Slow passenger window

[tweetdriver63]

My passenger side window has been moving a lot slower than the driver's side, and it tends to stop in intermediate positions when raising it. When it stops, sometimes just releasing the button and then pressing it again works. Sometimes I have to push the down side of the button momentarily then go back to the up button to get it going. Yet other times, I go back and forth a couple of times on the button with no results until I've hit both up and down a few times.

I tried to clean out any gunk in the tracks as best I could without removing the glass. That had no effect.

Today I went out to go about removing the motor and regulator assembly in order to see if it needs the repair written about in the "repairs" link. Just as the write-up says, I lowered the window about halfway, then proceeded to undo the butterfly clip (the little clip part broke when I did). When I pushed the glass off of the butterfly I expected it to try to freefall (thus the write-up's instruction to support the glass somehow), but it didn't. I grabbed the top of the glass to lift up and discovered it took quite a bit of force to pull the glass up. When I had pulled the glass to the top stops, I let it go and it just stayed up. I'm not a genius (technically not true), but it seems to me the glass should have slid freely back down the tracks without the regulator holding it up.

I loosened the bolts that hold the forward and rear tracks in place and the glass began to slowly slide down. Gravity was finally winning!

Am I right to suspect a combination of cleaning and adjusting those tracks should fix my problem?

[Ekapol]

From my past experience playing with it HERE: Now I come up with the assumption that ... over the years the torque from the motor might push the rails making them twist and bend side way and somehow making them out of alignment, hence the motors have to work hard in some certain area as you might have experienced around 1/3 at the bottom or roughly at the center of the range where the rails are most easily twisted...

Or it could be that the mirror fasteners are loose and causes too much movement as the windows travel up and down.

You might want to play with the alignment of the rails, either get a new one or carefully align them and play with all the bolts there. The rails have their curves and might take quite a bit of time to really align and understand how they work.

[tweetdriver63]

Here's another little thing I noticed.

It's not easy to see in the pic, but when the window is moving up or down, the window regulator slide twists a bit. It doesn't stay straight in line with the regulator track. In the picture, hopefully, you can see how it has rotated. In the pic, the window is on the way down, which causes the regulator slide to rotate so that the bottom pulls away slightly and the top pushes in. It doesn't look to me like it's supposed to do that, but I really have no way to know, unless one of you who've worked on them can tell me. This rotation has to be causing friction that would make the motor have to work extra hard. If you look closely, it even looks like it has been wearing the slide so that the surfaces are now curved, where the picture of a new slide (at sportscarworld.com) doesn't appear to be.

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking I should replace the slide along with the butterfly clip I broke. I'll try anything to get the window working better without having to try to replace the motor, unless somebody knows where to get a complete new regulator.

[Doug]

it's a hard job that Ekapol took over from me,

but I would say to keep adjusting everything.

you should work to get a window that slides up and down easily with your hand and doesn't bind.

you could test the motor out of the door and be sure it is strong up and down too.

it's definitely a Pandora's box deal . . .

[Ekapol]

it's a hard job that Ekapol took over from me

My pleasure Doug

Tweetdriver63: Yes, that's also the part I forgot to mention about mounting the mirror. Over the years, the grooves at the plastic slider became loose and create more tolerance making the whole thing twist in all possible way, my rails twisted too.

In your case and mine, it gradually made the sliders wearing them out. I've replaced mine already. To your question, the regulator will pull down one side and push up the other side as you lower/raise the window.

Hope you get them sorted out soon with out too much trouble.

[tweetdriver63]

Ekapol, help me out a little more here. Twice you've mentioned the mirror. How is the mirror connected to the operation of the window glass? I'm a little confused.

[Ekapol]

My bad, I meant the windows.

[tweetdriver63]

I finally got 'round to working on the window today. I thought I would be removing the glass, taking out the regulator, and hopefully, finding that I could fix the motor like other have managed.

Here's what I found:

First off, it's obvious the door has been taken apart before.
With the glass out, the motor runs like a NASCAR racer both directions.
With the glass in the door, but totally disconnected from the regulator, it takes a lot of muscle to move the glass either direction in the tracks.
One of the "rollers" at the front, was not free to swivel. I took it off and fixed that problem.

I have a big question about the "rollers" though. All four of the "roller" on my window look like the picture below. That doesn't look at all like the picture in the service manual. Does my window have the wrong "rollers?" I keep putting "rollers" in quotes because there doesn't appear to be any kind of rollers or wheels or bearings of any kind. One half of each is open-ended, and the other has a little black rubber pad. I think these are the wrong part, and they fit too tight in the channels, or the rubber thing causes too much friction, and the motor just can't handle it.

Does anybody have a picture (a photo, not the service manual drawing) of their window rollers, or from a parts source, so I can compare?

[tweetdriver63]

I went ahead and took a chance.

I took the little rubber things out, since I thought they might be causing a lot of the friction. Then I took all four slider blocks and sanded them all down just slightly on all sides that contact the rails. Finally, I lubed them all up with plenty of petroleum jelly IAW the manual.

When I put the glass back in, it went up and down great.

Then I started putting the door trim back on, continuing to check window operation along the way. SNAP!!!! Something broke!!

Turns out, the center slider broke. I'm glad it did it then, and not after I had everything back together. Whew.. It's also nice that I had a new one laying there waiting for just such an event.

Anyway, on with the new slider.

Now, with everything done, I have a perfectly functioning passenger window for the first time in six months. Sweet!

I'd still like to know if those slider blocks in my window are the right part, or if somebody was just too cheap or lazy to get the right ones from Lotus.

[Foo]

Tweet - I'm probably pulling my passenger side door apart this weekend as it's slowing down/whirring halfway through travel.

Sounds to me like the sliders may have warped. I'll check the sliders and see if they're the same.

[Doug]

i remember the same feeling = that there were some plastic round crap in there and I may have removed some of it too -- i just figured it was a classic English Lotus design thing

[Elanlover]

Chris, can you tell me if you had to remove anything (rails, motor, etc.) in order to get the glass out? Seems to me that once the butterfly cip is undone the glass can be pulled upwards and out of the channels. Sounds right to you?

[dapinky]

Blair,

You will need to remove the brush strip from the inside edge of the window ( a few screws and pop rivets ) to give the slider blocks enough room to come out of the top.

It may be possible to do it without, but a lot easier to take it off first!

[Elanlover]

I'm just realizing that either the 2 window stop brackets or the stops at the bottom of the glass will need to come out.

[esprit888]

This is easily done, they are called upstop bobbins and when you lower the window to just about half way down both are easily seen (philips head screw) the forward one is straight access, the rearward one has a rubber plug in the access hole. Removing the bobbins is probably the easiest part of the job. You dont HAVE to remove the brush strip as the front slider is not affected, it does make getting the rear of the glass slider out easier, but its not too bad.

I'm just realizing that either the 2 window stop brackets or the stops at the bottom of the glass will need to come out.

[dapinky]

You dont HAVE to remove the brush strip as the front slider is not affected, it does make getting the rear of the glass slider out easier, but its not too bad.

This is true....

...it also depends how many pairs of hands and/or assistants you have availlable.....

....getting it back in on your own isn't at all easy, and will only be made harder with the strip in place - but if you have a couple of others to help, it won't need to come away.

[Elanlover]

I've got to have a look at the manuals again but its the front, uppermost slider block that's come loose so I'm hoping that I will be able to raise the glass just enough to access it without removing too much other stuff. :fingers crossed smilie:

[Specky]

If it's the forward one, you can do it in situ...Just

Sadly my plastic slider had broken, luckly I had a spare

TTFN

[Elanlover]

That's what I was hoping. Excellent Smithers, I shall proceeed poste haste!

[esprit888]

I agree 100%, if you value your maritial situation even slightly get a buddy or two to help you. Using your significant other WILL result in an argument and you WILL be in the doghouse for calling him/her names you WILL regret later As a footnote i replaced all of my passenger side sliders, butterfly and stripped & re-wound the cables last weekend. The window now runs like it should have done when it left the factory (wishful thinking!) BUT...as Lotus no longer carries the longer of the two sliders you must order all short ones, which does not allow you to re-assemble the orientation as shown in the manual with the rollers. Also the new sliders are a totally different (much much harder) material than the old plastic/nylon ones so hopefully this is an improvement and will reduce the wear.

You dont HAVE to remove the brush strip as the front slider is not affected, it does make getting the rear of the glass slider out easier, but its not too bad.

This is true....

...it also depends how many pairs of hands and/or assistants you have availlable.....

....getting it back in on your own isn't at all easy, and will only be made harder with the strip in place - but if you have a couple of others to help, it won't need to come away.