The automatic window doesn't want to close the last inch or so without a little tug on the glass. Is this a case of the motor on its last legs?

On a ot of cars after four years or so the lube hardens in the window track and mechanism. I would lube the rubber with rubber lube and take the door panel off and clean and relube the tracks. You have to remove the panel anyway to replace the motor and one relubes the tracks for installation so you lose nothing if you try it. On most cars just lube fixes it.

What kind of rubber lube?

Where do you get this?

Silicon lube or greese work?

and I get it from my BMW dealer. Around here in CA most auto parts stores sell thier own version. Just go in and ask them. The window mechanism that is metal should be lubricated with a good grease that stays put. Again most auto parts stores sell something that will do the job. The stuff I use is called white moly lube and seems to have a life of a few years before hardening.

I also use the moly lube on all my hinges and locks, with the exception of the lock cylinders. For that I use a specialized lock lube available from lock smiths.

What kind of rubber lube?

Where do you get this?

Silicon lube or greese work?

Just got back from the hardware store and it seems like Silicone spray (by Gunk) would do the trick for the rubber and white lithium grease for parts metal. Any objections?

down on silicon. But these days it's in everything. The only reason I don't use it on the BMW are that the seals are very expensive and convertible roof can leak easily if the seals dry out. Gummi expands them.

Anything that will lube them will probably work and the silicon can help to keep the windows from freezing shut.

If you are about to paint the car be very careful where you get the silicon as it can cause bubbles in paint and be hard to remove.

I don't recomend WD40 becuse it really was designed to be a penetrant and doesn't stick around and lube long. We used to spray it on truck roller doors weekly which is more often that I want to bother.

Honda has a product called shinitsu grease, not quite sure of the spelling.

 

works great, I keep a tube with me at all times.

or does each local area get its own supplier? Sometimes Subaru reminds me of Will Rodgers classic line "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat."

I would suspect the regulator, they bend and bind and then the window can either not go up all of the up or go up crooked.

Gummiphledge = rubber-care

but if you catch it when it just starts to bind you can lube it. You could also bend the regulator if you let it freeze with no lube on it.

Setright, thanks for the German lesson. I knew rubber was gummi but had no idea what pfledge was.

Interesting topic for a 7 year old thread. Must say I learned a lot from this,

I have sprayed white lithium grease in the window tracks, and that has worked well, if it is simply a binding problem.

I used wheel bearing grease, because that was the last thing I'd done. I had it sitting around... Passenger side window in my GL***went from not wanting to go all the way up to doing so very happily.