z31.com | Repairs | Power Window Repair

How to Replace your power window motor?

Bora A. Akyol

In this how-to I will try to explain how I replaced the power window motor with a new one. The symptoms that I was having were:

The power window motor would whine but not work.

When assisted by hand the window would come up and go down.

When assisted by hand the power window motor would keep on going and going, and going although the window was all the way up or all the way down. Normally it should stop once the window is up or down.

The tools you will need for this task:

Magnetic head screw driver (Phillips medium size).

Power Screw Driver

Socket wrench and SAE sockets. I don't remember the size.

3 screws. (M6x16 pan head ) You will need these screws to replace the ones that Nissan put on the motor assembly. The ones in my car were of extremely poor quality and also easy to strip.

Some elmor's glue.

How to:

Step 1: Start by unscrewing the cover for the door lock handle. It is black and the screw is located right next to the door lock knob. Then unscrew the red door light on the inside of the panel. Finally unscrew the four screws that attach the door handle to the panel. All of these screws are Phillips heads. When the door handle comes loose, detach the power window switch cables.

Step 2: At this point you should be able to remove the panel.Do this very gently. Work your way from the bottom. There will be about 6 plastic tacks and you don't want to break them as they are hard to find. Once the panel is loose from the bottom. And you can lift it up about 10-20 degrees; lift up the panel slightly and rock it back and forth while pushing up. This will allow you to take the panel off the door.

Step 3:Now you will be able to see the plastic wrapper that separates the door metal from the panel. Before you attempt to take apart the panel unscrew the four screws that hold the right front speaker assembly in place. These will be on the exterior assembly cover which will be silver colored. Once you remove the speaker assembly with the speaker on it, detach the speaker wires. After the speaker assembly is removed, gently remove the white plastic wrapper material from the door.

Step 4: Now we are awfully close to removing the window glass. Raise your window all the way up. Then lower it so that the two screws that attach the window glass to the power window assembly align with then two holes on the door. These holes are at the same level and separated by 40 cm. or about 15 inches. The one hole that is closer to the front of the car is smaller, the other one is considerably larger. Tape the window in place once these screws are aligned. I have found that packing or shipping tape works pretty well. Once taped, take out those two screws. The glass should come loose but stay in place because of the tapes.

Step 5: Unscrew the four bolts that sit on a rectangular pattern about midway in the door. These will be bolt (hex) shaped but will also have Phillips heads. Use the wrench and the socket to unscrew these four screws. At this time also unscrew the two bolts that are closer to the tail end of the car. These will be at the same level as the other four. These two hold the pivot point for the power window assembly. Detach the power window motor wire.

Step 6: At this point you are able to move the whole power window assembly back and forth inside the door. Make sure that you make the whole assembly the most compact size by moving the rollers all the way towards the front of the car. Then move the whole window assembly deep inside the door towards the speaker opening. Use a little bit of force to rock the front end of the power window assembly loose from the door and pull the whole thing out. This step is kind of hard; you have to get the right angle to pull this thing out. It is very tight but it does come out.

Step 7: Grease, or replace the old motor. Make sure you mark the way the spring assembly is inserted before you detach the power window.

Step 8: Put everything back together in the reverse order. Also use the new screws you bought to replace the screws that attach the power window motor to the assembly.

Good Luck.