Replacing or do repairs on any type of automobile doors, and windows can be very expensive. By DIY you can save hundreds of dollars. It isn't the most simple DIY project, but if you have basic mechanical skills, you should be able to do this repair yourself.
Before working on your car, it is a good idea to disconnect your battery's negative (-)cable. You need to lookup part for your vehicle. When identifying your regulator, you need to know which side, front, rear, right, or left to replace. There are many online part stores, I recommend; to save even more money, to see if a salvage yard has your part. If not, you can pay, conservatively approximately, $50-$80 without a motor, to $80-$100, with a motor. Auto Zone has the best FREE website for a diagram of your car. The site is an excellent site. Look up your car, interior, doors and windows; print out the diagram. Great help to you while working on your project.
Make sure the window is positioned all the way down. Next, you want to get a screwdriver and unscrew all visible screws. You may have plugs, or plastic covers hiding the screws. Pop those off first. I use a set of picks, but you can use a very small straight screwdriver to get them off. Remove window control switches, also disconnecting any electrical connections.
When you have all screws, door latch panel, removed, then you need to get your panel trim remover and start removing the clips that hold the panel down. Starting from the bottom, start pulling the clips all around the edges of the panel. To remove you have to lift up and pull the panel off.
If the regulator still worked and, your window was just moving slowly, or getting stuck, you may get away with just lubricating the brackets with some lithium grease or spray. At times, the brackets can be riddled with dirt and grime. If that was the case, you can stop here, and put everything back reversing the order of this article.
Next you will see the plastic vapor barrier. Use your removal tool and go around the edge to remove it, careful not to tear this, it needs to go back on to keep moisture out. Once it is off, now comes the more difficult part. Now that the plastic is removed, you can see the glass sitting in the clamps. It is a good idea to mark where your glass is located with a marker, so when replacing it, it is in the right place.
You will want to get a helper to work with you on removing the glass. This, to me was the hardest part of the project. Next, loosen the clamps the window is resting in. Do not loosen them all the way, you sure do not want them falling into the door cavity. The rear clamp is really tough to get to, having a variety of sockets, and angled drivers will help. Ok, now you can push up on the bottom edge of the window glass, like the motor would normally do, when pushing this will slide the glass upward and out through the top of the door.
Now you should be able to identify the regulator motor, you want to disconnect the wiring harness from the regulators motor. Next remove the bolts holding the motor, (usually 3), the motor will loosen, but it is still held in place with cabling. Now, remove the two bottom regulator attachment nuts. Before removing anything, mark the bracket location with your marker.
Finally you will have to remove your regulator through the large opening in the door. Fortunately, the regulator can be moved like scissors, so you can angle it out of there. Before putting the new regulator in take the Teflon spray and lubricate the runners, and moving parts thoroughly. Now to put everything back, reverse the order of these instructions. As I said, it isn't the easiest DIY job, but the $ to me was worth it.
