Car was broken into recently... - Maintenance and Repair Forum

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Car was broken into recently...
Monday, January 23, 2006 11:32 AM
This is regarding a 99 Z24 2-dr with power windows:

In mid-December, my car was broken into in the night as it sat in my driveway behind the house. When I found the car the next morning, there was only a little glass on the pavement and almost all of it was inside the car, and there was a large garbage bag in the seat. Based on that, the best I can figure, the little f**kers put a garbage bag over the passenger window and used something to break it inwards so that it didn't make the usual loud glass breaking and hitting the pavement noise, and instead landed relatively quietly in the seat and floorboard. Haven't lived in that neighborhood long, but after the police were done filling out a report, I was approached by a concerned neighbor who said that this "College Kid" neighborhood has a history of break-ins. So needless to say, I'm moving immediately. They stole 2 cartons of cigarettes, my $500 radar detector, and it looks like they almost got the dash apart to jack the cd player but stopped for some reason. So at least I still have my cd player...

The joke of all this is... I don't have an alarm and both of my doors were unlocked. They could have just opened the door... whatever. The way I see it, if someone's gonna break into your car, they're gonna do it any way they have to, so you might as well leave the doors unlocked so at least you don't end up with a broken window in the process. Guess I was wrong... or maybe they were just stupid...

Anyway, my driver window broke out last year in a winter accident, I got it replaced, and afterward the motor was slower, but worked fine and the window was perfectly aligned, so not a big deal. Now after this window got broken, I got it replaced the next day, and the motor is REALLY REALLY slow, and the window only goes down 2-3 inches before the glass gets crooked and stops moving at all, then it takes FOREVER to go back up, but at least it seals correctly.

1)Will buying 2 new window motors fix the slowness once and for all?

2)Can I install them myself, or is there a lot of jackassery like rivets and special tools needed?

3)As far as the passenger window being poorly aligned, what can I do to fix that?

4)And the ultimate question... Should I just take the piece of s**t to a shop and have them do everything instead to attempting to fix something I have no clue about?

I'm not new at all to working on cars, been doing it for several years, but I've never done this kind of job and I understand there's a knack to it to get it right. Let me know what you all think!






Re: Car was broken into recently...
Monday, January 23, 2006 5:18 PM
Oh come on, someone must have an idea!



Re: Car was broken into recently...
Monday, January 23, 2006 5:55 PM
Maybe some glass got stuck in the track are something,witch isit letting the window go up very slow and is killing,what i would do is take off both door panels and take a DMM and with the car running prob the wire on the drivers side and then the passenger side.

if you get the same reading then you know theres know short there,then look in the channels as best as you can to see if theres anything stuck if nothing then buy another motor and see if it fixes itself.

if not it could be the switch
Re: Car was broken into recently...
Monday, January 23, 2006 7:47 PM
Motors can go up slow becuase of amprage draw. If the amprage draw is high it is mechancial, and if the amprage draw is to low it is eletrical problem.

So the motor being worn inside, drawing more amprage to work could cause that. As could have lots of corrosion build up on the connectors.




- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new



Re: Car was broken into recently...
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 12:38 PM
Thanks guys, I'll get my multimeter on them this weekend.

One thing that's been bugging me is that both of the technicians who replaced my windows in the past said that the electric motors are ALWAYS slow after the glass is broken. They didn't seem to think there was anything you can do about it when replacing glass, except for rip the motor out completely and replace it. Since 2 different people who specialize in auto glass repair say the same thing, I'm tempted to belive them. I just don't understand how taking out and replacing the glass would cause the motor to be damaged. Perhaps it has more to do with the way the tracks and arms sit after replacing the glass? Maybe after messing with them, they bind up and don't move right? If that's the case, I'm more tempted to take the car to the best shop I can find and let them do what ever they need to do instead of messing with it any more myself.

Either way, I'll try the multimeter and see if it is an electrical problem.



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