Shooter_Jay

This year my passenger side window stopped going down.

I took the door apart and took the motor out. I see that the window motor has two leads. If I put 12V to them the motor spins. If I reverse the wires the motor spins the other way. So the motor is not the problem.

The up direction does work with the switch, and if I reverse the polarity, up will make the motor spin down. The problem is the same whether I try to use the PS or DS switch to control it, both don't make it go, so evidently the switches are not the problem. Though maybe something in the DS switch assembly other than the actual switch?

I was thinking maybe some sort of BCM. I was looking in my service manual at the BCM schematics, nothing obvious jumped out at me.

Please help, I'd like to open my PS window

Shooter_Jay

Interesting. Studying the schematic some more, looks like my problem must lie within the driver's side switch somewhere. Looks like the power to the PS PSW switch is supposed to come through the DS PSW switch, and is making me think the DS PSW switch must be causing both switches to not do their job.

EDIT: Either that or a bad wire in the DS direction from the PS switch.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

It very well may be a bad motor. If you test the motor off the car, it doesn't tell you much because there isn't a load on it. (A bad motor can look good, especially if the thermal cut-off is failing, off the car.)

You can check the electrical at the plug. You should see the polarity of the 12V at the plug flip when you select up vs. down with the switch. If not, its probably a bad switch somewhere. (Driver or Passenger.) If so, its a bad motor.

Shooter_Jay

I likely wasn't clear. The reason I believe it's not the motor is that when I tested it both ways, it was using the switch jury rigged so I could reverse the polarity. Clicking the down switch gave nothing and the up switch caused the motor to run one way, then reversing the polarity the up sent it the reverse way. This proves that something other than the motor is faulty. I agree with you that the motor could also be faulty, I haven't proved it not, but I have proved that something other than the motor is faulty. Unlikely that it's both at the same time, plus the motor is fairly new, not that that is 100% decisive either, but the reverse polarity thing definitely shows a problem before the motor.

I was trying to figure how to check the continuity on the switch, but was cumbersome, as my ultra-cheap DVM doesn't have clip on leads.

I did find a NOS DS switch on ebay for $12, so I just ordered it. Hopefully that fixes it, as I believe the problem is near it, since both switches seem non-functional the same, implying the DS considering the electrical schematic.

Anyway sorry for lengthy post and thanks for the help thinking about it.

Shooter_Jay

Ps. Black M6 Formy, nice combo man

ROC1ROB

iTrader: (1)

On my other car I had a similar problem. The passenger switch is just a slave switch so if the drivers side was screwed the slave did the same. This could prove your switch problem. Did you try to hold the window motor from turning? When they are bad you can hold them back by just grabbing the drive gear. Do these cars have an amplifier before the switch? By that I mean a electronic switch for power feed before the switch. That was my problem with my other car. I could make the window go up and down by reversing the wires to the motor. Real getto but it got me by! LOL GL with your switch.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Thanks. It's been in a body shop for 6 weeks, waiting for parts, and I pick it back up tomorrow. (I spun and side swiped a curb going over a frozen bridge. - Need to be more careful next time.) Hopefully it will drive straight!

Sounds like you have the problem pegged. I had a switch go out on me the same way. The switches are easy to test as long as you have three hands. (I think I used a few spare alligator clips to help me out when I tested mine.)

Shooter_Jay

Best luck with your formy, sweet ride.

Anyway, update, the new driver's side switch solved the passenger side problem as I eventually suspected. Best part is it was $12.xx shipped from ebay. Now no more driving around with the top down and one window up

Not that I drive it much when it's nice enough to take one of the bikes out. On another note, I just did install a trailer hitch on my Z, so slightly better chances it will see a few miles here and there when it's time to haul stuff. Though unfortunately they sent the wrong wiring harness so gotta wait another week or so to get it right. But I'm looking forward to confusing people by towing a bike or two behind my convertible Z haha.