03 July 2012

Fixing A Window Switch That Was Not Broken

 I have been having problems with my window switch.  Oh, an electrical problem in a DeLorean...surprise!  The switch kept sticking when I pull the window up, returns fine when I push down.  I just figured it was a bad switch and worked around it all this time.

Today was another hot day.  I wanted to roll the windows down to let in some air.

Hold on, tangent.  For a long time, I thought it was 'row' the windows up/down.  I thought the cranking motion on manual windows was like 'rowing' a boat.  It was not until about a year ago that someone corrected me with 'roll'.  Windows technically do not 'roll'.  It also does not help that 'row' and 'roll' sound the same, especially in broken Asian-English. I guess future generations do not have to worry about this, since everything is push button.

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  So, I needed some air flow to keep me from sweating up my seats. The passenger side works fine.  Driver's side, not so good.  Nothing was happening.  Good thing, there were no toll booths, drive through windows, or ticket machines on the way home.  Otherwise, I would have to open the awesome gull wing doors.

Since I have put off fixing the sticking switch, this forced me to really look into the situation. I tried to get the switch out of the hole so I can check the connection and if the switch was indeed fried.  The switch was stuck.  After about 10-15 minutes of this, I decided to slowly take apart the center console.  Yeah, I know...I am totally doing it wrong.

Anyway, I got to a certain point where I had to either stop, or commit to taking out the entire center console. I have done it once to replace my bulbs with LED's...not doing that again.  So, I decided to just pry the switch out. I will probably need a new one anyway, so breaking it is not an issue.

Once I got the unit free, I swapped switches to check if the motor was the problem, or worse, problem with the wiring.  Using the other switch, the window worked.  Good, this means everything is working, and the switch might need to be replaced...again.  Just for fun, I tried the 'non-working' switch...yeah, it works fine.  I have no idea why it was not working, but it works fine.

Good news, I do not need a new switch.  I also figured out that the unit was sitting at the wrong angle, causing the switch to stick.  Switches work fine...I fixed the window switches that did not really need any fixing....just a bit of repositioning.
 
I basically spent almost two hours doing something that should have only taking five minutes.  This is why I should stick to working on toy cars.

Go to Part II  -  Go to Part III

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