Hello. I'm not sure if this is the designated forum for window electrical issues. About two years ago, my rear driver side window stopped working on my 99 Civic LX. A passenger rolled it down, and it simply would not roll back up from the master console on the front driver side door, or from the switch on the rear driver side door. When moving the switch on any door, it wouldn't make so much as a noise or anything. I took a really expensive / foolish approach to fixing it by pulling out the motor and putting in a new motor. No go. I swapped out the rear driver side switch; no good. I'm convinced I have an electrical issue going on.

Fast forward to now, my front passenger side window is now doing the same thing; no noise when I try to open the window.

All fuses are intact at the fuse block under the steering column.

I have a multimeter and test light I inherited a while back, but I'm not incredibly knowledgable about their usage. Could anyone provide some direction on how I can attempt to troubleshoot this thing? Do all window connections branch from the front driver side console, and perhaps the console itself is failing?

Thanks a ton!

 

Yes it all goes through the driver's door. It could be that the wires between the driver's door and the rest of the car have cracked from repeated flexing. Try opening the door, hold the button down, and move the wires.

 

Cool. I will definitely try that. If I do not have luck, should I attempt to test the master console? I live in the always-rainy Portland, Oregon and have a feeling water could have gotten into it.

 

I tried using the windows with the driver door open, and meddled with the bundle of wires with no luck. I used a test light on the front driver side connector and three of the pins are hot. The rear driver side door has one hot pin, so it's definitely getting juice. I don't know if I should pull out the master console and inspect it?

 

I'd have to find a diagram to say where to go next. If it isn't the wiring it's usually the driver's switch panel, but it would be good to confirm that by testing through the circuit (all the way from the power source, through the switches and motor, to ground) rather than just replacing stuff.

 

I don't know much about electrical stuff (or any car stuff for that matter), but couldn't I pull my existing switch and test continuity between each of the switches to see if any of them are bad, or is it more complex than that?

 

Hey, so I dug into this problem a little more. I found a picture here that shows how to test the master switch:

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/u...cture_6467.jpg

I pulled the switch and all switches work as they should. So I figure at this point it's a wiring issue. Looking at the picture above, it mentions testing B3 - B7. I'm not sure what this entails but if it means continuous power on those connectors, it fails the test.

Here's where things get a little weirder. I did as mk378 suggested, which is to try wiggling the various wires while moving the door and testing the switch. Fortunately, doing this allowed me to lower the rear left window, and it would let me raise it too. However, I can also now lower the rear left window with the front passenger switch, but I still cannot control the front passenger switch with any of the switches in the car.

At this point, it seems like some of my wires are somehow crossed or shorted, and I'm not sure how to proceed. It seems like this could be a real pain to fix. Does anyone have any suggestions before I push this off to a pro?

 

I would pop the doors open and put a straight 12v source to the window regulators motor and see if that makes it work, if so then you have a good motor and bad wiring, if not you have a bad motor.

If the motor is bad then replace it and that should help.

If the motor is good, and you claimed to have checked all the switches for passing power, you will need to just follow each wire and see if there is a break somewhere, it happens.

A lot of car electricians are gonna charge you out the *** for running simple wires that just appear confusing... Everything is color coded by the same color scheme throughout the entire car.

To check the wires I would grab the plug that goes into the motor, and then grab the other end of it at the master relay and check the Ohms (resistance) through it on your multimeter, if you get some then that wire should be okay, if nothing, there is a break somewhere in that wire.

If that is the case then you need to repair or rerun that wire.

If all the wires are complete (not broken) then you might need to change the relays for the window circuit or something (you might be able to tell that no car I have owned had power windows, but I have replaced them before).

Hope something here could help you... On a side note I have a random electrical problem a long time ago in an old car and I kind of gypped PepBoys -_- I needed a new alternator so I got one from them under warranty, but I failed to mention other existing electrical problems. So after they did the work, I used the warranty on the alternator to make them keep replacing the alternator to fix other electrical problems until they finally gave in and did a full electrical inspection to stop me from getting a new alternator installed everyday... they found quite a few problems which the fixed since I claimed it was not a problem before the alternator was installed... Not the most honest method, but I justified it by remembering I paid them 50$ for an oil change a couple times when I didnt have time to do it myself...

 

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate the help. The motors are definitely functional. I've got an extra motor at home that does not work when placed in the faulty locations. Likewise, while I have pulled out the motor from the faulty locations, I have tested them to work at other locations. I am near certain a wire is damaged at the door. What I'm curious about is if anyone has ever seem wires get crossed like this? One switch on one door suddenly moves a window on a different door? Could this still be master switch related? I could always test continuity of each wire at the driver-side door, though I'm not sure where the other end is to test... ie, does it run from the door to the fuse block under the steering wheel?

 

If wiggling the wires makes it come and go, you need to replace the wires. Repeated flexing from opening the door breaks the copper on the inside. The bad wires still look OK on the outside. I think for about $70 you can buy a "door harness" which replaces everything in the door and plugs into the rest of the car at the door jamb.