I have a 2005 Nissan Sentra. Recently, I noticed that the rear passenger window no longer responds to the switch to move it up or down. I can hear the motor making noises like normal, but the window just doesn’t move. This first happened on a night when I’d already had the rear window down part way, and I was concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to get it to go back up. However, I was able to sandwich the glass between my hands and just slide it back up to being closed.
Since then, it has stayed that way, mostly. I have noticed that the glass will slide down a little bit on its own after a while (not all the way, but maybe an inch or so). I can freely move it up and down with my hands, and it will stay approximately wherever I put it.
So there’s no emergency, but I only tend to drive the car once or twice a week. I’m worried about the window coming down at some point when I’m away from it for an extended period of time, creating a security hazard and possibly falling so far into the door panel so that I can’t reach it at all.
What is the likely cause? And more importantly, how much do you think the fix will cost? I’ll probably take it somewhere this weekend, but I’d appreciate the input from you folks ahead of time so I have some idea of what to expect.
Your window motor has a terminal illness, and won’t be with us much longer. To alleviate any suffering, let’s R&R (remove and replace) that old one with a new unit.
Pricing is anywhere from 70 to 190 bucks online; I’d find a junkyard and get for for 30 bucks or so. Here’s a nice feller who shows you just how to to what you have to do. It really isn’t hard to do. If you have a pinch of mechanical ability and some basic tools, you can do this.
A shop will charge you 200 for the motor, easy, and probably a couple of hours labor, say $180.
For under $50 for parts and beer this is an easy 2-beer project.
I’m not sure I agree with ducati here. If the motor’s making noise but the window isn’t moving, and you can move the window by hand, then the linkage between the motor and window has broken. If it were me, I’d pull off the interior panel and take a look around; chances are it’s not a very complicated problem.
My minivan started doing the same thing recently. Neither of the windows on the driver’s side (MY DAMN SIDE, and I always drive with the window down at least a little, even during the winter months) work anymore. I don’t hear any noises from pressing the switches though, just the light click of the button being depressed.
They didn’t die all at once, just sort of gradually shit out.
The shop in town wants $50 just to look at it and tell me what the problem is. I don’t know if that’s standard practice or a “Hey, a dumb girl! Let’s get a bunch of money from her!” thing or whatever, but I’m betting whatever they find is something I’m not going to want to pay to have fixed anyway.
I think what ducati is calling the motor is the entire “window regulator” which is the motor plus the mechanism. It’s generally sold as one unit, at least by the dealer. You may be able to find places online that only sell the mechanism portion of it.
I would also probably pull the door panel off and take a look at it before doing anything else. Sometimes it is a fairly simple mechanical problem that you can cobble back together. As a temporary fix, you can also cut a short piece of wood with a notch in it and wedge it in place to stop the window from falling down. Most car windows won’t stay in place like the OP’s window and will tend to slide down a lot easier once the window regulator breaks.
Yours sounds like an electrical problem. A friend of mine had a problem with his minivan doing basically the same thing, and the problem ended up being that a small burr of metal had been left inside the door frame when the van had been built, and over time the wires moving back and forth as the door was opened and closed caused the sharp bit of metal to cut into the wires until they failed. Once I fixed the wires I found that he had worn out the switch as well. It’s kinda natural for people to push the switch harder when the window doesn’t want to work.
Your problem could be anywhere along the wiring harness and it may not be exactly the same type of problem but since both windows are affected it is much more likely to be a wiring problem and not a motor or mechanism problem.
$50 to look at it sounds reasonable to me. They have to pull the door panels off and do all sorts of poking around.
When my son-in-law’s driver window quit working, we made the mistake of just buying a motor. What a PITA that was! It used some non-standard sized rivets to hold in the motor. I highly recommend buying the entire window regulator and motor assembly.
Or disabling the window switches when the window is in the full up position. That’s what we did with my son-in-laws car when the passenger window started to go. We used a few well placed pieces of bright red duct tape to prevent someone from pressing the switches for that window.
“Wiring problem” sounds cheaper than “you need a new motor”, so that’s comforting.
Thanks for that. I get a little nervous in shops when I can’t “see” what they’re charging me for (and I know diagnosing takes up their time, but still…) because I’m always a little paranoid that they’re only charging me because they can.
I agree with ducati your window motor is going or gone. When/if you buy a replacement, the Dorman motors are the best to use.
I have replaced the driver’s side in my GM vehicle and I did have to take the door apart but the instructions provided were fairly simple and all hardware was provided. Here are the motors for your Nissan. You can get them through your Autozone or local parts store.
The stock motors are usually riveted into place. You may need to drill out the rivets and the replacement motor will come with screws to replace the rivets. It might be a little overwhelming to take your door apart, but if you are, or know, an average person with mechanical skills it should be no problem. Took me about 30 minutes on my GM.
If you take it to a shop it might run you $300 to $500.
I can only add that at the “self-serve” type junkyards, i.e. “Pick-n-Pull” (which I practicaly live in, I’m there so often) I never see many Nissans, and certainly not one that new. Plenty of Saturns, Kias and Geos, but very few Nissans.
So search out a dismantler of wrecked cars for a used one of these.
The only window motor I’ve ever done was an '88 Ford, and had to drill a hole in the door panel to access one of the rivets.
I’ve got a BMW with a rear window that the little clip broke that attaches the motor to the track, but the potential damage to the inner door panel to attempt repair outweighs the need to fix it, so it stays up!
Did I say that? I don’t think I said that. I’ve actually taken my car to this same shop with nothing more than, “I dunno, it’s making this weird noise…” and they’ve figured it out, and actually in that case they “fixed” it, for nothing at all. And that happened twice with the same car, different problems. My headlights stopped working so I changed the bulbs, checked the fuses, and still couldn’t get it. They diagnosed and, again, “fixed” the problem (the wire harness for those on that particular car is under the battery so had corroded; the “fix” involved nothing more than electrical tape as a temp solution) without charging me a thing. The first problem was… blah blah blah, undercarriage heat shield something… and I think they either cut it off or wired it up.
That was years ago so new management, maybe? New policy? Not sure but, yeah, when a shop goes from “Not only will we diagnose your vehicle for absolutely nothing at all, we’ll give you a temporary solution if we can, again at no charge at all, and you can come back to actually fix it later…” to “Hey, we’re not even going to put eyes on your vehicle for less than $50” I get paranoid.
I have had 3 window regulators go out in two different vehicles. Try looking at www.shimjim.com. It is a rubber wedge that inserts between the window and window seal for a temporary way to hold your window up. Good luck!!!
A window motor is just that, an electric motor. A window regulator is the mechanism between the motor and the glass that converts the motor’s rotary motion to the window’s vertical motion, and holds the window in place. On some vehicles each is available separately, on some they are only provided together as an assembly, and on some one (either the motor or the regulator) can be bought separately but the other is ony provided as part of the motor/regulator assembly. On some vehicles replacement is a right proper pain in the butt and on others it’s fairly easy.
What the OP describes is not a motor problem, it’s a regulator problem. My info shows that Nissan offers the regulator for your car separately; it lists the motor separately but at such an obscene price that it might include the regulator (or might not – call a dealer to find out). The aftermarket source I checked offers the motor separately, and the regulator only as a motor/regulator assembly. With aftermarket parts I’d expect the cost to be in the 250 neighborhood.
Different type of problem. Your first two examples were things that could be assessed with a quick visual inspection, and patched rather easily. The window problem will require some disassembly, use of test equipment, and more than a moment’s time to sort out.
Back to the OP’s Nissan – I just noticed that the separate regulator I saw is for a manual window. Probably the power window regulator comes only in a motor/regulator assembly. Figure around 500 bucks to go that route – definitely more reasonable pricing in the aftermarket.
**The window motor and the regulator are available as separate items for the OP’s vehicle.
**
The most likely failure, based on 30+ years of repairing cars and the OP’s post, is the gears on the motor.
The second most likely is the teeth on the regulator if it is the cable type.
The only way to determine this is to open the patient up and see what happens when the button is pressed. This procedure can be accomplished in 10 minutes or so. Not an hour’s charge IMHO, but it’s not my shop.