My driver side window has failed again, this time out of warranty. Since taking the door apart is relatively easy, I'm going to do the work myself.

As other threads on this site have mentioned, the window motors are damn expensive! They're like $240. The regulator (window tracks and cable pulley system that the motor turns) is like $130.

I've already bought a new regulator because my old one had some problems snagging and not letting the window drop. However, I really want to avoid having to blow so much on the motor--especially if the driver side is going to keep dying every year or so.

I found this promising thread via google:
http://www.nissanforums.com/showthre...856#post988856
(that's www. n i s s a n f o r u m s .com, if it's censored here)

Basically, a guy was able to repair the motor itself by swapping in new brushes. Unfortunately, I can't contact the guy for more info because it doesn't look like he's on the site anymore and he has email blocked.

Anyways, I am wondering if anyone knows how to replace motor brushes on the window motor? Is this the sort of thing that is standardized where I could just go to the right store and buy some in the correct size?

I've seen motors with replacable motor brushes before, and it looked easy to do (at least on my Dremel), but I suspect the guy from the above referenced thread is a professional at motor repair and it might be more difficult than I think. I'm hoping this will work as a fix because the brushes can't be more than a couple bucks compared with $240.

BTW, if I bang my door with my hand I can often get the motor to work again temporarily. This seems to fit with the theory that I'm jarring the brushes into making contact again.

This weekend I'm going to see if I can actually take my window motor apart to get to the brushes. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Thanks for any help you can provide,
Jeff

 

Update: I was able to take my window motor apart. The motor utilized carbon brushes which do not appear to be replaceable because I could not figure out how to remove the housing that blocks access to the rear side of the brushes. There was carbon dust all over the place inside the motor. One of the brushes appeared to be partially jammed. Also, one of the brushes had considerably more wear than the other. It doesn’t look like there is a whole lot more life left in my brushes.

I bought some electronics contact cleaner and cleaned out the motor housing and brushes as best I could. The brushes regained full range of motion to make a good contact. Also, I noticed that the commutator (the revolving contacts that the brushes rub against) had carbon dust packed between the individual contacts. I had to use a toothpick to remove this build-up between them. Possibly the packed carbon dust was bridging the contacts so that the magnetic field could not alternate.

After I put the door back together, it did not immediately work. I had to bang on the motor to get it spinning again. It has yet to fail again, but I have only been using the clean motor for a couple days so far.

I recommend that if you attempt to service your window motor that you use “NO FLASH” contact cleaner so you don’t cause an explosion. The regular (and much cheaper) stuff probably evaporates plenty fast, but I’m just covering my butt if you follow my lead. Also, be sure to unplug the motor before opening it up!

Oh, and familiarize yourself with the window calibration routine posted in another thread before taking on this job.
--
Jeff

 

awesome post!

 

interesting indeed, i'll have to link this into yahoo notepad, thanks for the update!

 

I was fighting with this just the past weekend. Funny.

I didn't bother taking the motor apart, but everything else was in peices. It seemed when I put pressure on the solenoid it would work (which I suppose supports the brushes not making contact).

Anyway, A cable tie (really tight) around the motor has it working and it's yet to fail, but I didn't want to worry about it later on down the road, so I bought a new motor and will replace it when it comes. They are expensive, but allnissanparts.net sold me one for 190 instead of the dealer's 250.

--meth

 

can we get some pictures? im having the same problem w/ my driver's side window, it chooses to work on occasions and of course it works great when i took it to the dealer. retarded dealers must be able to duplicate the problem. and my warranty is just about to run out, any suggestions on what i can do to break it all at once? or fix it w/ your solution? thanks

 

Does anyone have step by step instructions on how to change the motor out with pictures if possible?

 

mine did the same thing, can is under warranty too and they wont fix it!!!! they said its the window tint guys fault..... what crap!!

 

mxjosh--go to another dealer. that is the biggest load of crap. these motors are a known problem on this car. if we could poll EVERY person on this board i would bet 90% have had atleast 1 if not both motors replaced atleast once under warranty. my passenger side motor took a dump in less than a week after buying my car.

 

bump for a HOW TO.....

 

The driver's window motor failed for me as well (on the right hand side) under warranty. No problem with dealer replacement .. note - I have no after-market tint on my windows.

 

Since this thread was helpful to me I figured I'd bring it back up the top!

This is a fairly easy fix.

I did the following. I removed the door panel, took the plate off covering the inside of the door, this attaches to the motor and to the window rails.

Disconnect the rails.

Move the plate away and disconnect the motor from the plate for easier access.

Take the brass looking cover off the motor. Remove the brush/assembly from the motor. I wiped this down, and cleaned out the cylinder from where I pulled the assembly out of. This was covered in crap.

Reassemble and go. I didn't even have to reset the window, just put everythingback together and my window appears to work perfectly, something that hasn't worked right in over 9months!

 

Bump! Gonna give it a try tomorrow, since I have the whole day off and give you folks an update on the results!

 

So I gave it a try today, and it worked fairly well with the Door Finisher still OFF the car; but the moment I put the finisher back on the car and all was cleaned up, it started to bug out again...maybe there is too much friction between the door finisher top and the outside weather strip--sandwhich'ing the glass between...or my window motor could simply be too close to dying...which I guess is pretty unrepaireable...dangit

 

Sorry to hear that Terence. Mine's been working fine for the past week and a half now.

 

omg I just got pwn3d the BEST way possible! I made the above post and then reread christoc's post again--to make sure I didn't miss anything; viola! I TOTALLY forgot to actually unthread and pull out the brush assembly out of the motor itself. Prior to figuring this out, I was only pull off the cover and dusting the cover and brush assembly while still mounted into the motor.

Long story short, there was TONS of carbon buildup inside the motor's brush/assembly cavity; so I used 3 cotton swabs and a toothpick, along with a compressed air can to clean out the blackened gunk. I put it all together and now it works PERFECTLY like day one off the dealer lot! EVERY DAMN person here needs to do this to fix with window problems!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!

BEST repair EVER!!!!

 

better yet, let's have Nissan pay attention to this problem and do something about it. please!!!

 

Yeah and monkeys will fly out of my butt! Based on Nissan's response to other big problems, like feathering, don't hold your breath pismojeff. BTW, I love the Pismo area, in particular Moro Bay.

 

yeah great place to live. if you have to live somewhere on the coast in California this is the place to be.

 

How long did this actually take you guys to fix? Unfortuantely i'm having the same problem with my passenger side window. I just made an appointment for the dealer to fix it but i'd rather save my 300+ dollars if possible.