercooperinfo.com/

I rely on this site more and more as time progresses and "situations" occur. So far it has been quite accurate.