Tinting the windows

[Dusterbd]

Went to do my window tint yesterday, and ran into an issue. Theres essentially weatherstripping the whole way around the inside of the glass on the doors, that overlaps the glass by roughly an inch. Creased a bunch of tint trying to work around it.
Is there a preferred method (other than paying the man) to tint these cars? Been doing all my own tint for years, and this is a first for me.
Does this weatherstripping come out? If so, how?

[1823alex]

Went to do my window tint yesterday, and ran into an issue. Theres essentially weatherstripping the whole way around the inside of the glass on the doors, that overlaps the glass by roughly an inch. Creased a bunch of tint trying to work around it.
Is there a preferred method (other than paying the man) to tint these cars? Been doing all my own tint for years, and this is a first for me.
Does this weatherstripping come out? If so, how?

Why not pull off the door panel & remove the glass from the car to do it so you get a perfect tint job? While you have the door panel off and window out you should replace window regulators as well if your windows make clicking or crunching / cracking noises while rolling them up or down.

The whole pane of glass comes out with 2 bolts from the window regulator track & then you pull it out of the door upwards at a slight angle.

[Dusterbd]

I honestly have never even pulled the door panels on one of these. I had planned to do the right rear window when i did the regulator (dead). Is tgere a good YouTube video for the front glass? I like this idea.....

[1823alex]

I honestly have never even pulled the door panels on one of these. I had planned to do the right rear window when i did the regulator (dead). Is tgere a good YouTube video for the front glass? I like this idea.....

I believe it's mostly the same procedure regardless of front or back.

Fairly simple, just pop cover off the screw behind the door handle and then carefully pull panel off with a pry tool or something, then disconnect wires and switches, set door panel aside. Take off any speakers or anything screwed in the way (there's an air bag for the front 2 for sure, and possible air bags in the same spot for the rear 2 depending on if your car was optioned with rear side air bags or not.) You'll need to disconnect the battery when removing them for safety imo & likely will need to clear the SRS error you may or may not get later on. Then just pull back the vapor barrier, have somebody hold & pull the glass out while you loosen the 2 bolts & optionally replace the regulator while you're at it.

For the regulators I just went with the cheap $25 ones from "GermanPartSaver" on eBay, I went with the ones that don't include motors since mine were fine & I just transplanted them over to the new regulators. However if one of your windows is really having trouble or is slower than others I'd recommend a new motor as well which brings the regulator to like $45.

Unfortunately I burned my driver window motor a bit and now it's at least 30% slower than the rest of the windows & using comfort closing the sunroof closes before the driver window

[computiNATEor]

Check out NewTIS.info for good instructions for all sorts of basic and advanced maintenance tasks.

[geargrinder]

I believe it's mostly the same procedure regardless of front or back.

Fairly simple, just pop cover off the screw behind the door handle and then carefully pull panel off with a pry tool or something, then disconnect wires and switches, set door panel aside. Take off any speakers or anything screwed in the way (there's an air bag for the front 2 for sure, and possible air bags in the same spot for the rear 2 depending on if your car was optioned with rear side air bags or not.) You'll need to disconnect the battery when removing them for safety imo & likely will need to clear the SRS error you may or may not get later on. Then just pull back the vapor barrier, have somebody hold & pull the glass out while you loosen the 2 bolts & optionally replace the regulator while you're at it.

Baaah. Disconnecting battery is for old lady worrywarts. Shouldn't get an airbag code unless you turn the iggywig switcher on.

Let me add couple tips you missed alex:

After the screw comes off the door handle you take the handle off the cable. EDIT: normally I don't do that until the whole panel is loose, tho maybe you can remove the handle from cable while its still in the door...

There's a sneaky little SOB screw hiding inside the defroster vent that has to come out too.

Once the screws are out and trim retainers all 'popped' and the panel is loose, you slide it upward (not pull out) first. The top edge is a tight secure fit in the trim strip along the window edge so you have to dislodge this and it can take a bit of ooomph sometimes. There's also a big slide-lock clip kind of situation directly behind the door grab handle that disengages as you slide the panel up. This is why the door doesn't need a couple massive securing screws like just about every other carmaker uses behind the door grab-handle. That won't cause you a problem, I'm just assplainin how come there ain't any big screws holding the handle on, and you want to know about that for when the panel goes back on and youre trying to:
1. get the top edge secure in the trip strip
2. engage that grab-handle bit
3. keep all the snap clips from falling out and get them to line up with their proper holes

This makes it sound harder than it is tho'. Its not a big deal.

Just googled this for you...
https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...el_Removal.htm

[computiNATEor]

Let me also say that the E39's door panels are very well made; they will go back on as they came off, unlike the Caravan my family used to have or my Camry (the only other cars I've removed door panels from).