r13420

If you guys have had to replace your window motors or regulators on your Porsche 997 more than once like me, you may be as curious as me to see what part of the motor assembly fails. A few years ago, the passenger (right) side window motor broke and I found a used window motor on Ebay. Last week, the driver also broke, so I found another used motor from the same seller on Ebay (THANK GOD FOR EBAY!!!). This part new from the dealer costs more than $550.00!!!

After having to replace both window motors, I began to wonder what actually makes this thing fail, so I disassembled the broken motor assembly and I was somewhat shocked/ not shocked to see that it was a sheared/worn rotor that was the culprit!

As seen in the attached photos, everything else looked brand new and is functional. It seems so wasteful that the motor can't be rebuilt for a fraction of the cost, at least not that I am aware of. This kind of crap makes me crazy that we live in a throw away society and that something so simple and easy can't be repaired or fixed without having to buy a complete new part assembly that comes with extra crap doesn't need replacing!


997 Window Motor LSide (Disassembled)

997 Window Motor LSide (worn/sheared rotor)

997 Window Motor LSide (worn/sheared rotor up close)

63mercedes

I was talking to an older friend who is like 75 and he was telling me about how he went to TV repairman school in the late 60s, when's the last time a tv got fixed lol? The throw away society idea is very real and it's terrible. 500 for a window motor doesn't sound too bad considering the pdk is 14k and essentially a throw away part to. You'd think for 14k they wouldn't treat it as such.

I'm sure later on some company will fill that void when the cars get real old. I'd pay half for my original window motor to be rebuilt if it worked fine after.

E39Nutz

Nice work, but I think your diagnosis is off. The part you shown is called armature. The indentation there looks to be deliberate, probably for the rotational stability. This thing on a shaft rotates when the DC motor is running, you cannot possibly see just part of the armature worn out on a rotating part.

Most of the time, it is the carbon brushes that are worn that causes the DC motor to stop working. If you look closely to the circled part, the carbon brushes look to be worn, they no longer touch the commutator, hence not conducting electricity to drive the motor. The carbon brush is attached to a spring, you can either source a new set of carbon brushes or extend the spring by pulling the brush (a temporary fix). If you take the carbon brushes out, you can take the dimension and possibly find replacement parts from ebay or amazon.

The same failure goes to the voltage regulator that is attached to the alternator. When an alternator failures, most of the time it can be revived by replacing the voltage regulator with a new one, a $50 part vs. $1000 for a new alternator.




Here is an example of the carbon brush wear and tear.

BLU997

1. The carbon brushes are worn out as noted by others

2. Armature has been ground down at the factory for dynamic balancing purposes.

DesmoSD

Because Bosch. Their QA on long term durability isn't up to par as the Japanese parts manufacturing such as Denso. This is the achilles for most German cars.