body and interior Rubber Seals

[cbesing]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with the after market vs. OEM rubber? Seems to be big difference in cost, depending on the supplier. Is this a get what you pay for deal?

Thank you

[Stevenc22]

I installed the aftermarket door seals at first, wasn't quite happy and ended up replacing them with BMW OEM. I have over $700 invested in door seals.

 

In retrospect, the OEM door seals were very nice, but the aftermarket ones weren't bad and fit fine. In retrospect probably not worth me changing from aftermarket to OEMs.

[Mike Self]

No experience with aftermarket door gaskets, but I had a bad experience with an aftermarket windshield gasket--glass shop broke two windshields and tried four aftermarket gaskets before I was able to persuade them to have a factory gasket overnighted to their shop...it fit perfectly.  

 

mike

[Raccoon]

I've only heard positive feedback about OEM rubber. With that said, I purchased every last bit of rubber about a year ago for my '72tii with the exception of the door seals which were NLA at the time. (Not sure if they are anymore.) So, I went with URO brand. I have yet to try them out but all I heard is that they are a bit stiffer than OEM and don't close with a gentle close of the door.

[BLUNT]

There are a million threads and as many opinions on this.  Some seals arent repro'd in aftermarket so you have to get OE BMW ie rear 1/4 and front vent seals as well as B pillar seals. BMW redesigned the door seals and they are nice. They are also very expensive. Many people have good luck with the URO windshield gaskets but we also sell at least 2 pairs a week to replace URO windshield seals from customers who arent happy. Id suggest doing a lot of reading on this board and then making an educated purchase based on what works for you

[AceAndrew]

I agree with Blunt on IE's front.  Do a lot of looking and make your descision carefully.  As opposed to Mike, I had URO front and rear window seals go in perfectly by a competant local glass guy. 

 

What is interesting is we have seen undocumented variations from car to car back when our predominant business was building race cars for customers.  Meaning one car's body lines around the windshield were different from another car sitting next to it.  This could be chalked up to tolerance ranges when the 2002's were coming off the assembly line.  Opposed to popular desire, the checking on a manufacturing scale was just not as precise as today. 

[LarsAlpina]

For Germany even the expensive OEM BMW door seals have been bad for quite a while. Bit too thick and way too hard.

 

New series now in production and for sale and those should be better again according to what I´ve been told and have seen.

 

Best regards, Lars.

[02fanatic]

Back when I restored Hugo (my very early '72tii) in 2000 to 2004+ I bought new door seals from BMW....I didn't buy one after market piece for the entire restoration.  The door seals are HORRIBLE!  They've been on the car for about 10 years and still are too hard...slamming the door makes me sick, and the alignment looks bad when closed....they were lined up fine until the gaskets went in.  I certainly hope BMW has gotten their act together on these seals, but I'm not holding my breath!  My mostly original '73tii still has one original gasket and a replaced one (back when they were made properly), and the old gasket is staying on there! :-) 

 

John

Edited December 6, 2013 by 02fanatic

[cbesing]

Thanks for all the replays. If I go aftermarket, it seems that URO is the company. Any others I should consider? Do some do certain seals better than others?

Chris