My 1999 coupe passenger power window has quit working. What usually fails ? I hear a relay clicking but that's all Thanks DPS

 

Most likely motor and/or regulator. If you didn’t hear a crunching noise before it stopped working most likely your problem is the motor. Try banging on the inside of the door just above the handle you use to close the door while pressing the window button. Sounds weird I know, but Do a search and you’ll see that this worked for a lot of people.

 

thanks

 

Try the WHACK method.

 

We typically find that on a 1999, the window regulator is the most common failure. You can diagnose by listening for movement in the door, but the glass does not raise, the glass slides down into the door, you can hear crunching or grinding. If you need to replace the regulator we offer a rebuild service in which we replace the broken plastic pieces with metal alternatives and we lifetime warranty the build. This service costs $249 + shipping.

 

Highly advise against this above. If, in fact, your regulator and motor are both bad and you need to buy a new one, it can be repaired for about $150 with gm parts and about 30 minutes of your time. Who is this guy? Oh yeah. He has 2 posts. Lol. Plus the crunching is caused by the wire cables shredding.

 

Man, I am not "mr expert" , but I resist any fix that involves sharp hammer impacts as the solution. The "whack method" is not for me, although simple and effective are generally worthwhile in my book.

I guess I was influenced by an old story in a motoring book, about a new mechanic that was hired by Rolls Royce, back when they were pretty new. At his previous job , he adjusted the bumpers as they came off the line, with a couple of hammer taps. One of the owners, I don't remember which one, saw the big hammer in the bottom of the guys tool box, and fired the guy on the spot, saying rolls royce doesn't use hammers on the cars.

Just an old story, kind of dramatic, maybe it was a show for the other workers, might not even be true. But it does illustrate a mechanical philosophy that I think constructive.

AS you might know, the window motor is built inside a can, and over the years the carbon dust coming off the brushes forms a pile and once it gets big enough, it shorts out the motor. A shock or shake can settle the pile away from the commutator and restore function. If I were going to beat on the door for a solution, I would try closer to the motor, as one of the other posters suggested.

I paid about 35 bucks at auto zone parts store for a Mexican replacement motor, GM motors were also made in Mexico at the time, and the local parts store also guaranteed the part for life, so I figured one part would be as good as another.

It is a clean job, one can look at the job and see how to do it, no tricks or deep corvette experience needed. I didn't know better and broke a few clips holding the panel to the door, and unlike the skilled guys, I had to screw in the new motor to engage the screw drive, having only a dim understanding of the workings, unlike all the other reports of doing this task, where it assembled as easily as came apart. I also recovered an old socket from the bottom go the door that I could hear shift position on some turns, it was a used car.

Since my car is a convertible, I took great car not to move the window adjustments.

P,S, I am no snob, I have made some coins swinging a hammer, once or twice, in a distant past. I have also seen detailed postings about this repair, in case you can't find your hammer.

 

I only read the first 2 lines of this but no one said use a hammer. 2 or 3 quick fists to the door panel fixed a lot of these issues as documented repeatedly on this forum dating back almost 15 years. Relax my man. Everything will be ok.

 

I posted the WHACK method because it worked for me; 2 years ago on my Vert passenger's window and still no further problems. An neighbor who is an electrical engineer said electric motors that are not used often will have issues. Sometimes gingerly jarring the motor with light taps it is enough to have the motor start again. He also suggested exercising the windows regularly if not used regularly. I now regularly do the exercise method on the windows along with the headlights (never have driven at night) and the wipers (never driven in the rain).

 

man, you didn't have to get personal. Most people read all the way through my posts before the objections and corrections start, so I will credit you for efficiency . I will apply a more rigorous schedule to my relaxation, I'm not one to pass up good advice.

 

personal? No one got personal. You misread my post. No one said use a hammer. You brought that up yourself. And you also recommended not going with the whack method, which like i said, has helped many members over the course of several years. You can google it, YouTube it, search it, bing it, and it will still come up as solid advice for c5 owners with window motor problems. Just because most owners don’t share your hypersensitive approach to diy repairs to these cars, doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. Cheers buddy.

 

I hope my reply didn't get twisted, part of my deal here is to upgrade my communication skills, and I had hoped my message was clear.

My main intent was to describe why this (impact) fix works, so the poster asking what is the likely cause can judge the problem with a little more insight. As we both know, few machines fix themselves back to normal function after failure , no matter the amount of blows or curses used in repair attempts.

I like simple and effective, and really like low cost fixes, but considered a hammer and an assistant a bit of overkill, if, in fact, one is just shaking a pile of dust away from the motor contacts. I tried to select a non judgmental objection, "not for me". , because I honor others attempts to promote friendly and effective knowledge. Almost all I know about my ride is from posts here.

I , hopefully, stated the reasons for my thinking, I wasn't trying to suggest that a sincere honest effort to help, that I haven't tried, and works, is an inferior path. Perhaps if I had impacted my motors dust pile more directly, I wouldn't even have replaced the motor, my attempts to restore function with my impacts didn't last long. Perhaps because of the convertible body style, and that both windows go up and down with the top, my captured commutator dust was a bigger pile than normal, I doubt it, but am glad I finally went on and replaced the problem part.

When I had the problem, my web searches mostly wanted to sell me a complete regulator assembly, I wouldn't want a person to think this was the only repair avenue, so I threw that in too, In my case, without a channel for the window, how the window hits the convertible top is a critical adjustment, and not something I would wish on another.

I once saved a ship from sinking by knowing when , in the start up of the main bilge pump, and where, to apply a sharp hammer blow, as the steam energized the piston. A story for another time, but it does show there is a time and place for that universal fix, "get a bigger hammer."

 

Gee whiz buddy, I could have sworn you gave my hypersensitive self some quick lifestyle advice, but my return objection to you was only in jest. I had hoped that was clear, but I restate my intent now, just in case you weren't, in fact, intentionally avoiding my friendly intent, to advance a need to start , and win, some kind of contest.

To be clear, I objected to the use of a hammer, for reasons stated in my post, not the design behind the method, if you need less words.

i resist using a hammer , and the method is not for me, are two very different statements than completely recommending against the suggestion, you mistakenly have interpreted my statements..

I had hoped this subtle distinction would not be lost to the reader, because my primary intent here is sharing friendship and knowledge, not to slam others.

After all, one of my first statements was my lack of expertise , to help provide a frame of reference , within which one could better judge my advice on this problem. One fo the things I omitted was the thinking that a hammer and myself around plastic body work would be a poor repair strategy , but since it wasn't universal, I left it out , and it wasn't that entertaining anyway.

In my link to the whack method, the one I read , in the tools needed , listed a hammer. perhaps your link was different, or again, not reading didn't serve your understanding as well as needed.

I only come here for fun, and because I learn a lot, not to nit pick with guys who object to posts they don't read. If I mis read your post as needlessly argumentative , I publicly apologize here and now.

 

 

I did the Whack Method its working for now so it does work

 

i honestly don’t even know how to respond to this. There’s a lot going on here. Lol. Anyway, looks like the op followed the long time recommended method of whacking it. Lol. Hopefully the remedy holds. While I appreciate your lengthy posts and fancy words, it wasn’t useful. Sometimes the most useful thing is reading and listening rather than trying to verbalize how smart you are. Cheers.

 

Hey there we are a new vendor sponsored on the site. No need for rudeness, we can all get along. We're here to provide high quality metal repairs as an alternative to the cheap plastic pieces that normally break on window regulators. I'll leave a picture of our products for reference. We have specialized in rebuilding regulators for over ten years. Please feel free to have a look at our reviews as we have a near perfect rating on yelp and google. We are the only shop in the country that manufactures our own metal part for these repairs.

 

Oh. Ok. Welcome! Are those c5 parts in your picture? Also, a majority of c5 window regulators fail because the wire cable starts coming apart/shredding causing a crunching noise. What do you offer to strengthen that point of failure? Thanks.

 

Usually if we see the cable is shredding or falling apart, we replace the cable. Typically we find that the cable becomes damaged due to continued use after a different component on the regulator has broken. After we rebuild and strengthen with our metal parts, the parts we install are designed to handle more load than the plastic parts, so very rarely do we have any recalls for the cable shredding after that. The parts in the picture are universal, so they fit the c5 as well as the newer corvette regulators.

 

interesting. Thanks. What is the warranty you provide? The oem is 2 years so I’m assuming yours is at least 5 or more? Thanks.