Car Power Electric Window Stopped Working

Reader Question: My question is that my driver’s side power window has stopped working. I had the motor replaced 1 year ago and at that time it worked – just slow and sometimes would get stuck midway.

This time it just stopped completely. It is all the way up and when I press the switch, no motor sound happens. All I hear is clicking from the power button on the console.

My rear passengers’ side I could get to go down with my console button but the button on the console would not roll the window up. I had to use the button on the door to get the window up.

Just recently, the console button has started to work to roll the rear window up again.

Do you think the motor is bad again or is the console switch bad?

Thanks.

Wanda

Hey Wanda,

These types of problems can be tricky to diagnose without taking the interior door panel apart and testing the switches and motors independently.

I will say it sound like you have a switch problem or did have a switch problem with the “master” switch on the driver door and your rear passenger window going down but not coming up when you used the master switch.

It sounds like you do have a problem with that part of the master switch, so there could also be a problem with the driver side window on the master switch as well.

Since you have mentioned that the window would operate slowly or get stuck going up half way after you had the motor replaced it would tell me you either got a cheap or defective window motor.

The master switch has a problem and works sometimes or the window is binding in the doorframe and the motor is having a hard time pushing the window back up.

You can sometimes take a light coat of lubricating oil or spray silicone and apply a light film it to the rubber and felt moldings in the window channel on the door to reduce friction and make the window easier to operate. Thus less stress on the window motor to operate.

Did you read my article about testing window motors? This is a shade tree test, but can help identify and isolate a problem with the switch or the motor.

See if this can help narrow things down for you:

Testing Window Motors

Blessings,
Austin Davis