QuestionHi, I have a 1993 GMC Safari Van, w/power doors/windows. The problem: On the drivers side door, the window goes up and goes down when it feels like it! Usually does both in incriments at a time. Very frustrating! Please answer the following for me:
**There, inside the door panel, there is a 1x2" connector box with about 4-5 prongs on it where the wires plug into it. Could this be the problem? The vehicle has 130,000 miles on it, and it is the original part. If it is the problem, at our local Auto Zone, they carry this type of part, but I hate to buy it if this is not the problem. Most stores won't let you return electrical parts back for a refund!
**This box with the prongs on it.......if it is bad, is it a type of deal that it will just never work, or it will work when it wants to if it is GOING BAD?
**Like is said, I'll try to bring the window down, and it will just stop. Wait a few minutes, and it will move a bit more, etc., etc. Same thing when it comes time to close the window!
Please help me solve this issue with any suggestions that you may have for me?
Thanks !
Tom B.
AnswerHi Tom,
If you mean inside the drivers door, that is where the switches connect.
The switches control both power, and ground to each window motor. When you push the switch in the other direction, it switches polarity on the wires, and that is how the direction is changed.
Then the drivers door switch can override all the other switches, and that is why that thing is so big.
But I doubt that mechanism is your problem, unless we are talking about only the drivers door window. That window has a separate module to operate the auto down feature, with its own circuit breaker in it, in addition to the breaker in the motor itself. I am not sure exactly where your auto down module is, and that just might be what you are referring to.
Each motor has a built in, self resetting circuit breaker...inside the motor, in solid state circuitry.
That breaker is what stops the motor when it gets the window all the way up, or all the way down....the resistance to moving just actually overloads it. There are no limit switches that measure travel, etc.
I think you probably have a lazy breaker, and eplacing the window motor may be what is needed.
But don't just run down and buy one without checking at the motor itself.
Get access to the wires that connect to the motor itself, and see if power is getting to it while it isn't moving. Power should be present at one wire with the button pressed to up, and at the other wire with the button pressed down. You can't be sure, though, that ground is being switched though, so if you can get to a connector at the motor, I would make a set of jumper wires, one connected to battery pos, and the other to a good ground. Going directly to the motors wires, connect them one way, then the other. The window should go up, then down, etc. If it works good...and it should work as good as you ever saw, then the motor, and internal breaker is fine. If it still works a bit, then quits and waits a while, there is nothing left except replacing the motor.
Remember...you can't just connect the ground to the motor frame itself....it is isolated inside the motor so that it can be reversed.
If the motor turns out to be fine, then that box, if it is a module, may be what you need....I just hate replacing parts on a guess.
Good luck,
Van
