The drivers side electric window in my 2002 Chevy Cavalier has a strange problem.
It goes down fine. Then when you try to put it up it only goes up and inch and stops. You have to wait 5 minutes, and will go up another inch. The longer you wait, the more it seems to go up, but at best the whole process can take like an hour. Any idea what is wrong? Would your average auto repair place fix this, or is this a dealer job?
There’s a problem with the window motor and/or regulator. Any competent shop can take care of it.
Yep, the motor’s shot. I had that problem on my 94 Ciera for months and was assuming it was just an inconvenience. Then the motor died altogether while the window was all the way down and I had to take a day off of work to get it replaced before it rained.
If yo uneed to raise it faster than that prior to actually getting it fixed, try this:
Key on the vehicle to the acc setting(the ignition setting where all your electrical components work but without actually starting the engine) and raise the window as far as you can. Then turn the ignition back to off, and repeat this process.
I can’t tell you how many times running the carwashes like I do where we get a customer at the head of the line that suddenly can’t close their window and we use this old trick to get it up so we can send them through. It actually helps if you have another person to help “pull” the window up each time you hit the raise window button after you’ve keyed the ignition from off to accessory.
It has worked for me almost every time.
What’s happening is your circuit breaker is blowing. Then when the circuit cools the breaker resets an allows the window to go up some more. This is, like mentioned before, most likely due to a weak motor. However, you can tell by waiting for it to cool and lifting up on the glass while you are pressing the button. If this helps it means that the motor is just overloaded and needs replacing. If it still blows while assisting in lifting the window then I would take the trim panel off and see if there is something in there preventing the window from going up. But I suspect the load is just too much for the motor.