RE: damn windows!

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> Passenger window switch (or something) decided to take a powder today. 
> Won't go up anymore.  Help.  What to check?
> 
... I assume that neither the switch on the driver's door nor the one on the
problemmatic window door work ... nicht wahr?

If you can hear the motor activate when you try to lower the window, then it
is either a wiring problem or a switch ... and there may be a quick trick
you can do to get the window to go up.  

First thing ... pull a switch out of one of the other doors (a working one
other than the suspect one or the driver's door), and swap it in place of
the suspect switch ... Does it fix the problem?  If so you need to clean or
replace the switch.  

If not the problem may be either in the switch in the driver's door or a
break in the wiring ... most likely under the rubber bellows/boot in the
driver's door hinge IME.  Here's the trick that might be able to get your
window up ...

Unplug the window switch on the faulty door from its connector ... the
switch has 5 connections.  Look at the connector and see if you can see that
it is really made of 2 separable parts ... one with 3 contacts and the other
with 2.  If so, and you were able to hear the window attempt to go down you
are probably in luck.  What you want to do is to split the connector, and
reinstall the 3-pin part on the switch exactly the same way it was before.
Now take the 2 pin part of the connector and install it oriented 180 degrees
from normal.  This reverse-wires the window motor, so that now when you
activate the "down" switch the window will go up.  Hopefully using this
technique you will be able to get the window back up again.  Now restore
everything to the original orientation and put everything back together
again.  When you have a chance you can track down the switch on the driver's
door (unplug & swap again ... except all done on the same panel) or the
wiring as described before.  

Good luck Chris!
Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)