wssix99

iTrader: (5)

BEWARE of the Electric-Life window option!

I installed the Electric-Life 3rd party window regulator/motor kit (http://www.electric-life.com/shopexd.asp?id=929) on my Firebird 4 years and 40K miles ago in order to escape the vicious cycle of window motor replacements.

(I made this decision just as the new Dorman window motor design was coming out.)

Over the life of the unit, the operation has been smooth and the regulator has seemed sturdier than the stock unit. Both driver's and passenger's side windows have worked at the exact same speed the entire time. The motors worried me at the time as they are kind of scrawny and don't seem to include a thermal cutoff feature. That worry was well founded as one of the motors just died.

At the time, the cost of the kit ($300) was like **** rape. Very painful, but I felt like I had to take it with a smile. Then, I just found out that the replacement motors are $80 a piece. So, I ran away and am not going to let them do it to me again!

Thankfully, I saved my old regulators and reinstalled them with the new Dorman motors. Even if these go out on me down the road, they will be free to replace (lifetime warranty) and can come out easy. (The Electric-Life motors can not be installed with the shbox method and have to come out with the entire regulator.)

BTW - The Electric-Life kit is made by this company: http://www.meritor.com/subsites/ligh...r/default.aspx It looks like they have a lot of experience with making auto window regulators, but these kits are low volume and are made in Italy. (Hence the expensive parts.)

Zlow28

iTrader: (11)

thanks for the feedback. So right now you have the dorman motors with the old/stock regulators right? Any noticable difference between the motors or brands?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Right.

The stock regulators are not as smooth as the Electric-Life regs but that may be due to wear vs. quality.

The Electric-Life motors are much quieter than the stock or Dorman designs. The Electric-Life motors also kept their speed up through the entire life of the motor.

So, some good things over the OEM designs but I don't think they are worth the immense cost/hassle.

I've never gone through a full cycle on the Dorman motors, so we'll see how they do over the long run. Given that I have yet to hear of someone burning out a Dorman motor, I have high hopes!

Schweet97Z

iTrader: (35)

http://www.autotrix.net/

BIG_MIKE2005

iTrader: (116)

^^Agreed, new Dorman motors with this upgrade as well. People have had some pretty good results doin this combo.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

The autotrix kit fixes nothing and is just a patch for badly designed and performing motors. I'd love to hear from someone who had a Dorman crapping out on them and used the autotrix kit to get it back in shape. (Putting the kit in with a new design motor at the same time doesn't really prove anything. Its just putting a band-aid on a place where there is not cut.)

The performance of the Meritor motors proves that an alternative design can run despite the normal voltage drop to the motors - just a shame that they are so expansive and a pain to replace. Hopefully the Dorman motors will hold up in a similar fashion.

BIG_MIKE2005

iTrader: (116)

Well the way I look at this is that if the Autotrix kit gets the motor the proper voltage then the motor wont be as strained when operating which in turn should increase the life of the motor. I'd rather not have to put new motors i every couple years & if the combo of these together can extend the life then its a worth while investment IMO, not a waste. Even if its not "needed" with a brand new motor.

But to each their own.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

If you measure the voltage on a stock car, you'll see that its proper and above 12V. All electronics in the car should be able to handle this condition. Some motors are good, some are bad, and the bad ones struggle as they age with normal voltage.

EnergyCC

It's not really a question of voltage. It's more a problem of not getting enough current flowing through the thin wires. That cause the motor to "struggle" and overheat over time and.... fail.

Spartan7

iTrader: (7)

^^ No, it's not. The wires (I'd hardly consider 12ga thin) are fine, the wiring "fix" only makes an already failing motor appear to work better. This has been covered before.

Also, way to dig up a thread from 2011.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

^ And read the comment out of context. My comment was related to the manufacturer's claims about voltage.

This is not accurate, but there's no reason to re-hash the fundamentals of electricity in this old thread. ... our point out (again) that the OEM motors and wiring are perfectly fine from the factory. The motors deteriorate - not the wires.

We'll continue to keep this one open because the Electric-Life kits are still out of the market and people should beware of them.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Old thread I know, but since it was bumped...

For what it is worth, my old 98's passenger window could barely make it to the top. Autotrix kit fixed it to be faster than the almost new motor on the driver side. Continued to work perfectly over the next 1-1.5 years until the car was killed.

Hard to argue with success, although the engineer in me does want to know why <shrug>

I should put a DMM on the motor leads on my 99's passenger window and see what the voltage is reading while putting the window up. Both work fine still with stock wiring, not sure if the motors have been replaced.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

This thread is not an Autotrix commercial nor a place to rehash discussion that we've had over and over and over and over again.

So, we'll close the tread so people don't continue to dump on it.