Save $500 on new door seals

[av8r4aa]

I have air leaky door seals on my 635. Seems like on all these cars
the air leaks on the vertical B pillar window. The front and top areas are
water and air leak free. I have figured out how to save the 250 dollar cost
of new door seals. on the vertical portion of the door seal is a aft facing
rubber flap that seals up the window to the rubber. On all the cars that
I have owned and driven, that is where the air leaks out causing air noise
at highway speed. Over time the flat rubber gets mashed down and
no longer makes contact with the glass.

For 6 dollars I have fixed that problem.
You will need 3 feet of surgical rubber tubing. I found mine
on a spool at Lowes for 2 bucks a foot.

Cut the section in half making 2 equal length tubes.

Open the door and see where the rubber flap is supposed to contact the window. If you pull out on the flap, you expose the rubber "tube" that is
designed to be flexible to push the flat rubber against the glass.

I made a small 1 inch slit at the where there is already a crease.
That allows you to fish the rubber tubing down the channel to increase
the volume.
I did not have any trouble fishing mine in. If you do, perhaps tying off
The lower end of the tubing and using a 2 foot length of weed wacker line
to push the rubber tubing into place.

The amount of expansion is not very much, but enough to now make contact
with the glass and seal off any unwanted air leaks"

I have been through rain and car washes and there have been no leaks and the
wind noise is gone.

Will try to take a picture to add to this post.


Cliff note posting.

3 feet of surgical tubing,
1 razor blade.
2 feet weed whacker string
LOWES hardware store.

[AdamBath]

Damn, I'm gonna have to look into this. Where did you buy the tubing?

[Mike323i]

If I'm following you, I took a similar approach to 'fluffing up' my seals.
Rather than try to puff up the body, I worked on the lip itself that seals against the window. I went behind it with some 1/2" x 10mil UHMW polyethylene tape from McMaster-Carr. It's translucent and pretty stiff, so when folded in half and wedged behind the lip seal, it pushed it out enough to seal against the window again.

[Rapido5]

I have been through rain and car washes and there have been leaks and the
wind noise is gone.

Will try to take a picture to add to this post.

I'm hoping you mean there have been NO leaks.
Would love to see pics. Sounds like a good fix.

I have to tell you when I first saw the thread title I thought you were doing a group buy :)

[Gunz635]

Yes please do take lots of pics if you can, cause i have a major air leakage and would love to fix that issue. thanks :)
I have air leaky door seals on my 635. Seems like on all these cars
the air leaks on the vertical B pillar window. The front and top areas are
water and air leak free. I have figured out how to save the 250 dollar cost
of new door seals. on the vertical portion of the door seal is a aft facing
rubber flap that seals up the window to the rubber. On all the cars that
I have owned and driven, that is where the air leaks out causing air noise
at highway speed. Over time the flat rubber gets mashed down and
no longer makes contact with the glass.

For 6 dollars I have fixed that problem.
You will need 3 feet of surgical rubber tubing. I found mine
on a spool at Lowes for 2 bucks a foot.

Cut the section in half making 2 equal length tubes.

Open the door and see where the rubber flap is supposed to contact the window. If you pull out on the flap, you expose the rubber "tube" that is
designed to be flexible to push the flat rubber against the glass.

I made a small 1 inch slit at the where there is already a crease.
That allows you to fish the rubber tubing down the channel to increase
the volume.
I did not have any trouble fishing mine in. If you do, perhaps tying off
The lower end of the tubing and using a 2 foot length of weed wacker line
to push the rubber tubing into place.

The amount of expansion is not very much, but enough to now make contact
with the glass and seal off any unwanted air leaks"

I have been through rain and car washes and there have been leaks and the
wind noise is gone.

Will try to take a picture to add to this post.

[BMarshallW]

Yup - I want to fix too. Passenger side does this- Pictures needed for sure. I'm almost completely visual.

[av8r4aa]

To see where you have an air leak, use a very thin paper such
as a receipt tape or a dollar bill and slam it between the window and the
door. You can slide it up and down and where you have a gaps there
will be no tension.
I had a gap before the repair and now the window has good contact.

I found a roll of the surgical tubing at Lowes, Home Deposit only had it in bulk.
You will need 3 feet of tubing.
Maybe more if you have other areas to puff up.

[eric1ono]

Nice!!! Thanks for the tip. Will have to add it to the weekend todo list!

Eric

[mauryc]

I am glad someone tried this. I came to the same conclusion staring at my car one day. I said " I bet something stuck up in that vertical section of the seal to make it a little more round to touch the window would do the trick". I should have trademarked it!! :)

Good job.

Maury

[Mike323i]

Can also wet the seal, and with the door closed it will be very visible where the seal is contacting the glass and where it is not.

[Flash635]

I've tried to buy surgical rubber before and have been unable to find it anywhere. Probably so junkies can't just go and buy it.

I was thinking of using pipe insulating foam if it comes in a small enough diameter.

[anthony duane]

This is a great fix. I am also visual and need pictures.
Anthony

[Flash635]

Maybe you can use compressed air to inflate the seal to get it going.
I just had a look at mine, if you didn't know better you'd think it was moulded from the factory.

[Mayers]

Bump.... helpful

[Layne]

For what it's worth, door seals are much cheaper curently than they used to be. Don't overlook buying new ones.

[mauryc]

$246.64 for drivers side from getbmwparts (BMW of Silver Spring).

[Gunz635]

Hello Avr84aa,
Please can you post some pics of your work. would really like to see how it turned out. thanks

[Mayers]

I too would love to see some pictures of how this works. Thanks!

[probiz]

Pictures please! I'm having the same problem with wind noise.

[av8r4aa]

Hey guys,
I don't have my 6 nearby.
Easiest way to visualize this:

1) close door with window up.
2) look at contact point on "B" pillar where window seals.
3) slide rubber tubing behind area of contact.
4) start a incision on backside of contact point and feed in rubber tube.

FYI I did this mod and it kinda worked.
I ended up just buying new door gaskets.

[e30luv318i]

Wow! Great info! Mines nice and sealed but for futre reference can you post a pic of what the new tube looks like ?

[mauryc]

What's the diameter of the surgical tubing? Was at HD yesterday and didn't see any.