2002 Galant Intermittent Power Window Problem
 

A 2002 Galant ES followed my daughter home a few weeks ago. I replaced the front rotors, pads and both engine belts, but other than that it appears to be in pretty good shape.

The one issue we are having is related to the left rear power window. A couple of days after she brought the car home, I found that the left rear window did not go down when using either switch (driver's door or rear door). The switches make their own little click, but there is no action or noise at the window. I didn't have time to look into it so I just let it be. Key fact: I did not mention it to my daughter at the time and I don't know if she knew about it. Since it was stuck in the up position, I wasn't concerned.

Sunday morning she told me that there was a problem with the left rear window. Since I was expecting her to say "It won't go down", imagine my surprise when she said "It won't go up". :eek:

"Won't go up" is considerably worse than "Won't go down" especially since thunderstorms were forecast for later that day.

My daughter said that one of her friends lowered the window with the rear door switch but neither switch would bring it back up. I asked her if she had ever lowered the window herself since she brought the car home and she could not honestly remember whether she had or not. She certainly didn't recall ever saying to herself "I'm trying to lower the left rear window and nothing is happening."

I went out to the car hoping to at least get the window up before it rained. I started the car and just as a test, tried the driver's door switch. Up came the window with no hesitation. I didn't dare try to lower it again for fear that it wouldn't come back up.

I checked the wiring diagram and since the wires to the motor all go through the rear door switch, I disconnected the connector inside the rear door to disable the window. Up is good, down is bad.

In the spirit of full disclosure I will add this fact:

The rear door has a couple of dents, like pretty bad door dings. If I look at the door from just the right angle, it looks like a section in the middle of the door has been repainted, even though the CarFax doesn't list any accidents. The current dents are above the section that looks like it has been repainted.

OK, so where do I start looking for an intermittent power window problem? It could be a bad ground, an intermittent motor, a broken wire, etc. I don't want to get into a "down" situation that can't be reversed, so I'm looking for suggestions to troubleshoot this issue without making the window go down in the process.

Your thoughts are most welcome. Thanks!

thats a connection issue. Probably at the back of the motor.
Take off the door card, use jump leads to put voltage across the terminals on the winder to doubl check. Then play check wiring coming in for consistent continuity when switches pressed.

Thanks. Sorry for long delay but I had trouble getting back into the forum.

I hope to get to the window problem this weekend. I'll let you know what I find.