96 Es300 Power Window Saga

[dave224]

Hi all,

First post here, but have been looking around for quite a while. I haven't seen any thing like my situation during my searches here, but if this has been noted before, then sorry.

My drivers power window has been acting up again. I had already replaced the motor/regulator once a few years ago( retail body shop). It started by not going up much at all. Freeze, then work a little. Then it quit working altogether. Luckily it was up. I searched here a bunch about fixes and thought it could be the master switch in the drivers door. I had the car in the garage, and after managing pretty well to take the door panel off, I started to troubleshoot. All connections seemed good. About a hour and a half had gone by with the door open, dome light on (stupid) and many runs of all the windows-so my battery was running down. It was so low now that the dashboard lights would dim when a window ran and get brighter again when the window switch was released. Except for the drivers window. When I used the auto down ( past the first click), when I let go of the button, the dashboard lights didn't go bright again. Seems to me that the window motor was still getting power, and it was pretty hot. Pulling the switch up stopped the power and the lights got brighter again. ??????? Using the manual down with only one click worked ok.

I don't know if this is a switch problem, or a window adjustment problem where the auto down mode doesn't sense that the window is really all the way down. I suspect it could easily be the latter, since I saw the way those bozos at the body shop put in the replacement regulator. Anyway, reading about all the window problems, my thought is that many could be caused by overheated motors that are getting power for a long time after you release the switch. You would need low light and a semi-dead battery to check your switches the way I luckily did. After I put the battery charger on, the dash lights didn't dim a bit when running a window.

Thanks to somebody on this forum, I did get my window to work after holding the switch down and tapping the motor a few times with a screwdriver. The window seems to bind about half way down. It is rubbing too hard on the inside of the door. I made a few adjustments on the regulator, cleaned the widow really good so it is smooth and slick, and now it works a bit better. We'll see how long it lasts. It could do fine, now that I know how not to burn up the motor.

So, hope this adds something to the mix.

(Oops, this posted to GS forum instead of ES. Sorry. Please move)