Letxen3 wrote:question, my motor goes down really normal and fast, but its going up that is slow and after while you can push button again and it moves up 1/2" and then press button later untill it finally goes all the way up.

could this be i just need to lubricate it? its just werid how it goes down fast but not up.

Vinny Illi wrote:

Letxen3 wrote:question, my motor goes down really normal and fast, but its going up that is slow and after while you can push button again and it moves up 1/2" and then press button later untill it finally goes all the way up.

could this be i just need to lubricate it? its just werid how it goes down fast but not up.

I'm new here (first post), and I'm having the same problem on my wife's 2004 Cavalier 4-door. The driver's door window goes down just fine but gets stuck when going up. Waiting a couple seconds usually enables it to go up the rest of the way.

I'd really like to know if there's something else I can try before tearing into replacing the window motor. I can't imagine that a 4-year-old motor would crap out already...

Desert Tuners

“When you come across a big kettle of crazy, it’s best not to stir it.”

FReQ Z (ikE-Zed) wrote:

these cars are known for crappy window motors. seriously crappy. from your symptoms, it's a classic motor problem.

the motor works by way of temperature (the easiest way to explain it). it knows when to stop when a certain part inside warms up (meaning heavy load/excess current draw). when the motor starts failing, it will heat up, thus stopping short of pushing the window all the way up.

RazzMaTazz wrote:How to diagnose a broken power window motor.
When a power window motor fails, normally it doesn’t stop working altogether. It weakens. The window may go up or down part way and then stop. And then if you wait for several seconds, it may go up or down part way again, and then stop. If you help the motor by grabbing the window with your hand, you may be able to get the window to go up or down all the way (which may be helpful until you can get around to repairing it).

How to replace a power window motor:
Instructions (and photos) are based on my 1996 Cavalier 2-door convertible coupe but are probably applicable to all Cavaliers of that generation.

Disclaimer: I offer these instructions to be helpful, as I have benefited from others who have posted instructions. I don't guarantee the accuracy of these instructions, nor your results should you choose to follow them. Personal or property injury could result from follwing these instructions. Be careful. And if you don't feel comfortable doing this kind of work, please hire a trained professional to replace your power window motors.

This job should take about 3-4 hours depending on how lucky you get removing bolts and rivets.
1) Lower the window all the way. You may need to grab the window pane and push it down while powering it down because the motor is broken (but probably has some weak functionality).
2) Remove the 4 (black) screws from bottom of door and the two that are in the handle of the arm rest.
3) Remove the single screw from inside (triangular shaped plastic piece) interior of side-view mirror where the adjustment lever is located.
4) Remove interior door cover by pulling lower part away from door. Once all of the push-on clips are detached, lift the cover up vertically off the lip of the window sill. You may have to tap it with the palm of your hand to get it off the clips. Then remove power lock plug to completely remove interior door cover.
5) Disconnect all of the electrical connectors, except the one on the power window motor.
6) Remove the in-door speaker by removing the four screws and unclipping the wiring connector.
7) Peel back the plastic sheet of translucent covering inside the door. Try to leave all the sticky putty on the plastic, not the door. Fold it up and tape it to the door in the center middle, out of the way of where you’ll be working.
8) Raise the window so that the bottom of the window is located about halfway through the speaker opening. You may need to grab the window pane and pull it up to assist the “broken” motor.
9) Remove the black limiter clip and bolt on lower front corner of the window pane (inside the speaker hole). You need to do this so that you can remove the window, otherwise it gets caught on the front height limiter. Removing this clip may be difficult. The interior-facing side is a 10mm hex nut. The exterior facing side is a T-30 torx bolt. It can be very difficult to securely hold the torx side because of the close quarters. If you have some kind of a torx ratchet, that would be great. The first time that I removed one, I used a torx bit that I held with a vice grip. This isn’t the safest, securest thing in the world, but it worked. The second time I used a Torx bit on a ratcheting offset screwdriver. I wrapped the torx bit in tape to keep it from falling out of the screwdriver. When I replaced the torx head bolt, I used a hex head bolt so that it will be easy to remove a wrench and a ratchet the next time that the motor breaks.
10) There are two other bolts on the bottom of the window pane (at the white clips) that hold the window to the assembly. Remove those bolts. You may have to raise or lower the window a bit in order to get the front one to appear in the hole in the door.
11) Mark the location of, and remove the (gold) clips from the top of the door (window sill). You really only need to remove the ones that get hung up on the clips when you remove the window pane.
12) Use a 3mm Allen wrench to loosen the window pad tension adjusters that are located at the top of the window sill. Turning 5 revolutions should be enough. Remember (write down) the number of revolutions so that you can set it back to where it was when you reassemble the window.
13) Loosen the bolt at the top rear of the door. (See where my finger is pointing in the attached photo.) That bolt holds the window track in place. If you don’t loosen it, you will break the plastic piece on the window that fits around that track.
14) Undo the 10mm bolt INSIDE the door that holds the rear height limiter on the track. You will need to adjust the window until the nut appears in the hole (as shown in picture). There is a hole in the door (toward the back center) through which you can insert a long socket wrench and undo this bolt. The limiter will fall off the track when you undo the bolt. You may want to make note of how it goes back in place. (Note that if you have a convertible with a driver-side window that doesn’t seal properly, you may want to take this opportunity to solve that problem by removing the plastic limiter, drilling two new holes just below the existing ones, and replacing the plastic limiter to the new holes. See my other post on this subject.)
15) Firmly grab the window pane and slowly, carefully, gently lift it upwards to remove it, taking care not to break the plastic clips on the bottom rear corner or the two black clips that are on the front edge of the window. Look down the slot and gently wiggle when you get to the top. Take your time. Don’t let the window drop to the bottom of the track or it may become very difficult to get the bushings back in the track for removal. You may want to have an assistant help you. Put the window somewhere safe.
16) Remove the electrical connector on the power window motor.
17) Drill out the two small rivets on the bracket that is attached to the top of the power window motor. (But don’t remove the rivet that holds the bracket to the door). I found that a 3/8” drill worked well to grind out the rivets, followed by a hammer and punch to remove them. You may need to chisel out the remaining rim of the rivets with a cold chisel.
18)Drill out the 4 rivets that hold the motor and assembly to the door. One of the rivets is difficult to see since it is located just below the door “handle”. You will need to remove the motor and assembly, which are riveted together. (Later, after it’s removed, you’ll have to secure the spring loaded sector gear and remove the rivets holding the motor to the assembly but don’t worry about that now.) The instructions that came with the replacement motor said to use a ¼” drill to remove the rivets, but I found that it’s easier to remove the rivets with a large, sharp drill, being very careful to stay on center, and especially being careful not to go so far down that you drill a big hole in the door (since you’re using a big drill bit rather than a ¼” drill bit. You may need to use a punch and hammer in order to push the center through after you drilled it. You may also need a cold chisel and hammer to remove the remnants of the rivets. If the rivets start spinning (and thereby thwarting drilling) you may want to try holding the drill at different angles. It can be difficult. You may ultimately need to carefully grind them off. But don’t damage the door or the holes in the door.
19) Remove the two (black) bolts that hold either end of the assembly bar that spans the large rear hole in the door. The motor and assembly should now fall off. Be careful when it falls.
20) Remove the motor and assembly by collapsing it and carefully sliding it back through the large door opening. Note its appearance and keep it from extending so far that you can’t remember how it’s supposed to look when it’s in place.
21) Put the window regulator assembly on a workbench.
22) Drill a (roughly) 1/8” hole through the regulator back plate and right through the balck sector gear. Put a bolt through the hole and secure it tightly with a nut so that the spring-loaded sector gear can’t move and come unsprung. If you don’t do this, then when you remove the motor, the spring will unwind, which will result in ruining the assembly, and which could result in injury.
23) Drill out and remove the rivets that hold the motor to the regulator plate. Note (and/or mark with a marker) which rivet holes on the motor were drilled out so that you can easily put the new one on.
24) The replacement motor will be riveted together and some of those rivets MAY (or may not) actually fill holes that you need to attach the motor to the regulator assembly. The replacement motors don’t seem to be consistently riveted together using the same holes. Depending on where the motor is riveted together, you may need to remove some of the rivets that hold the motor together so that you can use those holes to rivet the motor to the regulator back plate. But if you do need to remove rivets from the motor then you should probably first rivet or bolt the motor securely together (using one of the empty holes) so that it doesn’t fall apart.
25) Bolt the replacement motor onto the regulator back plate, making sure to use the same holes that were originally used to rivet it on in the first place. Use lock washers and nuts.
26) When you’re sure that the motor is securely bolted in place, with the drive gear firmly holding the sector gear, remove the bolt from the 1/8” hole that you used to secure the sector gear to the regulator back plate.
27) You will need to put the motor and assembly back into the door, but first you should get some #12 x ½” bolts that will fit into the holes that were used to rivet the assembly to the door. For the TWO holes that are above the sector gear, you will need to use two relatively thin (and just long enough) hex head bolts. They need to be relatively thin and just long enough because you’ll basically need to finagle the bolts past the sector gear and through the hole, and so they’ll need some wiggle room (which you won’t have if the bolts perfectly fill the size of the hole). Those bolts will then go through the hole in the car door and you’ll end up putting nuts on the passenger-compartment side of the door. I found that it’s best to put a small lock washer onto the bolt before threading the bolt through the assembly. It helps keep the bolt from turning when you tighten the nut so that you may not even need to put a wrench on the bolt (which is a bit tough to do.) And then use another lock washer (the type that looks like a ring with teeth on the inside) that’s JUST big enough to SCREW onto the bolt. This second lock washer will hold the bolt in place as you slide the assembly back into the door and then line up the bolts with the door holes. Alternatively you could use those push-on washers that keep bolts from slipping back through a hole.
28) You’ll also need two small bolts to reattach the bracket to the top of the motor. (I can’t remember the size but maybe 1/8” in diameter by ¼” long. These holes are actually square so if you use the right size lag bolt you don’t even need a wrench on the back side.) You should also have lock washers for all of these nuts & bolts.
29) Remove the cap from the old motor and put it on the new motor. I’m not sure that you need to do this but I assume it helps keep dust out of the motor.
30) Carefully push the motor and assembly back into the door, being careful to line up bolts with the holes (and careful not to knock the bolts loose that you attached to the assembly with lock washers).
31) Put lock washers and nuts on those bolts, hand tight.
32) Tighten all nuts and bolts, preferably with a ratchet on the outside of the door, and a crescent wrench (if needed) on the inside of the door.
33) Reattach the bolts that held the assembly cross bar to the door.
34) Reattach the wiring harness for the motor, turn the ignition part way (to enable the power windows), and test the window. (Hopefully it works. They worked perfectly every time that I replaced them.) Then return the assembly to the same position so that the bottom of the window pane will be about halfway through the speaker hole. Turn the key off.
35) Get an assistant, then grab the window pane and carefully feed it back down the door, and through the front an rear tracks. You will probably need two hands on the window pane, while your assistant carefully helps move the rubber seals out of the way. You’ll have to be careful not to knock-off or break any of the plastic parts which are attached to the window pane, especially the two in the front that slip inside the track.
36) Make sure that window pane rests in the base assembly and that it’s properly in the tracks.
37) Bolt the window pane to the base of the assembly.
38) Re-tighten the bolt that holds the rear window track.
39) Re-tighten the window tension pads on the window sill with an Allen wrench.
40) Reattach the black clip to the bottom front corner of the window.
41) Reattach the (gold colored) height regulator that attaches to the rear window track. (Probably at its lowest setting.) You may need to adjust the window up a bit in order to install it.
42) Recheck that the power window works properly.
43) Reattach the electrical harnesses, reapply the plastic sheeting, and reassemble the door in reverse order as the initial instructions.
44) Make sure to return the old motor to the auto parts store to get your core rebate.