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Driver's Window won't Roll Up

74K views 40 replies 31 participants last post by  philrmcknight 
#1 ·
I have an '06 Xterra (only 24k miles). Three months after I purchased it new, I noticed the driver's window was occasionally VERY slow to roll up on colder days (temp's below 20 degrees). But every time I took it to the dealer, of course it always worked seemingly fine. I get home today and it will not roll up at all (the other 3 work just fine).

Is there a way to manually roll up the window until I can get it fixed next week?

Any other suggestions I can try?

Thanks for any and all help.
 
#3 ·
First off.. that's very impressive to have an '06 X with only 24k miles!!

Second.. I had to replace the motor on my driver window. I did it all my self and it did not cost nearly as much as the dealership will charge you. I went to NAPA Auto Parts and just got the motor (you even save a little more if you bring in your old, broken motor)

I have tons of pictures because I was planning on posting a How-To but I think there was already one on here so I ended up not doing it. But I still have all of the pictures of taking the door apart that I can send you if you're interested.

This is, of course, if it's the motor and not the switch, which I am guessing that's the problem because that's what happened to mine. Usually I've noticed that if the switch is bad it either works or it doesn't. There's no in-between slow area.
 
#40 ·
First off.. that's very impressive to have an '06 X with only 24k miles!!

Second.. I had to replace the motor on my driver window. I did it all my self and it did not cost nearly as much as the dealership will charge you. I went to NAPA Auto Parts and just got the motor (you even save a little more if you bring in your old, broken motor)

I have tons of pictures because I was planning on posting a How-To but I think there was already one on here so I ended up not doing it. But I still have all of the pictures of taking the door apart that I can send you if you're interested.

This is, of course, if it's the motor and not the switch, which I am guessing that's the problem because that's what happened to mine. Usually I've noticed that if the switch is bad it either works or it doesn't. There's no in-between slow area.
Im interested Im having same problem i already change the switch and still nothing so guess is the motor 😑
 
#4 ·
Can you hear the motor trying to work? Is the window all the way down? If the motor is failing, and the window is only part way down, you can gently pull up on the window while simultaneously pulling up on the switch. This should help the window rollup - if the motor / regulator is failing.

I agree, usually if it is the switch it will either work, or not work.

I had the switch die on my first gen, and I found that if I pull up on the switch with a little more effort than normal, it would still work. But that only lasted for a week or so...then I had to replace the switch assembly.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Thanks for all the responses. Non-handy guys like me appreciate the help tremendously.

Late last night I remembered the dealership had Saturday service hours so I rigged some trash bags for overnight and took the X in this morning. I have an extended warranty expiring in October which is going to cover the new motor, labor, etc. Funny thing is when they were trying to sell me the extended warranty when buying my new X, the salesman used the parts/labor bill of replacing the motor, etc. of one of the electric windows as an example of how I would recoup the cost of the warranty. It's as if he knew at least one of those motors was going to fail. I had a little buyer's remorse buying the extended warranty at the time, but it has paid for itself at least twice now.

For future reference for other X owners with the same electric window stuck down problem...

When I pulled into the service area to get in line at the dealer this morning, one of the mechanics was out front. He held the window toggle switch up with one hand and banged with the back of his fist with the other hand above and below the interior door handle. Within 5-10 seconds, UP rolls the window as if there were nothing wrong. Without the banging, it sounded like the motor was dead. I never thought to bang around given there was an expensive piece of glass just under the plastic door card.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for all the responses. Non-handy guys like me appreciate the help tremendously.

Late last night I remembered the dealership had Saturday service hours so I rigged some trash bags for overnight and took the X in this morning. I have an extended warranty expiring in October which is going to cover the new motor, labor, etc. Funny thing is when they were trying to sell me the extended warranty when buying my new X, the salesman used the parts/labor bill of replacing the motor, etc. of one of the electric windows as an example of how I would recoup the cost of the warranty. It's as if he knew at least one of those motors was going to fail. I had a little buyer's remorse buying the extended warranty at the time, but it has paid for itself at least twice now.

For future reference for other X owners with the same electric window stuck down problem...

When I pulled into the service area to get in line at the dealer this morning, one of the mechanics was out front. He held the window toggle switch up with one hand and banged with the back of his fist with the other hand above and below the interior door handle. Within 5-10 seconds, UP rolls the window as if there were nothing wrong. Without the banging, it sounded like the motor was dead. I never thought to bang around given there was an expensive piece of glass just under the plastic door card.
Wife's rig driver window is going on the fritz.
I tried this and it works!!
 
#13 ·
This works!!

For future reference for other X owners with the same electric window stuck down problem...

When I pulled into the service area to get in line at the dealer this morning, one of the mechanics was out front. He held the window toggle switch up with one hand and banged with the back of his fist with the other hand above and below the interior door handle. Within 5-10 seconds, UP rolls the window as if there were nothing wrong. Without the banging, it sounded like the motor was dead. I never thought to bang around given there was an expensive piece of glass just under the plastic door card.
This worked and saved me so much grief!!! For two days I was stressing (and freezing) with my window stuck down after using the "auto-down" feature (will never use that again) on the driver side window. One tap with my fist above the handle as I held the up-switch and like magic the window casually strolled up. Thank you for posting and saving many of us stress, time, and money!!
 
#15 ·
This worked and saved me so much grief!!! For two days I was stressing (and freezing) with my window stuck down after using the "auto-down" feature (will never use that again) on the driver side window. One tap with my fist above the handle as I held the up-switch and like magic the window casually strolled up. Thank you for posting and saving many of us stress, time, and money!!
Yup. You'll want to order a motor though. What happens is the brushes find a dead spot and the motor won't begin rotation. Banging it moves it just enough to get move past the dead spot. But once that happens it's the beginning of the end.
Agreed. The motor is going bad. The good news is the whole assembly is cheap and easy to replace.
 
#6 ·
i had a problem with the auto switch, turns out when you press down and let go it goes down automaticly all the way, the motor is still running and over heating it, so now after the glass is almost all the way i tap up for it to stop and not make the glass go all the way down, or atleast flushed to the window. =D
 
#7 ·
My window got stuck in the down position. I tested all the fuses and all was good. I popped off the switch panel and that was okay too. I pulled off the door to see if there was a manual way of rolling up the window and couldn't see any. I came on here, did a search and found this thread. I smacked the regulator with the back of a screw driver and the sucka went right up. Ha ha....
Thanks guys. Wish I would have read this before I took the whole dang thing apart.
 
#19 ·
My window got stuck in the down position. I tested all the fuses and all was good. I popped off the switch panel and that was okay too. I pulled off the door to see if there was a manual way of rolling up the window and couldn't see any. I came on here, did a search and found this thread. I smacked the regulator with the back of a screw driver and the sucka went right up. Ha ha....
Thanks guys. Wish I would have read this before I took the whole dang thing apart.
Thank you to the person suggesting smacking the inside of the door! Worked perfectly for me and bought me a bit of needed time! Cheers
 
#8 ·
Thank you so much for your help!

This morning on the way to work I stopped at a toll booth and the driver's side front window wouldn't go back up. I drove the rest of the way to work with it down, because I didn't want to be late.
It was 34 degrees this morning when I left the house. It was a chilly ride on the highway at 60mph.

The pounding on the bottom left side of the door worked!
I pounded in between the handle and the change holder, while pulling up on the window button.
Thank you for remembering what the service guy did, and posting it!
 
#14 ·
Yup. You'll want to order a motor though. What happens is the brushes find a dead spot and the motor won't begin rotation. Banging it moves it just enough to get move past the dead spot. But once that happens it's the beginning of the end.
 
#16 ·
See, mine started doing this too a couple months ago. But ONLY if I used auto down and let it go down ALL the way. So as long as I remember to make sure it doesn't *fully* go down, it *never* happens. When I do forget, sometimes I get lucky and it goes right back up, other times I gotta rap on it a couple times and it "breaks free" and rolls back up. Seems I'm not the only one who has these *exact* symptoms. I was gonna order a new motor/regulator combo, but I can't see this being a motor issue. Motors either work or they don't, what would the window position have to do with it? I don't wanna wind up screwed with it permanently stuck down eventually and I'm not cheap but I also don't wanna waste money. Consensus in this scenario is the switch rather than the motor/regulator assembly?
 
#17 ·
Ah, n/m I just read Surf's explanation. Dead/weak area of the motor brushes or a problem with the auto down feature getting stuck going down. The latter probably causes the former. So it'd seem if you're going to shell out for a new motor you better replace the switch while you're at it or it'll wear out the brushes again.

In the motorcycle world we rebuild our starter motors with new brush kits, but our starters are way pricier than a new motor from Rock Auto. I bet there's freaks on this board who would still opt to rebuild theirs if it was a cheap enough option. I'll see if I can find a source for new brushes.
 
#18 ·
This is a common problem on the X. If you have the weather tech window vents, it makes it worse. I caught mine before it went all the way down, and was able to pull it back up. Get ready to replace the motor. I replaced mine over 3 years ago, and have had no issues. since. Good luck. Perhaps you could start a thread on how to find 10 year old cars with less than 25,000 miles on them!!!
 
#21 ·
Its funny to read that smacking the door handle area wasn't automatic for most.... My window just did that this week.. died on the way up.. first thing I did was smack the door panel.. boom it went up..; but that isn't solving the issue, you can hear the motor struggling and its getting worse daily.. Anyone do this motor fix....?
 
#26 ·
Thankful for this thread, as this happened to me over the weekend. Used the auto-down, and then the window didn't want to come back up. A good smack on the lower left side of the door panel and up it went! Seems like fairly easy job to swap out the whole assembly, another thing to get done before the snow flies!
 
#28 ·
I have read most ofnthe posts but I need just tad bit more info. My driver sode window motor was replaced last October. Not 2 months ago it starts just getting stuck intermittantly. Usually after a minute or 2 of trying it would come up and wouldnt have problems. Then yesterday it wouldnt come up until after I got off work. Got it to the shop and its working fine. Then today, it tried to get stuck. But I was able to bang the door armrest and got it to come back up. Does this sound like a switch or wire connection?
 
#29 ·
Does this sound like a switch or wire connection?
Easy enough to take the switches out of the door and give them a good cleaning, also the simplest place to start too.
 
#34 ·
I've been reading through this thread and others related to it. I haven't been able to find the answer to my problem.

Passenger side window rolls down, but not up. Doesn't roll up from the driver side or passenger side switch. I took the interior door panel apart and put 12V directly on the leads for the motor and it rolled up and down fine depending on how I oriented the wires. Tried a brand new motor and had the same issue. Rolls down fine, not up. The fact that both switches stopped working at the exact same time makes me think the switches aren't the issue.

Any thoughts?
 
#41 ·
Thanks for all the responses. Non-handy guys like me appreciate the help tremendously.

Late last night I remembered the dealership had Saturday service hours so I rigged some trash bags for overnight and took the X in this morning. I have an extended warranty expiring in October which is going to cover the new motor, labor, etc. Funny thing is when they were trying to sell me the extended warranty when buying my new X, the salesman used the parts/labor bill of replacing the motor, etc. of one of the electric windows as an example of how I would recoup the cost of the warranty. It's as if he knew at least one of those motors was going to fail. I had a little buyer's remorse buying the extended warranty at the time, but it has paid for itself at least twice now.

For future reference for other X owners with the same electric window stuck down problem...

When I pulled into the service area to get in line at the dealer this morning, one of the mechanics was out front. He held the window toggle switch up with one hand and banged with the back of his fist with the other hand above and below the interior door handle. Within 5-10 seconds, UP rolls the window as if there were nothing wrong. Without the banging, it sounded like the motor was dead. I never thought to bang around given there was an expensive piece of glass just under the plastic door card.
This worked like a charm, thank you for saving me the trip to the mechanic!
 
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