Anachronism

My bro just bought a 2000 Maxima and it needs a few things including a drivers side power window motor. Currently the window is stuck all the way down, tapping on the motor to try to get a few more seconds of life out of it hasn't worked. All the write ups I have seen instruct you to raise the window a few inches to get at the bolts holding the window to the carrier - how do you do this when the motor is toast? Is there an alternative way to remove the window?

NismoAce

iTrader: (6)

hammer? JK. have you tried making sure it is in fact the motor? May be a relay switch or bad wire. With a multimeter check to make sure the motor gets a 12 volt and ground when the switch is pressed. Try both directions for switch polarity. Also sometimes hooking up a drill batter or even a car batter (drill is easier) as long as it is not about 14 volts connect the battery leads directly to the motor leads and see what happens. You may want to put a fuse in line. Maybe 15 amps or so. I know on my 93 altima the rear window stopped working and it was actually the relay box in the door. I took it off and banged it on the ground a few times to unstick the relay put it back in and never had any more issues. Not sure if the max has the relays in the door or in the engine compartment but if you hook up a batter directly to the motor and it works I would check relays first.

Amave

if your window motor is toast and you are going to replace the regulator, take some bolt cutters and cut the cable that the motor uses to pull the window up and down, this will " disconnect" the motor and you should be able to slide the window up and down as needed.


i've done this before on other cars

Anachronism

I'm pretty sure it is the motor, it gets hot if you hold the switch down.

We don't want to buy more parts than we have to but I guess that's an option.

Amave

does the motor & regulator come as an assembly?



if they do then you're golden, if not, then there might not be any other way other than to cut the cable

murphy390

I had a similar issue with my '01. The cable started to shred and jammed itself in the narrow guide on the motor so that it would not align with the holes to get at the mounting bolts on the bottom.

I was able to cut the top part of the cable with 6" wire cutters by reaching in from the top. Hard but doable. For me that did not solve my problem as the cable winds itself around a spindle in the regulator. That's how it travels up and down. I also had to cut the cable below the spindle which was very awkward. I took off the door trim and removed the speaker so I could get my hand inside the door. I used a mini hacksaw to eventually cut the cable below the spindle. Takes time but obviously can be done. With both the top and bottom parts of the cable cut I was then able to move the widow by hand and line up the mounting bolts to remove the glass.

Then getting the motor off the regualtor was a challenge. I had to "shock" the bolts to get them to move as I started to strip the phillips heads on them. I positioned the regualtor on my vise, put a screwdriver into the head and then used a 3lb hand sledge to give it a few good wraps which then loosened the bolt. Had to do it for each bolt but they were then very easy to remove.

Of course, your regulator is now toast and has to be replaced but for me, the regulator was the issue, not the motor.

Good luck.