Drivers Side Power Window Randomly Stuck Down

General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
Twice now in the past 3 months I've had the drivers side window get stuck in the down position. Both times were on my trips out to Texas where I had no choice but to continue with it down because I couldn't afford to lose time on it. Eventually it does go back up, usually by closing the door while holding the switch in the up position but the first time it happened it was 35 degrees out and the second was about 45 degrees and pouring rain, both of which really suck on the interstate lol.

My question is I'm leaning towards the motor/regulator. 175,000 on it so makes sense for it to be a little tired. It's not the switch, I pulled it apart at the exit I was on at the time and it checked out. I usually go for OEM parts but has anyone had good luck with aftermarket on this one?
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Twice now in the past 3 months I've had the drivers side window get stuck in the down position. Both times were on my trips out to Texas where I had no choice but to continue with it down because I couldn't afford to lose time on it. Eventually it does go back up, usually by closing the door while holding the switch in the up position but the first time it happened it was 35 degrees out and the second was about 45 degrees and pouring rain, both of which really suck on the interstate lol.

My question is I'm leaning towards the motor/regulator. 175,000 on it so makes sense for it to be a little tired. It's not the switch, I pulled it apart at the exit I was on at the time and it checked out. I usually go for OEM parts but has anyone had good luck with aftermarket on this one?
I had the issue also. Exactly the same.

Replaced the regulator, motor, & switches. Turned out to be an electrical issue on the body side of the harnesses. One of the wires was loose in the plug. So check all of your connections before shelling out the monies.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
I had the issue also. Exactly the same.

Replaced the regulator, motor, & switches. Turned out to be an electrical issue on the body side of the harnesses. One of the wires was loose in the plug. So check all of your connections before shelling out the monies.

That's good to know, thanks for the tip. When you say body side of the harness are you talking about where it passes through the boot into the body? Is there a connector somewhere on the other side of that boot?
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
That's good to know, thanks for the tip. When you say body side of the harness are you talking about where it passes through the boot into the body? Is there a connector somewhere on the other side of that boot?
No I mean the connector where the motor plugs into the harness in the door. Sorry for the confusion.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
No I mean the connector where the motor plugs into the harness in the door. Sorry for the confusion.

Oh ok, that's kind of a relief haha, I was thinking I was going to have to dig into that giant harness in the footwell to find it. I pulled the wiring diagram for the door so I think connector 'D9' is the one that might be loose.

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It makes sense to me if it's been corroded given the location, when I took a mountain of sea water over the hood with all the windows down I hit the wipers and all that did was wipe a ton of water to the left where it poured down into the window motor area. 5 days later and this first happened. I think I'm going to get some electrical cleaner and rinse that door out while I'm in there.

Update: This morning it's become stuck down twice and each time goes back up by holding the switch and closing the door. I'm about to pull the panel off and see what's going on in there. It's too cold out for open window driving.
 
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General_Tarfun

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Location
Atlanta, GA
That was fast, they made it really easy to get to that connector. Bad news was I didn't notice anything wrong with it, everything seemed tight and free of corrosion. I greased the window track while I was in there and put a little die-electric grease in the connector for good measure. Since it's so easy to get back up I guess I'll wait and see what happens now. I tested up/down about 15 times and it worked fine sitting there.

If the motor was dying wouldn't it run really slowly or make a straining noise? It goes up and down pretty quickly still after all these years.
 

CHUG

Lockers Installed
Supporting Member
Could it be its Just tight on the track and binding??. when you close the door it was taking pressure of the track.. allowing to roll up?. Dunno..

I have Door latch issue.. close the door it bounces back open.. OOP's. the Locking latch fails to rotate.. Gummy & Sticking.

A good excuse to spray silicone spray in the track, and will hit my door latch too.. a good reminder.. after seeing this post.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Could it be its Just tight on the track and binding??. when you close the door it was taking pressure of the track.. allowing to roll up?. Dunno..

I have Door latch issue.. close the door it bounces back open.. OOP's. the Locking latch fails to rotate.. Gummy & Sticking.

A good excuse to spray silicone spray in the track, and will hit my door latch too.. a good reminder.. after seeing this post.


that was my first thought because every time it happened it was so cold out that if water was in there it definitely could have frozen on it. Same with today there was frost all over the top of the truck and then it stuck twice. I sprayed silicone over the track and along the pulley system so I guess we'll see what happens with it. depending on what kind of grease was used on your lock in the past maybe by previous owner it could be sticking, you could probably use a rubber safe brake cleaner to clean out the old grease and then lube it up with some sill glide or something like that.
 

CHUG

Lockers Installed
Supporting Member
Might be Ice in track just enough to slow it down..

When it warms up. will clean & hose the crap out of it with dry lube spray.. hate to drive on road and make corner door swing open.. yikes.
figure its just dirty from years running logging roads.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Might be Ice in track just enough to slow it down..

When it warms up. will clean & hose the crap out of it with dry lube spray.. hate to drive on road and make corner door swing open.. yikes.
figure its just dirty from years running logging roads.


Yeah mines just annoying, your situation is terrifying lol. I kept testing the window throughout today and then out of nowhere it stuck down and i let go of the switch and did it again and it went up. Starting to wonder if the problem is in the switch wiring harness.
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
This is great! My DS window sticks randomly. I'll have to try @Prime 's fix once it gets warmer. I've been putting off posting about it, it's not that bad yet... :D
When it first started happening it'd stick half way. And if whail on the door panel tight below the switches and it'd start working again.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
I pulled my door switch again last night to get a 'not on the side of the interstate' view of the internals.

The gold contacts for the up/down signals are pretty worn, I cleaned them up as much as possible with some light erasing but the lines appear to be actually worn into the gold. I'll see if this makes any difference this morning.

k6r4Xus.png


Update #1: Day 1 had no problems, I'll post another update in week or so if it's holding up or earlier if it sticks again.

Update #2 (1/12/2020): Window got stuck down once on Saturday and quickly went back up just by closing the door and holding the switch, no slamming required. Looks like I'll be pulling the door panel off again.

Update #3 (1/21/2020) Never got around to pulling the door panel off again because it hasn't been stuck since my last update.

Update #4 (1/30/2020) Zero problems since 1/12. The window zips up and down crazy fast now though from all the silicone I sprayed on the pulley system. And winter is usually when it starts running really slow.
 
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