mchristyuk
Junior Member
- Messages
- 668
In the underground car park near work enjoying the sound of my SM X-Pipe and decat when... judder, judder.. cock.. the drivers side window is stuck down.
Quick search on the internet.. £500+ for a new one or £300 for second hand.. I think not. Whilst I don't mind spending money on my car I do object to spending money on cheaply made poorly finished parts that will probably fail shortly after anyway. So, off with the door card to see what's going on..
Motor was clearly fine as I could hear it whirring away, however what wasn't so healthy was the toothed plate which was lying in the bottom of the door and is a known weak spot (cr@ppy welds).
So here's what I did to fix it for approx £5 and with no "specialist tools" such as welding equipment to hand...
1) Lower the window (not difficult in my case!) so that you can see the two bolts which hold the window to the regulator. Remove. Once these are out you can lift the window up by hand and then shove a plastic biro pen through the hole at the top to stop it going anywhere.
2) Remove the 6 nuts holding the regulator in place and drop it down. Wiggle it half the way out and then disconnect the wires (in my case 2 connectors). Then it can come all the way out.
3) The offending item...
4) So my cunning plan (in best Baldrick fashion) was a belt and braces approach.. First up a good portion of JB Weld metal glue that was left to dry overnight. I made a pencil line across the top of the old welds so I could line the half moon piece up accurately. If I didn't then there's a chance it would jam half way around.
5) Not expecting JB Weld on it's own to be able to put up with the demands of the window I then drilled through and put 3 short M3 bolts through. I counter sunk the bolt head side and used button headed bolts (what I had to hand), although countersunk bolts would have been better. Nuts were added to the other side and lots of Loctite used as they were tightened down.
6) Now reinstall back in the car. It should be clear from the metal work where the nuts had been, and of course the window hadn't been removed anyway. As luck would have it my window was aligned perfectly first time.
7) Put the door card back on and marvel at your handy work.
Apart from waiting for the JB Weld to dry this was about 2 hours work and probably the easiest window regulator I've ever worked on. Not sure why people say they're a fiddle on these cars as there's actually really good access and space.
Now just waiting for the other side to fall apart in sympathy...!
Mark
Quick search on the internet.. £500+ for a new one or £300 for second hand.. I think not. Whilst I don't mind spending money on my car I do object to spending money on cheaply made poorly finished parts that will probably fail shortly after anyway. So, off with the door card to see what's going on..
Motor was clearly fine as I could hear it whirring away, however what wasn't so healthy was the toothed plate which was lying in the bottom of the door and is a known weak spot (cr@ppy welds).
So here's what I did to fix it for approx £5 and with no "specialist tools" such as welding equipment to hand...
1) Lower the window (not difficult in my case!) so that you can see the two bolts which hold the window to the regulator. Remove. Once these are out you can lift the window up by hand and then shove a plastic biro pen through the hole at the top to stop it going anywhere.
2) Remove the 6 nuts holding the regulator in place and drop it down. Wiggle it half the way out and then disconnect the wires (in my case 2 connectors). Then it can come all the way out.
3) The offending item...
4) So my cunning plan (in best Baldrick fashion) was a belt and braces approach.. First up a good portion of JB Weld metal glue that was left to dry overnight. I made a pencil line across the top of the old welds so I could line the half moon piece up accurately. If I didn't then there's a chance it would jam half way around.
5) Not expecting JB Weld on it's own to be able to put up with the demands of the window I then drilled through and put 3 short M3 bolts through. I counter sunk the bolt head side and used button headed bolts (what I had to hand), although countersunk bolts would have been better. Nuts were added to the other side and lots of Loctite used as they were tightened down.
6) Now reinstall back in the car. It should be clear from the metal work where the nuts had been, and of course the window hadn't been removed anyway. As luck would have it my window was aligned perfectly first time.
7) Put the door card back on and marvel at your handy work.
Apart from waiting for the JB Weld to dry this was about 2 hours work and probably the easiest window regulator I've ever worked on. Not sure why people say they're a fiddle on these cars as there's actually really good access and space.
Now just waiting for the other side to fall apart in sympathy...!
Mark
