Help With Wife's Power Window?

[Twistiva]

Guys -

This afternoon the passenger side front door power window on my wife's 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager SE slid all the down after my daughter shut the door.

Any ideas on why it would do that?

We don't use that particular window on her van because the window motor either burns out shortly after replacing (done that twice) or the motor has an extremely difficult time moving the window down/up (ie, the motor sounds like it's under a heavy load and the window goes down slowly and up even more slowly/if at all.....manual assistance is needed to raise the window fully up). The window previously stayed fully up with no problem. And now, with a simple close of the front passenger door today, the window just slid down to the bottom of the track. About a week ago I accidentally hit the passenger door window switch and could hear the window motor running and before I took the door panel off tonight I couldn't hear it running. (Do power windows need an electrical current to hold the window up? No, I am not yet smart on power windows.) I took the door panel off but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I thought perhaps that the window might have physically come off the regulator guides/clips on the bottom of the window but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Any help?

Thanks in advance.

[tooldude]

Go to a dealership parts counter and ask for a printout of the window mechanism. Look for any plastic supporting parts that may have deteriorated and broken, and ask about any such known parts while you are there.

[bravekozak]

I replaced my winder on the passenger side. I have a sister vehicle. Dodge Grand Caravan. Usually all power windows work the same way. Wires under tension. both wires are attached to the same winder. As one winds on, the other wire winds off. The tension on the wire holds the glass in place. A little teflon powder will help cut down the resistance from worn window rubbers. Personally, I would visit a junkyard. The Caravan is one of the most popular vans on the road and there should be lots of them there. It's a little tricky to extract the entire power window mechanism out of the door cavity. Once you do it once, you will be a pro at it. Don't take the winder apart. It is very difficult to put back together, since it is under tension. If you don't get it right the first time, the wire will kink and you will be back to getting a complete winder assembly anyway.

Before you attach the glass, make sure it can run up and down with your hand in the glass channel without binding. The power window switch is an intermittent switch. No power when you release the switch.

Twist, I also have power windows on my Festiva!

[Twistiva]

Brave -

OK, thx for the explanation of how the window works. I saw examples on YouTube and eBay. My question is, though, what would cause the window to suddenly slide down? Did the tension wire break? (It was late last night and my headlamp was dying so seeing was difficult.) Thinking either the wire broke or it came off of its track?

[bravekozak]

The wire may have popped off the corner pulley, or a piece of plastic wire guide may have broken. You really have to just take the panel off the door and the vapor barrier and see what's up. It's a very simple system. Check on one side and then the other. I am expecting that you will see both springs loose. It is the spring that provides the tension on the wire.

[Twistiva]

The wire may have popped off the corner pulley, or a piece of plastic wire guide may have broken. You really have to just take the panel off the door and the vapor barrier and see what's up. It's a very simple system. Check on one side and then the other. I am expecting that you will see both springs loose. It is the spring that provides the tension on the wire.

Brave -

OK, thanks for the info of what to look for. That's on tomorrow's to-do list.

(To any moderator.....wasn't posting this in the "Off-topic" forum the right location? I assumed that the "Repair" forum was actually for repairing Festivas. No?)

[william]

It needs a window regular.
I change a few a week on all different makes and models and it's almost always the regular that fails.
Napa has aftermarket regulars. They clame to have the lowest prices but there's a few places that have them cheaper but it's convenient to get em at napa.
changing them is pretty straight forward unless you're working on a newer jeep lol regular, latch ,and all has to come out with the door pannel ... they sucks

[Twistiva]

It needs a window regular.
I change a few a week on all different makes and models and it's almost always the regular that fails.
Napa has aftermarket regulars. They clame to have the lowest prices but there's a few places that have them cheaper but it's convenient to get em at napa.
changing them is pretty straight forward unless you're working on a newer jeep lol regular, latch ,and all has to come out with the door pannel ... they sucks

Is Napa (or equivalent) the same quality as OEM?

Just guessing that a non-OEM window regulator is slightly lesser quality but probably 1/3 the cost.....

[william]

There close to oem quality. I've had aftermarket ones out last oem Ones. Most of these aftermarket regulars will have a year warranty.