silverformula

I was thinking the same thing, could it be moisture or humidity or heat, etc. that causes to the inner part of the door to flex and that is why the motor gets out of aliment and wears out faster?


By the way, my window motors are original but I only have 31K miles on her.

Need4Camaro

iTrader: (1)

The earliest Ive ever had mine go bad was at about 90k miles

silverformula

I'm interested on hearing what Need4Camaro and Lup and everyone has to say about the inner parts of the door flexing with age.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

The doors are fiberglass, I've seen fbody door skins crack away from the frame, happens from time to time. If yours is flexing the bonding glue is probably starting to come apart

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

My car is my only car....for the past 19 years. It sees rain almost every day in South Florida summers.....gets dirty all the time. Have to wash it 2 times a week.

.

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Damn....my 1998 has at about 225,000 miles....at least......

.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I replaced my driver's side with a Cardone about 10-12 years ago and it's still working fine. My passenger side is slow and sometimes I have to raise it a section at a time, but it's still alive on this 17 year old car. The moral of the story is ... exotic engineering exercises really aren't necessary to deal with this issue. If it quits, spend $25-30, fix it and enjoy

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This happened to me with every stock motor I ever installed. It annoyed me to no end and I would have paid handsomely to fix it.

The "new" motors out of the box even did this. I'd pay extra to not have to install the motors over and over and over and over again!

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I'm surprised you had that type of trouble with new motors right out of the box. The old-style Dorman I installed on mine, plus a couple Siemens and other old-style Dormans I've installed on other 4th gens never had a problem when new. I only kept mine for about 2-3 years after installing the new motor, and I'm not in touch with the new owner, so I don't know its current status. But the others I've installed or helped to install have held up well for the most part. Definitely never had issues with any right out of the box like that.

In my experience, tinting paper seems to accelerate the failure rate of original or replacement OE motors....greater drag perhaps? Or maybe it's because those folks are constantly rolling their windows down to avoid tickets as they pass by cops?

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I'm getting old and lazy about working on cars. When my first motor failed I learned about the procedure and charged into the job with gusto. I gladly did it on both my sons' cars. Now the idea of doing this job is about as appealing as the prospect of spending several hours in a dental chair.

Need4Camaro

iTrader: (1)

To each their own. Note though that while the thermal resistor by-pass works as a permanent fix on the stock motors, it does not increase their speed any faster than their brand new condition speed where as this mod also increases the speed by a pretty noticeable amount and that's the real reason why I did this.. I wanted overall faster motors.

MY_2K_Z

iTrader: (1)

Here's my 2 cents worth, after owning many power window 4th gens and always fighting this issue and now owning a manual window 4th gen I will never by another power window equipped fbody. The manual windows work 1000x better than the garbage power windows.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I wish it was easier to find ones with manual windows. I wouldn't mind at all, my '71 has all its original (manual) window components - they've been working fine for 46 years.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

You guys must also prefer to crank start your cars?

MY_2K_Z

iTrader: (1)

I know it seems odd. But once you own one you will see my point t of view.

Need4Camaro

iTrader: (1)

My first F-Body was a blue 98 V6 and it had rollup windows. For the reliability, not too bad..but for reaching over to the passenger side to roll it up once it starts raining, I can pass.

merim123

iTrader: (11)

Here's something interesting that others may have found. I took my camaro door panels off and replaced with trans am, along with all the controls. Lo and behold, my windows operated faster with the firebird switches. I wonder if some of these problems are results of a bad switch. I only have one example I saw personally. i've done nothing more with it.

chrysler kid

iTrader: (14)

I've never used rivets and never had problems.

I can't ever remember the job taking more than 2-3 hours the first time, the second time was 45 minutes and I'll bet 15 minutes of that was wiggling the door lock rod into the clip in the door to put the panel back on

Need4Camaro

iTrader: (1)

Honestly I HIGHLY doubt it. I think you just tightened a connection that was previously loose at the very most...that or maybe your original switches were slowly going bad.

Everyone has had different experiences.. Myself and yourself are the fortunate folks that haven't had the fiberglass tear with bolts holding them, but there are horror stories where it has happened so when I went back in with a new regulator..I chose the best possible defense against the matter..rivets..not to say that bolts WILL tear up the door.. ..but they can..

The job itself isnt difficult, its cumbersome.. manuevering the regulator in and out of position while trying not to break your window.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

FYI - It looks like an aftermarket manufacturer is now making a regulator with these attachment points. The manufacturer and motor type appear to be still unknown...

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...tor-motor.html