I've been meaning to pass this along. Three or 4 years ago, I had to replace the window regulator in the driver's door on my 2000 Corvette. I researched on the internet about how to get the door panel off before I proceeded and the general consensus about removing the switch panel (window, door locks, etc.) was to gently pry up on the panel with a small screwdriver. Before doing this, just in case, I checked to see what the cost and availability was for the switch panel and found a bunch listed for about $100. I didn't notice at the time that these were all aftermarket and that the OEM version was extremely hard to find. So I proceeded to start prying up on the switch panel and sure enough, snap. An edge snapped off and the black paint chipped. These switch panels are very fragile. Now realizing that all the switch panels that I was looking at were aftermarket, I searched for OEM and did find them for I think $600. Holy sh$t!! So I ended up buying an aftermarket switch panel. Ok in a pinch but not the same. If I remember correctly, the connectors were loose and I was not satisfied. So I searched some more and was able to find NOS switches for $300 at some Chevy dealer in the midwest. Still a lot but better than $600 but that was 3 or 4 years ago.

So I just wanted to say, if you need to get your door panel off, loosen up the door panel 1st, pull it out slightly, and reach underneath to push the switch panel out of its pocket. Works better that way.

 

Thanks for the great info and the heads up.

BC

 

Absolutely. Remove the door skin and you have full access to release and unplug the connector. There is no need to remove the switch to remove the door skin. If you need to replace the switch panel, i would still remove the skin, its very easy, remove the connector then push the underside of the button panel and it pops easily out. I popped mine out by accident, thanks how early it comes out. Thats how it was designed to come out. Not from the top.

 

I found that you need to pry they off from different places. I believe the driver was pried from the top of the swit h and the paas side from the bottom. I hope I don't have that back wards.....

 

Thank You!

 

The problem with prying from the top is that you don't really know which end has the spring clip and which end has the fixed clip unless you have a switch in hand. I think that I tried prying from the wrong end. My switch wasn't popping up very easily when I tried prying. It does pop real easy from underneath. It has been awhile since I did this so my memory has faded but now, thinking back, even after I cracked the edge by prying up on it, the switch was still usable and the damage was not easily seen unless you looked real close. What did me in was after I installed the window regulator, I was making adjustments. I had the window switch connected with the door panel off. I wanted to make the adjustments with the window up. So the window was up and the top was down, so when I pushed the button to open the rear deck to unfold the top, the windows automatically went down and the switch was hanging down in the path of the window. That's when I heard the crunch and my switch was done. I wasn't too concerned because I thought that these switches were readily available and not too expensive. When I found out that that wasn't true about the OEM switches, that's when I realized that I f'd up.

So don't do that either.

 

Why not just pop the door skin off? It onky takes about 2 minutes, then you push under the window unit and it pops out. Simple easy no breaking or...

 

Someone that's done the same thing told me that a little super glue makes the problem go away for free...can't remember who it was though. Definitely wasn't my personal experience. Nope.

 

A vid that I made 7 year ago, when I needed to investigate why one door speaker was not working.