Window Problem, electrical issue. Help!
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
From: San Diego, CA
Window Problem, electrical issue. Help! Background: A couple of year ago, my mechanic installed the autotrix kit driver and passenger with express down on both doors and doormats motors. Couple of months in, the passenger express down stopped working. Other than that, no issues for a couple of years.
Situation: Passenger Side window has frozen 3/4 up, out of nowhere. Replaced the motor, didn't help. Found a blown fuse on one of the wires for the door kits, figured that was it, returned the motor and bought a fuse. Replaced the fuse, existing motor still didn't work. I hear the clicking from the relays on passenger kick panel. Could the blown fuse have fried the motor before it went? Is there somewhere else I need to be looking? I even took out the BCM to see if it was a bad soldering issue. Ideas?
Situation: Passenger Side window has frozen 3/4 up, out of nowhere. Replaced the motor, didn't help. Found a blown fuse on one of the wires for the door kits, figured that was it, returned the motor and bought a fuse. Replaced the fuse, existing motor still didn't work. I hear the clicking from the relays on passenger kick panel. Could the blown fuse have fried the motor before it went? Is there somewhere else I need to be looking? I even took out the BCM to see if it was a bad soldering issue. Ideas?
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,332
Likes: 347
From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
I would check the same fuse again. It sounds like you may have a dead short and the new fuse may have blown the moment you tried to use the window. If so, at least it narrows down where you have to look.
And no, the motor could not have been damaged by the fuse or even by a failure of the fuse to blow quickly. Electrical current is drawn by devices (such as the window motor) - it is not pushed through the circuit. There is no way for the motor to receive more current than it needs unless it was already defective. In other words, if the motor was defective and drew too much current then it caused the fuse to blow not the other way around. On the other hand, if there is a short in the wiring that caused the fuse to blow then the excess current to the short never reached the motor (because it shorted to ground) and so could not have caused the motor failure.
And no, the motor could not have been damaged by the fuse or even by a failure of the fuse to blow quickly. Electrical current is drawn by devices (such as the window motor) - it is not pushed through the circuit. There is no way for the motor to receive more current than it needs unless it was already defective. In other words, if the motor was defective and drew too much current then it caused the fuse to blow not the other way around. On the other hand, if there is a short in the wiring that caused the fuse to blow then the excess current to the short never reached the motor (because it shorted to ground) and so could not have caused the motor failure.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
From: San Diego, CA
You are right buddy. Turns out, I got a new motor that was also defective and did not work. After testing the connection, found that I was receiving 12v to the motor, bought a another new motor and this one worked. Going to install tomorrow. What a nightmare. Thanks for the input, much appreciated!
