1997 E320. My right side rear window will not go up or down. I can push it up with my hand. How do you access the window regulator?

JN

 

You need to unscrew the inside panel, basically the inside of the entire door, to reveal the mechanics. Then you need to drill out the three steel rivets to free the old regulator. Then you need a rivet gun and rivets from Home Depot (or similar) to attach the new regulator (bought from a number of online sources at about $60), then reassemble.

Full pictorial over on the W210 section of benzworld.org

 

The MB "steel" rivets require a beefy rivet gun that most don't have in their tool box; I found it easier to use small SS screws, nuts, lock washers and loctite.

The cheapo eBay regulators (Chinese?) don't last as long as OEM units do....

 

TM - i've used screw method as well. we know that the OEM units do not
last that long....so the aftermarket versions are even more failure prone, eh?

 

My aftermarket units were found to be identical in side by side comparison. The point of failure is the cheap plastic pulley at the top, which is the same OEM or aftermarket. So it's not a question of aftermarket being cheaper than stock, it is a matter of stock being cheap in the first place.

I got 5 or 6 years on the OEM before it snapped, and the cheap aftermarket unit has been working fine for the past 5 years or so.

You don't need steel OEM rivets, the aluminum ones from Home Depot, coupled with a HD basic rivet gun, will fasten the new regulator just fine.

 

Easy Job, do it yourself. I used the aluminum rivets from HD as well. I think on Youtube.com you can watch a video of this repair.

 

The $54 variety I got from eBay lasted almost 2 years......prob is that no uses that rear window; after ~20 uses it tore itself apart.