Power Window Troubles

TheNuthing

Registered User
OK. Heres the deal. My drivers-side power window stopped working a while ago. I dont know if its the motor that stopped working or what, but thats my first guess. I decided to open the door up to check everything out, but I cant really understand how to get all the trim panels off without breaking them. I have a book, but it shows a screw that isnt there. Im sure I can get it off, but im nervous about wrecking my interior. Any experianced advice would really be appreciated.

I am also curious about the difficulty of replacing the window motor. The book i have said that it should be left to professionals because of special procedures and whatnot. I have no idea how much that would cost to have done, but the motor alone is around $ 90.00.

Any walk-throughs, links, pictures, etc. would really help. Its getting to be summer and i need my window to roll down!

Thanks in advance.
 
door panel

Sometimes the screw is hard to see, and sometimes its not there, been removed and not replaced. The most important thing to remember when taking the panel off is to lift up on the panel after everything is disconected. If you pull out like you would on a normal door panel you will break the tabs. Lift up and then out. The first thing to check on the window is if it came out of the clips. This has happened to two of my 3 scs'. If this is what it is I suggest you take it to a glass shop to be fixed. It only cost me $15 for each dooor to have them take out the glass clean it and replace the glue. Bring it with the panel off and it should be cheap if thats what it is.
Good luck.
Ed
 
There are 3 screws holding the panel on the door. bottom left corner, behind the arm rest, and on a black trim piece top right. Take the arm rest cover off; unscrew the connector; take out the three screws; pull the door handle out and pry the bottom (or is it the top :confused: look for the 2 plastic flat edges which fit into 2 small metal sleeves and pull them straight out.) of the hande cup out and tilt up to clear the handle and then pull it down and off. Then grab the bottom of the door panel, lift stright up about 1/2" and then pull the bottom out towards you and off.
Then you take out the speaker, pull the watershield back and remove the 3 bolts holding the motor onto the regulator. Reach in through the speaker hole and take the motor out through there.

Most likely, you motor has chewed up the 3 plastic cams which mke the gears turn. If you're handy with cutting tools and materials of various types, you can shape new cams, or just buy a new motor.
Hope this helps
 
Test the switch before you go to all of that trouble. Water gets in the switch, corrodes, and stops making contact. Test the voltage, swap the switch from the drivers or short it out to see if the window motor moves. We had success, carfully opening the switches on several types of cars and cleaning the corrosion and putting them back in. Good luck
 
Thanks for the help. Is it pretty tricky getting the trim piece off of the switch area? It looks as if your supposed to just pry the plastic off, but i dont want to crack the trim. I guess i just need to get at it.
 
Neither of my windows worked when I got my 90. The motor would run but didn't move the window. It was the cams and I replaced them with some fat rubber grommets. Works great and only $1.20 for all 6.
 
Where are the cams?

I too bought my car with a window motor that works, but doesn't push up the window. I read the post about replacing the cams with nylon, but I am curious about the rubber? What did you do? Thanks -Tom
 
Well, I got it all open, took out the window motor and bench tested it. The motor still worked....so i plugged it back in to the switch, and it worked. I put the motor back in, hooked it all up, and the window works. I guess everything was just all jammed up in there somehow. Its kinda irritating, but it saved me from having to buy a whole new motor for 90 bucks. Anyways....the only thing bad that happened was i broke one of the plastic tabs that holds the door handle cup. Now i just need to find some kind of glue that will adhere to it. Anyways...thanks for the advice.
 
I thought about using metal but decided on something with some give to it. Probably doesn't make a difference but went that route anyway. The plastic parts in my drive housings were literally in a thousand pieces. Took forever to get all that crap out of there.

I found some grommets at Ace that are cyllindrical and not the normal round edge style. They just fit in the slots. I stuck some 1/4" steel rod in the middle of each to keep them from collapsing. Works fine so far.
 
The original plastic drive spider serves as a fuse or a weak link in the chain of moving parts which make up the window mechanism. Should someone get caught by the closing window, the force should wipe out the plastic spider before it becomes a lethal trap. So replacing this weak link with a steel or any tougher material than the factory utilized is basically the intentional overriding of a factory designed safety feature.

I overrode this feature with snug fitting rubber hose pulled over fiberglass rods and it worked great! Haven't had anyone lose any limbs,,,, so far,,,, caught the dog by accident and he didn't think it near as funny as I did,,,,,,,

But if your performing professional repairs on a customers vehicle you may want to consider the liability your company assumes by installing the guillotine window feature in a car which has a baby seat near by.
 
Opening Motor/Where Are They?

I guess my question is how does the motor open?(Havent pulled it out/dont know what it looks like) And where do the "Cams" go? It sounds like it should be pretty obvious huh? Thanks for the help, it's starting to warm up and the use of the window would be helpful...
 
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