Remove Electric Window Motor from Truck Door

[turbo]

Are you sure that the motor is toast? If the window got bound up a bit, you could easily have blown the fuse to that circuit. Sure a lot easier fix than changing out window motors.

 

[Topher925]

In newer vehicles, window motors are not meant to be replaced so they use rivets to save money. Robots can rivet things into place easily, but have a hard time with screw type fasteners.

In order to replace a that motor you are going to have to drill out the rivets. If you have a steel panel obstructing a rivet, then just drill through it also. After you find your replacement motor you can secure it into place by making a quick run to ace hardware finding a good nut/bolt combination for the old rivet holes you drilled out.

Window motors are very prone to failure as the motors themselves have no vents in the can and are completely sealed. This causes them to over heat and fill up with brush dust which eventually leads to their doom.

 

[Proton Soup]

That is all 6'3" of me crammed under the dash of a Pontiac Gran Prix. I am replacing the fan speed control resistor board.

I have found that of the power windows I have worked on that about half the time it was not the motor but just the mechanism jamming. Before replacing the motor, while holding the power switch on, get a hand on each side of the window and push down. Or if you are inside the door wiggle the window raise/lower mechanism to be sure it is not jammed.

To change that motor in addition to armor plating your arms and fingers dig into your bag of spare body parts and insert an extra joint in your forearm.

lol, it may be easier if you just unbolt the seat from the floor. only a slight bolt impalement problem to deal with then.

ditto about the mechanism. i greased mine up with lithium grease once and it solved the problem. careful about getting it where you don't want it though, it makes an absolute mess.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Can you get an old crank handle mechanism and just not bother trying to fix the motor? Just yank it out and put something simpler in it's place?

I'm not sure about Tribs truck but in my car the window is effectively frozen in place because of the way the system is set up. My mechanic friend tried getting into the door and moving the window up by messing with the gears but it was stuck solid. From what everyone tells me just getting the window up (never mind replacing it with a crank) would require dismantling the whole set up.

What is it with having an electric motor to control the windows, anyway?

I never wanted them. In my first car I specifically asked for manual windows. This one was an emergency replacement for the first and EVERYTHING is electric on it from the seat controls to the gas gauge.
The first experience I had with power window failure was my exs car. Someone tried to slim jim her car and couldn't do it but apparently in the process knocked the window off its tracks. When she went to roll down the window she heard what she described as a crunching noise and then the window just dropped. This apparently ruined the motor and she had to pay four or five hundred to have the motor replaced.

 

[Danger]

That is all 6'3" of me crammed under the dash of a Pontiac Gran Prix.

What a relief that you finally showed your good side; I was afraid that your face might be displayed in the photo.

Stats, I both loved and hated electric windows. If using a J-tool happened to disconnect a wire, I'd have to then remove the trim panel and reconnect the thing. On the other hand, although it happened only a couple of times, if someone happened to lock the car while it was running I had the option of going for the window button rather than only the lock button when using a Caddy-Killer.

Bob, didn't your vehicle have a driver override lock-out switch? It should have, in which case you set the windows however you like, and the local switches are disabled.

 

[Moonbear]

In newer vehicles, window motors are not meant to be replaced...

Window motors are very prone to failure ...

And then they wonder why the auto manufacturers are going bankrupt? Regardless of how expensive they want to make the replacement part, if something is prone to failure, they should make it accessible to be replaced without taking half the car apart, and certainly shouldn't permanently rivet it in place.

On the issue of dogs stepping on window buttons, that's why newer cars either have a driver's side window lock that you can prevent passengers from controlling their own windows (for the sake of children too), or have replaced those rocker buttons with ones you have to pull up on to raise the window, and pushing (or stepping) on the button only lowers it.

However, they still haven't done this for door locks yet, as my friend whose dog locked her out of her car found out. (The downside of child proofed cars is that having a back window cracked open doesn't give you access to any buttons that will unlock any doors.) And, no, she hadn't just left her dog in the car. The dog did this while she was walking around from the passenger side, where the dog had hopped in, to the driver's side.

 

[Integral]

...

On the issue of dogs stepping on window buttons, that's why newer cars either have a driver's side window lock that you can prevent passengers from controlling their own windows (for the sake of children too), or have replaced those rocker buttons with ones you have to pull up on to raise the window, and pushing (or stepping) on the button only lowers it.

...

We have this type of switches in our newer car. I still have trouble opening and closing windows, this type of switch is just not intuitive.

 

[BobG]

However, they still haven't done this for door locks yet, as my friend whose dog locked her out of her car found out. (The downside of child proofed cars is that having a back window cracked open doesn't give you access to any buttons that will unlock any doors.) And, no, she hadn't just left her dog in the car. The dog did this while she was walking around from the passenger side, where the dog had hopped in, to the driver's side.

I'm so glad I've taken to just driving without any doors. Life is so much simpler.

 

[physics girl phd]

I'm so glad I've taken to just driving without any doors. Life is so much simpler.

I'm so glad my car finally got towed away (I surrendered the title for the tow... since I never got around to "craigslisting" or "freecycling" it).

To my husband's chagrin, it didn't qualify as a "clunker" but I didn't really want a new car anyway. Door to door, it's only 1 mile to my office... and in bad weather, a free trolley gets me about 3/4th's of the way.

I hadn't driven it in about 8 months (and before that only about once a month), I hadn't renewed the registration and insurance, and it had some minor issues (due to a failed speed sensor) and pending expenses (tires, brakes + rotors, etc.) that surmounted its blue-book value by threefold. To put this in full context, it was also an aged GM (Bonneville) that really never was my style ... pimp-car carpet on the dash and cosmetically vandalized before I bought it... placing it in my grad-school era price range... but not really something I'd want to be caught driving when 2/3rds of the students around here seem to drive something MUCH better.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm so glad my car finally got towed away (I surrendered the title for the tow... since I never got around to "craigslisting" or "freecycling" it).

To my husband's chagrin, it didn't qualify as a "clunker" but I didn't really want a new car anyway. Door to door, it's only 1 mile to my office... and in bad weather, a free trolley gets me about 3/4th's of the way.

I hadn't driven it in about 8 months (and before that only about once a month), I hadn't renewed the registration and insurance, and it had some minor issues (due to a failed speed sensor) and pending expenses (tires, brakes + rotors, etc.) that surmounted its blue-book value by threefold. To put this in full context, it was also an aged GM (Bonneville) that really never was my style ... pimp-car carpet on the dash and cosmetically vandalized before I bought it... placing it in my grad-school era price range... but not really something I'd want to be caught driving when 2/3rds of the students around here seem to drive something MUCH better.

I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but I can't resist commenting on how appalling it is that an ACTUAL clunker doesn't qualify for the cash for clunkers rebate.

 

[drankin]

I've had mine seem to go out. I took the panel off, took the motor out and rotated the shaft a few times and freed itself up. I believed it seized up from lack of use. The lubricant must have settled to one side of the bearing.

Then I wired it up backwards. Up is down and down is up. LOL

 

[Danger]

Then I wired it up backwards. Up is down and down is up. LOL

That's no problem; just pull the switch and replace it upside-down...

 

[tribdog]

I think my finger in infected.

 

[Danger]

I think my finger in infected.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, either contextually or from a spelling standpoint.

 

[BobG]

I think my finger in infected.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, either contextually or from a spelling standpoint.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with car windows or power locks or pet/vehicle safety. Start your own thread!

 

[tribdog]

It has a lot to do with car windows when you consider that I already said that I cut my finger trying to change the motor in one.

 

[Danger]

My bad. I read through the thread to check, but somehow missed that post. I just saw it now.
You still need work on your typing, though.

 

[tribdog]

My bad. I read through the thread to check, but somehow missed that post. I just saw it now.
You still need work on your typing, though.

unless the finger I cut is the one I use to type "s" so I had to use an "n" instead.

 

[Danger]

unless the finger I cut is the one I use to type "s" so I had to use an "n" instead.

Nice try, but there are 4 "s"'s (and a "w"; same finger) in the post where you mentioned being cut, and 8 "s"'s in the post that I just quoted.

 

[Redbelly98]

Thank you for wearing a belt.