Well, I had the dreaded window issue that I read about a lot on here. I rolled down my drivers side window last week and it made a horrible noise and jerked and stopped all the way down. Luckily, it rolled back up, but then it was non-responsive.

As a lot of my guys on here know, I'm looking at picking up a rear camber kit for my car next, and it had me p!ssed that I was gonna have to spend that money on a new window motor.

After some research, I found that some guys have had some luck taking the motor apart and cleaning it. So I decided to give it a shot.

The door wasn't that hard to get apart. Once inside I disconnected all of the harnesses and removed the metal plate that the motor is mounted to. It was a little difficult at first to pull off because the seal sticks to the door. But once you get it moving, it comes right off. I took the cover off the motor and removed the rotor assembly. The copper contact area on the rotor wasn't too bad, but the area where the contacts were located was nasty. Tons of what I believe is carbon dust, I have to assume from brush wear.

I wiped out the inside area near the brushes as good as I could with a napkin. I've seen a lot of guys on here talk about using rubbing alcohol or brake cleaner. I recommend not introducing any liquids into a motor structure, especially the brake cleaner. If you want to use something, use the rubbing alcohol. And by all means, make sure it is completely dry before reassembling.

I took some steel wool and cleaned the buildup off of the rotor and reassembled the motor. I then tried to roll the window up and it went up 1/3 of the way and stopped. So I pushed the reset button and viola, rolled right up. I then closed the door and used the window reset procedure, opened the door, and it rolled down slightly.

Everything works good as new. Let's just hope it holds up for a while. I did auto roll the driver and passenger down at the same time and my driver rolled down faster, so that's a good sign.

I believe that most people have issues with the driver side simply because it's used more. The downside to DC motors is that they require contacts to make the motor run. And any physical contact will wear over time. It seems that as the brushes wear, it's clogging up the inside of the motors, building on the contact points, and eventually causing the motor to stop working. As the contacts get dirty, the motor will pull more current and that is what kills motors. My guess is that the motors that fail completely probably never stop as mine did, but keep working, however; they pull more current and eventually burn the motor up.

I think the next day I'm laying around with nothing to do, I'll probably pull my passenger side off and clean it out. Whether or not any of you guys wish to perform any preventive maintenance, ask yourself if you'd rather spend $160 on a window motor, or put that cash towards your next mod fund. Now that I know exactly what to do, I think I can knock the passenger side out in a 1/2 hour.

I hope this is informative for some of you, and if you find yourself in the same boat I was in, hit me up with any questions, I'll be glad to help you out. I don't think I've heard anyone on here recommend cleaning these out as a maintenance item, but after what I saw today, I would highly recommend it.

 

My drivers side did the same exact thing a couple of months ago. I went ahead and did the cleaning just like you and BLAM! Worked like new.