for starters..sorry if this is a repost and someone has already done this.

for the last few months...I’ve had what everyone else seems to experience with their power windows. they get slower and slower until they don’t work anymore. I was having this problem with my driver side window. it wouldn't go down all the way, and wouldn't go up all the way. the passenger side is running pretty slowly, but it still goes all the way up and down. to get to the point: me, being the cheap *** that I am, I didn't want to pay for a new motor if I didn't have to. first, I just made sure all the mechanisms were lubed. they were, and it didn't fix the problem. then, I thought there might be a problem with some of the circuitry. I took off the door panel so I could unplug the motor and test the voltage going straight into the motor. this was good, so the circuitry beyond that was ok. after looking at the repair manual, I found that the electronic circuit breaker (ecb) is located in the motor. this is what figures out when the motor should stop, even if the switch is still on. I took the motor out of the door and opened it up. this is where the fun began. in the same plastic piece that hold the brushes, there is a strip of metal (sorry that I don’t have pictures at the current time, but I’ll probably have to do this again soon for the passenger windows). this is the ecb. when the motor stops (such as being rolled down all the way), it draws more current, heating the strip up. as the as the strip heats up, it's resistance increases, therefore dropping the voltage going to the window. at room temperature, the resistance across that piece was already around 1 ohm. assuming the motor was drawing 5 amps, that means the motor was only getting 7 volts just for normal operation. so, to fix this I took just took a piece of wire and soldered it to the two contacts on either side of the metal strip to allow the current to pass through the wire instead of metal strip. this wasn't too complicated until it was time to put it back together. I was having a hard time keeping the brushes in the holder while pushing the plastic housing back on the motor. so, I took the smallest drill bit I had (I can get a size if anyone is actually going to do this) and drilled a tiny hold through each holder. this allowed me to put a small piece of wire through the hole to hold the brushes until I got the plastic housing most of the way on the motor. then I just pulled the two wires out and pushed the housing on the rest of the way. it was also a pain to get everything back in the door, but after I got everything done, the window works like a champ now. it goes up and down very quickly. the only downside is that the motor wont shut off now when it gets to the end of the track. the window wont come out or anything because there are stops on each side of the gear. so, the only thing to do now it to make sure that as soon as the window rolls all the way down or up, to release the switch. the only exception is the auto down feature. this still works and will still automatically shut off the motor. I’m sure I didn't make this procedure very clear, and I’m sorry for the lack of pictures. I just thought I’d post this technique, as I searched and didn't see anything like it.

 

never heard of that before
thanks for the writeup
and yea, i did understand all of it, even without pics

 

This procedure "works" but is not recommened because of the potential to injure / kill someone. Be carefull, you might be found liable if an accident is serious enough to warrent looking into the motor.

 

This procedure has been done and written up by someone on the board. Before that, it was done many years ago by a few people. You have to remember, the window motors have been an issue in one way or another for quite a number of years, now.

 

as for liability, i didn't think about that, and thanks for bringing it up. i'll work that out when it comes time to sell the car or whatever. i dont have any kids and i dont let anyone drive my car. sure, there is a safety issue here, i'm not blaming you for that, but if i hurt myself, i'll only blame me. i have a higher risk of getting injured or killed in a car accident than i do rolling the window up on myself. i'll take my chances. i understand your side, but i bet my actual motor goes out before i sell my car.

and shoebox, i'm not saying i was the first to do it, i just thought i'd share my experiences for the people that haven't heard about this before...such as the first guy that posted.

 

I'm very suprised that GM would make a "circuit breaker" that doesn't actually break a circuit but rather just drops voltage to an electric motor. I'm not at all saying this isn't how it works, just doesn't seem like very good engineering. When first reading the post I was expecting it to say that when the strip heated up it actually opened the circuit like a thermal cutout would. Then again after owning an F-body for a while and knowing how crappy the windows are I guess I really shouldn't be suprised at all.

 

I suggest you also try the "relay" trick, as it doesn't have these safety issues.

 

my conclusions could be wrong, this is just what i observed. i'm not an electrical engineer though.

 

yeah, i read about that...but that required me to buy a relay