Power Window Tuneup

[marquisboi]

I had my car in for inspection and noticed another tech working on a crown vic that a customer brought in with very slow, barely functional windows. Also, my passenger window would not go up if let down more than 25%.

Anyway he said he used to work for Ford and in most cases regulator failure is caused by poor lubrication. He claims if it is lubed well it will rarely fail. The plastic guide ends up binding and either grenading itself,snapping the cable, or destroying the plastic safety bearings in the motor. He used the following greases:

On the front and back of the track, with the plastic guide contact, the permatex silicone you use for the spark plug coils. Make sure to work it into all moving surfaces while apart.

On the felt tracks, lots of silicon SPRAY ( the white aerosol can). Spray from base to top.

If the above don't work the regulator is damaged from running dry.

On that vehicle the regulators were fine, and after an hour of labor all windows worked like new!

You have to take the door trim off but it is a 2 minute job(nothing like a box body!).


Anyway when I got home I tried it on my passenger window and it works very well! I really had to saturate the tracks though. I do have very slight wear on my plastic regulator guide. I am going to do this for all my windows.

[IPreferDIY]

Sounds like a great thing to do while messing around with door speakers. Thanks!

[gadget73]

I've also done the silicone spray thing in the felt. It definitely helps. Box regulators are rather more sturdy than roundy car regulators, but they still have troubles with the glass sticking in the felts. Roundy cars are more problematic just because the regulators break far more easily. No point in stressing those things any more than absolutely necessary.

[87gtVIC]

I also lube up the felts with silicone.

[marquisboi]

Yeah, the box cars have the full steel regulators. The motors weren't as good, however. I replaced a few.

[gadget73]

yeah the motors were kind of feeble. The later ones had a smaller motor that was more powerful though. I've also gotten good results out of fully re-lubing the regulators. When I replaced the door on my car, the window would not run without help, and I had a hard time helping it. I thoroughly flushed the moving parts with penetrating oil to un-stick it, then greased it with spray white lithium grease. Its the fastest window in the car now.