[smoothz]

http://cpwstore.carpartswholesale.com/cata...l:0%29&sv=0

I think I'm going to buy a new motor. Tired of cleaning a part that keeps avoiding work, much like a Frenchman at the national flag factory.

 

[smoothz]

Update: I've decided to buy a 'new' motor from the local autoparts store. I was told it would be $130 w/o the $30 core charge. So as I started taking the motor out of the window and apart, I decided to read this thread again and see what others have posted regarding the tricks.

I saw right away the two spring loaded contacts which were caked with some kind of dry grease or carbon buildup or something. The motor was also dirty from the soot from inside that sleeve. I cleaned everything again, this time taking care to be sure I get those 2 contacts cleaned.

Clean side that worked well when pressed:

Dirty side that needed more attention:

As you can see, there's a difference between those two contacts. One looks to be in good shape while the other seems corroded.

I took a frontal shot to allow for better comparison. Mind you these pics are after I cleaned everything with electrical connection cleaner spray.

 

[smoothz]

I'm still taking the motor in to the store when I go pick up the new one tomorrow. I'm guessing a re-manufactured one is simply cleaning out these old ones and putting in new contacts and springs.

 

[smoothz]

Got the new motor today for $139 OTD. It looked worse than my old one. :lol: Anyway, it's definitely a refab with the contacts all nice and shiny. After some fumbling, I ended up figuring out that I had to reset the window motor seeing that it's new. The window now works again!

 

[smoothz]

As another member mentioned (Jennifer), I think the main problem is the gunk buildup which prevents the spring activated contacts to function properly. If I could take it apart and clean the inside of the housing, I would have. But I didn't want to cut any wires or break it beyond repair.

I did notice on my receipt that the list price was over $200 but I got mine for $139 OTD. I'm sure someone's making good money on these.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Thank you!

I have to give a BIG THANK YOU to you guys for this info. I haven't been on this forum & a while, but when I was thinking that I was going to have to go the the dealer & plop down some bucks I don't have right now, I thought, maybe these guys might have a fix for this issue. Excellent job! Worked the first time. Love the step by step, plus the pictures. Looks better than an manual. :biggrin:

 

[FairLadyZTurbo]

ive been having problems with my window motor for a long time... i read this post and decided to take apart the door and clean the stator and contacts. well I cleaned it and it works prefect now.. thanks too this post.. it really saved me $$$$ :wave:

 

[ZVision]

Hey all...

Thanks for the heads up on this. I pulled my passenger motor apart and cleaned it as well as scraped down some of the residue off the rotor. Works well now.

Wish I had known I didn't have to pull the panel off to reset the driver side. Oh well...made the passenger job that much faster. 2 hours for both. 1:15 for the driver and 45 mins for the passenger. Took me 15 mins to figure out how to get the oh sh*t handle off. About 14 mins longer than it should have. LOL

Thanks for the help!

 

[OM-Z]

Did this on my passenger side door, works like a charm! Thanks for the detailed Info

 

[delslo]

Is there a thread for how to reset that window?

 

[smoothz]

There's something for it in the wiki. Just do a search in 350z-tech.com/zwiki

 

[natey1]

Just finished doing this to both windows in my 04 Roadster, the speed difference between the drivers and passenger side windows after doing one was really noticeable, seemed to fix the 'hang' and speed up the process. Thanks for the tutorial.

Side note: I do about 1 'mechanic-like' thing a year and only have an $80 Costco set of tools and I did this in about 2.5 hours.

 

[delslo]

Window went down.... didn't come back up!

 

[Big D]

Cleaning the gunk out is only a temporary fix for this problem. If you want to fix the motor properly you MUST have the 2 carbon brushes replaced. That's what they do when they recondition it for resale.

The 2 carbon brushes are quite soft in this motor. That's what all the gunk is. Carbon dust build up. When the brushes get worn down they become too short which reduced the ability of the springs to keep them pressed up against the contact point, hence the motor stops working. Thump on the inner door skin jolts them back against the contacts to work again but not for long.

Replacing the bushes is quite easy to do. Dig out the silicon on the side of the motor to expose the 2 electrical wires. Then heat up the 2 electrical pins (with a soldering iron) that the wires attach to enough to melt the solder to detach the wires. This will allow you to then pull apart the unit to get to the springs & brushes.

The problem has nothing to do with weak springs. Its just that the carbon brushes wear out & become too short & no longer make contact with enough pressure to conduct the electrical circuit.

Take the old carbon brushes to an electrical supplier to buy suitable replacements. I could only find ones similar in size but they were quite easy to file down to the correct size by rubbing them on emery paper. (the brushes are a bit like led in a pencil) Some places will make them for you.

Detach the old brushes by cutting the small braided copper connectors (don't pull them off the metal base as it is harder to solder on the replacements) better to cut the copper braid mid way & solder on the new ones. (much easier to solder copper to copper).

Now your window motors are as good as new.

All up cost me a few dollars & a bit of my time. Much cheaper than the $800 - $900 NISSAN in Australia charge!!!

NB Once the window motor has been disconnected (from the computer) you will need to reconfigure the window mechanism (reprogram the top & bottom positions). (The sequence for this has been well covered before).

Hope this adds the final piece of the puzzel to all re this frustrating problem.

 

[Big D]

Window went down.... didn't come back up!

If you disconnected [unplugged) the motor you have to re program it so the computer know where the window is. This also allows it to make the window drop down the 10 or 20 millimeters when you open & close the door.

 

[delslo]

Cleaning the gunk out is only a temporary fix for this problem. If you want to fix the motor properly you MUST have the 2 carbon brushes replaced. That's what they do when they recondition it for resale.

The 2 carbon brushes are quite soft in this motor. That's what all the gunk is. Carbon dust build up. When the brushes get worn down they become too short which reduced the ability of the springs to keep them pressed up against the contact point, hence the motor stops working. Thump on the inner door skin jolts them back against the contacts to work again but not for long.

Replacing the bushes is quite easy to do. Dig out the silicon on the side of the motor to expose the 2 electrical wires. Then heat up the 2 electrical pins (with a soldering iron) that the wires attach to enough to melt the solder to detach the wires. This will allow you to then pull apart the unit to get to the springs & brushes.

The problem has nothing to do with weak springs. Its just that the carbon brushes wear out & become too short & no longer make contact with enough pressure to conduct the electrical circuit.

Take the old carbon brushes to an electrical supplier to buy suitable replacements. I could only find ones similar in size but they were quite easy to file down to the correct size by rubbing them on emery paper. (the brushes are a bit like led in a pencil) Some places will make them for you.

Detach the old brushes by cutting the small braided copper connectors (don't pull them off the metal base as it is harder to solder on the replacements) better to cut the copper braid mid way & solder on the new ones. (much easier to solder copper to copper).

Now your window motors are as good as new.

All up cost me a few dollars & a bit of my time. Much cheaper than the $800 - $900 NISSAN in Australia charge!!!

NB Once the window motor has been disconnected (from the computer) you will need to reconfigure the window mechanism (reprogram the top & bottom positions). (The sequence for this has been well covered before).

Hope this adds the final piece of the puzzel to all re this frustrating problem.

Nice Info!
I ended up putting new ones in today, had to reset the motor for those as well.

 

[smoothz]

It's good to see this thread being able to help out a lot of people.

 

[smoothz]

Is there a thread for how to reset that window?

http://www.350z-tech.com/zwiki/TSB_04-089_Window_Regulator_Motor_Reset_Procedure

 

[smoothz]

Is there a thread for how to reset that window?

TSB 04-089 Window Regulator Motor Reset Procedure - Nissan 350Z & 370Z Wiki

 

[Big D]

Finally got around to attempting to download some pics re: how to replace the carbon brushes. Hope its all self explanatory with my previous written explanation.

Dig out silicon & disconnect wires with soldering iron
(make sure you get all the old solder off the 2 pins otherwise the assembly won't slide out)

worn out carbon brushes

new carbon brushes installed

Note, I chose to cut the old braided copper wire & re solder to the new (brush) copper wire. Suggest you don't pull off the original copper braid attachment as its much harder to re attach the new one

Assembly re installed, reconnected & re soldered

Pretty simple really, hope it helps