It is almost a fitted standard in modern day cars, electric (motorized) windows are gradually becoming the industry standard. But with the simple addition of an electric motor brings another component to an already complex machine. Another part of you car which can break and how do you fix it when it does? Luckily, very easily:
Car windows are made of tempered glass; this means it has been made specifically for safety in a crash, and it will shatter instead of breaking. This produces thousands of tiny pieces, which can cut you, this is handy in a crash because large shards of glass can be the end of you, but when trying to repair something that contains glass it is something to be wary of. So that's the safety check done, your window motor is stuck, slow, sluggish to respond or making very strange and abnormally loud noises in operation, how do you fix it?
1) Firstly park your car somewhere quiet, like your garage, because you will need to listen carefully to the motor powering the window in order to diagnose the problem.
2) Turn your cars power circuits on (half turn of the key) but do not start the engine, you only need the displays to come on and be able to access the battery, having then engine off means you can hear what is going on inside much easier
3) Now before going to in depth check every powered window in the car, if a few are working, and one or more are not then the chances are that the fuses have gone inside the motor.
4) Now listen to the winding motor whilst pressing the button up and down, if you hear nothing then you can remove the switch panel, which can be done in most cars without messing about with the door panels, just check your handbook.
Window Regulator (Above)
5) Now get a multi-meter and try reading resistance (ohmmeter setting) and check for changes between the three positions of the switch; up, down and in the centre. If you see any change then the fuse is not the problem, if you get no readings, then it's your fuse!
6) Now if you know what you are doing then you can remove the door panel and check that all the wires are in the correct places and that the motor, switch and pigtail are all properly connected. If this is all looking good then you are going to have to hand over to a technician, make sure you put everything back like it was first though!
If you have tried all of this then you are going to have to purchase a new motor ninety nine percent of the time. You can get after Market motors
fairly cheaply but OEM models are better, you get what you pay for in effect. You can buy with the regulator attached and if you do, do not try and take it apart the unit has to be installed as one piece.
If the door glass motor is the problem it will need to be replaced. After-market motors are cheaper; they don't last as long as OEM, and they are usually weaker. Some motors can be bought individually, but others come as an assembly with the new regulator already attached. If you purchase a motor/regulator assembly, DO NOT! Disassemble them. You will need to install the whole assembly as a unit. Generally this will be a cable-actuated regulator, and they are notorious for early failure anyway.
You can get various types of regulators including cable actuated, single arm, belt driven, and scissor arm styles. If you need to work on these be very careful and if you are using a scissor arm of single arm regulator I would advise highly against it as the mechanism used includes a powerful spring, which acts as a counter balance, and can cause very nasty injuries like severed limbs if you don't know what you are doing.
To a basic level windows are fairly simple to repair, but if you have any further problems id strongly advise a mechanic if not, make sure you have a decent mechanic mind and some technical knowledge before trying anything new.
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