6SpeedJeremy

My 2001 Coupe has been remarkably reliable for a 20 year old car for as long as Ive had it. One of the only problems its given me is the driver door window. Forever, it would go down on auto, but then about half the time when you pressed up, it would go about halfway, stop then go down a few inches and stop. It would always go up, you just had to hold the button.

Well today when I left work it was hot so I cracked down the window a little and it stuck down. Wouldnt move. You can hear an audible click behind the door panel when you hit the button up or down, but no movement. After driving for like 20 minutes and trying a bunch of times it finally went up. Worked normally for a few minutes but when I got home its now stuck up.

Its also not coming down when you open the door on either side, even though the passenger window works fine otherwise. I read about others that have that problem. Ive never really thought about it so now I cant remember if it used to do that or not. Is that just a cab thing? I have a coupe. Doesnt seem to hinder it opening or closing.

This only happened because Ive been considering selling the car. Everytime I have sold a car my whole life it breaks and costs me money before right before I sell it.

I did some searching but my symptoms didnt seem quite like others I had seen. Thoughts?

6SpeedJeremy

Minor update on this, I went out and played with it. On the faulty driver side, if I gently lift the door handle without opening the door and listen carefully you can hear a click. Like a relay click, as in something is trying to send power to do the window drop, but its not happening. I also swapped the switches just to see but that didn't do anything positive.

I tend to feel that this is the motor, as it doesn't appear to be trying to move the window. There is no grinding or anything, just a single relay click and then nothing. But searching this it seems the regulators fail way more often, so Im still open to group ideas here. I also feel like a regulator would have shown wear signs over time. My windows operated crisply right up until it flat quit working.

Can the motor be removed and tested with a 12v battery without removing the window/regulator? Because regulator fail is way more common its hard to find stuff on the motor as a fault by itself.

What contains the logic to do the auto up and down? Since mine had been off for a while in that capacity Im wondering if that component could be the issue.

6SpeedJeremy

Never got any replies but I did fix it. My instincts were correct and it was indeed the motor. I bought a $50 used motor off ebay and slapped it in. Functions correctly now.

For any future DIYs who may come across this thread in the future, I would tell you that you can troubleshoot this by ear to an extent.

If you can hear the motor whirring and trying to roll down the window the motor is fine. It might make a bunch of grinding noises if the regulator is bad.

I was also able to tell the door handle microswitch was working by ear. Listen carefully and pull the door handle. If the switch is working you can hear it clicking inside the door trying to send power to the window.