Just bought an 02 camaro ss Saturday and before I can have any fun I have to fix a problem I noticed just minutes after I drove off of the lot. The driver side window doesn't roll down (or up). It seems to have no power. No noise or any movement. Passenger side works from the driver side button. I'm guessing the motor just went out but figured I would ask before I start tearing into this bad boy. Maybe fuses or switch issue that might be easier to fix it. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance

 

4th gens are notorious for bad window motors. Is it stuck with the window closed or open?

 

Right now it's struck mostly closed. About a half of a centimeter Crack open

 

theres a bunch of guides on how to replace the motor. I would recommend a dorman motor from your local autozone. They have a lifetime warranty. However, when my motors were bad, they would still roll the window up or down about an inch or so before it completely stopped. Then after a few minutes, id be able to roll for another inch or two.

Heres a guide that i use when ive replaced my window motors
http://www.shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

 

Ok thanks!

Yeah that's what I was thinking that the motor would be weak but not completely dead and not move at all. Hoping it's a the switch or a fuse as that would be the easy fix. But the passenger side works from the drivers side switch so that might rule both the fuse and switch out. The window hasn't moved at all for me so I'm wondering if the previous owner rolled it up as far as he could then unplugged it somewhere so he couldn't roll it back down and not roll it up. I haven't started digging into it yet. It's been too cold and snowy to be working outside on cars here.

 

^ It's much more complicated than that. The switches on the driver's panel may be together, but they have no wiring in common. The wiring is also more complex than you would expect. (You can look at a schematic for all that.)

There are a number of ways the motors fail. The design is ancient and they fail often. There's a discussion of that here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/pontiac-f...hs-truths.html Sorry that the thread doesn't have very good news right now, but hopefully it will soon.

The fact that your window is cracked open could indicate that the motor crapped out as it was trying to operate one final time - but you really have to get the door panel off to really find out what's going on.

 

Just do yourself a favor and replace both of them. I had the exact problem when I bought mine.

It really isn't very hard.

 

Thanks for the links and advice. I just got done replacing the motor and that did the trick. At least for a few years anyway. Life time warranty on the motor so I'm sure I'll be cashing that in the future.

 

ttt

I have the same problem.

I took my car to get it aligned after installing all my suspension components. I pulled up to the tire shop with my window down and rolled it up and it rolled up very strongly. (for an old GM power window) When I bought this car in December the dealership said they replaced a window motor which I thought was the drivers side motor.

Anyway the guy took it to align it and rolled it all the way down. When he finished and brought it back the window was dead. It won't move at all. He says he thinks it might be the switch. I've always know these old GM power windows to die slowly and start to become weak, but this window was working strongly and just all of a sudden died.

Does this sound like the window motor or a fuse or switch like this guy who aligned it seems to think?

Thanks,

Jesse

 

id check the switch first. Iirc i had one die on my last fbody, Theyre pretty cheap at autozone and im sure you can return it in case it doesnt solve the problem

 

The dealers carry cheap rebuilt motors. It's very common for these to end up being duds.

It's also very common now that these cars are old for dealers to install the motors by removing the regulator and using the wrong rivets to reinstall the assembly. If they did this with cheap steel rivets, it can ruin our door down the road.

^ I would read up on these motors extensively so you can go toe-to-toe with this dealer. They have already ripped you off once, so as you get it fixed, you'll want to make sure that you get it fixed for the long haul.

 

First of all thanks for your help guys. I appreciate it.

Here is what it looks like inside my door. I do believe that these are all steel rivets in my door.





I ordered a Dorman motor off of Amazon that should be here tomorrow. I discovered that when holding the switch in my hand and trying to roll the window up that the switch gets very hot very quickly. I'm no electrician, but that doesn't seem right so I also ordered a new ACDelco window switch in case that is the problem. I figured if it wasn't the window motor then I would likely need one eventually.

 

^ It looks like someone has done a shbox window replacement in the past, which is recommended. Someone has also done a factory-style window replacement by removing the window regulator.

I'd suggest testing the rivets with a magnet. Are the rivets magenetic? The proper ones should have a steel mandrel (magnetic middle piece) with an aluminum (non-magnetic) jacket.

 

Yeah I got it back together earlier today. Turns out the motor and switch were fine. I think the guy roled the window down and was just slamming the door shut in way shouldn't close old Fbody doors with or without the windows down. The motor gear must of been dislodged from the window gear. Must of really been slamming this thing pretty hard. On all the old Fbodies and Mustangs that me and my parents when I was growing up with them owned you don't just slam the doors shut like its a new Silverado or something and especially not with the windows down as they're not supported in the door enough. I always grab the top of the door with my hand and palm it so to speak and close it gently, but firmly if I shut it with the windows down so that they don't get beat around inside the doors.

Anyway maybe you can help me with this. You are right that someone did the shbox window mod before, but the motor in my driver door isn't a factory style motor. From what I could tell I couldn't even mount my factory style Dorman to the regulator. I had to mod the holes in my door some more to get to the screws in and out.

It looks like this Dorman product that also says it fits a Gen4:


And I just bought this OEM style Dorman as a replacement when I thought the motor was bad:


Is one better than the other? I will say that my driver and passenger windows do role up quite differently from one another. I prefer the drivers side when it's working. The OEM style motor has an extra tooth on it's gear, (8 vs 9) and seems like it's not as smooth as this different style motor. Also it's gear isn't as wide on the different style motor and may be the reason it slipped off track. I don't think the regulator on the different style setup will work with a OEM style motor even if you could get it to mount as the gears look like they would not work together.

 

One more thing. It roles up and down just fine now but the Auto down isn't working anymore and I can't figure out why not. Any idea's as to the the Auto down switch stop working all of a sudden?

 

Probably more likely a loose electrical connector on the motor - that's very common and its hard to get back on securely.


I have no idea on the other stuff, but I have tried a different motor/regulator combo before. ... it also ended up sucking and I couldn't get a replacement motor when it whet bad.