Intermittent Driver Window Issue

[Talon]

I have a 99 GTS. I am having an intermittent issue with rolling down the drivers side window. Anyone have some thoughts? I don't believe the wiring is the problem since that already went bad, and I pulled the wires out and re-wired them...I believe I tugged on all the wires to force any unbroken brittle ones to break so that I could do them at the same time. I suppose it's possible one of them decided to fail now though.

When the window wasn't rolling down, if I opened the door and gave the slightest downward pressure on the window it rolled all the way down nice and smooth as if nothing was ever wrong in the first place. I'm not sure if this is indicative of something or not. This morning I tried the trick and nothing.

Any high level easy things I should be checking first? I haven't yet, but I will plan on popping off the dash and making sure I got a good connection at the window switch in the dash.

 

[Batboy]

I have the same problem. Maybe it's a 99 GTS issue? Not intermittent enough to bother me, but still happening. ViperTech in my area said it was probably under the dash and would be very expensive to track down. Let me know if you figure it out.

 

[Talon]

Son of a B I don't like that idea. I'll try and find some time to poke around this weekend. I am supposed to do a photoshoot Saturday too with some moving shots and I wanted the window down. Damn Viper.

 

[Fatboy 18]

You may need a bit of lithium white grease on the shuttle track. Or It may be the contacts in the switch itself , you can take the switch apart and clean the contacts

If you look in the How to guide you should see a post Help with window regulator, it will show you the set up.

 

[Talon]

Batboy I figured out my problem...or so I'm pretty certain. I tested the wiring today when I got home. I have the Viper service manual so I could figure out which pins were witch to rule out the switch. I did run across something odd though.

I pulled the center bezel and checked each switch according to the manual. I was having problems getting the right continuity readings all together though so instead I plugged the passenger wiring into the driver side and tested the switch. The switch worked so that ruled that out.

The book listed a test to see if the wiring is good from the main harness which I ran and was able to read voltage so I knew the switch was receiving power. The book didn't indicate a test to run to see if wires were broken between the switch and the window motor however. Instead it told me to remove the door panel and test the motor using a test battery which I don't have.

MOST likely what I'm thinking now that it is is in fact one of the wires I must not have re-wired. I pulled on every single wire and twisted on them to break any that were brittle when I originally did the re-wire for my driver door, but apparently this one didn't go because I'm feeling fairly certain it is the wiring. If I piddle back and forth with the door by opening it more or less and moving around the rubber boot I can occasionally get the window to go up or down.

Maybe someone else knows differently but this would leave me to believe the wiring is the problem, not the motor. It seems like if the motor fails it either fails completely or it lives on, but I doubt it would just start working intermittently.

Batboy do you have the service manual? I doubt it's the window switch so I'd say either your motor died or the wiring is bad. The bad wiring going into the door right at the door seal is a common problem on these Gen 2 vipers. Does everything else on the driver door work for you? Does the little light, lightup on the lock/unlock? Does the driver door speaker work or does it intermittently cut in and out?

 

[AZTVR]

MOST likely what I'm thinking now that it is is in fact one of the wires I must not have re-wired. I pulled on every single wire and twisted on them to break any that were brittle when I originally did the re-wire for my driver door, but apparently this one didn't go because I'm feeling fairly certain it is the wiring. If I piddle back and forth with the door by opening it more or less and moving around the rubber boot I can occasionally get the window to go up or down.

I only fixed wires in the door jamb harness that failed the pull test, like you did. I think that over 8 years of ownership, I had to fix wires in the driver's door jamb harness 3 or 4 times. Its so easy to do that I never considered replacing the harness, and did not care to do all of them at once.

_________________________________________________
Jim – ‘02 GTS ACR gray/silver -- sold – ( enthusiastic custodian for 8 years )

 

[Talon]

I only fixed wires in the door jamb harness that failed the pull test, like you did. I think that over 8 years of ownership, I had to fix wires in the driver's door jamb harness 3 or 4 times. Its so easy to do that I never considered replacing the harness, and did not care to do all of them at once.

_________________________________________________
Jim – ‘02 GTS ACR gray/silver -- sold – ( enthusiastic custodian for 8 years )

Yea a bit of a bummer to me. I thought those that were solid would hold up. It's looking like I'm wrong. Time to re-wire again. I am at least wiring as some people suggested by adding about 6 inches of additional wiring to hopefully avoid the problems in the future. It is what it is I suppose. Weekend project anyway.

 

[Talon]

Ok well I can't seem to upload a damn picture on this stupid thing. it's 1 mb in size and it seems to upload and then goes to some sort of error. Not sure what's going on.

Nonetheless AZTVR I pulled the door rubber boot and sure enough one of my window motor wires was weak and when I tugged it, it broke. If you want to check yours as well the process is simple. Pull the gill off the side, open the door and pull out both ends of the rubber boot (from the door side and firewall side). Look for the Light Blue and the White Wire. They are 16 gauge wires. These are the two leads to your window motor. Tug on both of them firmly. If one snaps (or both) you need to repair them.

I'll post the picture if I can figure out how, but it's just a picture of the snapped white wire.

 

[jwolf]

I had the same problem it was the switch.

http://youtu.be/dq82fTrsFBU