Hi everyone:
The front windows on my 360GLT are power operated.. at least they should be, and they were until about a week ago. After 3 or 4 episodes of 'sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't', it now doesn't work at all, and the window is stuck in the open position. To check the switch, I swapped it over to the passenger side, and it opens that window quite happily, so the fault must lie somewhere else. When the switch is operated on the faulty side there's no sound what so ever.. and trying to pull the window up while pressing the switch with the other hand (I can hear you laughing!!) achieves nothing-it won't budge.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, especially if they solve the non-operative central locking at the same time Fixing the mechanism would be great, but at this stage I'd be happy with just raising the window so I can secure the car.

Cheers
Moro

Well, I'm gonna revive this old thread! My passenger window stopped working tonight, what a PITA. When I got the car the passenger window didn't work, so, first plan of attack, the switch, removed, disconnected, blew dust out of the connector, plugged back together, woo hooo, working window. Then tonight, my mate winds it down, then it went up ok, he went down again, then got out, possibly with the vibration and shock of closing the door something has disconnected in the wiring, so the window won't go up. I swapped the switches over, same thing as this poor chap Moro above, the switch isn't the problem. There doesn't seem to be any power drawn when the switch is operated, so it's not jammed IMO. I will tomorrow with a mulitmeter see what reading I get at the door end with the swtich operating. I've got a spare motor, but I don't really want to be messing about swapping them over if it's not that. After removing the door trim, all the wires seemed connected, wiggled, and checked, still nothing. Any ideas, or Moro, what did you find to be the cause in the end, dead motor, or something else? It is mainly for security and to stop the weather getting in that I want to get the window up at least.
Pete

Happened on my black car on the drivers side, I took the motor out of the mechanism, ran it on a spare car battery and it worked.. put it all back together and it still works perfectly 10 months on. Neither of my electric windows work on the saloon - bugger. The motor on the passenger side seems to be dead, judging by the window logo on the switches being like new, it'll be down to lack of use.

If you have suspicions on the switch swap the connections over and see if the drivers side switch powers the passenger side window? Just a thought...

Cheers Steve, I'll have the motor out when I can find some torx bits. First thing I tried was swapping the switches, as I didn't fancy removing the door trim at 3 am or whatever it was, but I ended up doing it anyway, just glad it didn't rain last night!
Pete

Failing getting it working sharpish.. a block of wood is your friend!

my drivers side power window is very slow and painfull! but it has its days sometimes it can be ok.

when i removed the door card i found the stem holding it in place to be snapped.

so i screwed the motor onto the door skin with a new bracket.

I come to the conclusion the motor is shagged! need a new one, my one stil works just a little slow.

The electric windows must be one of the most problematic items in a 300! I think this problem is due to low usage the same as yours Steve, the switches are like new. With regards to a slow window, my original GLT had a bent runner in the door which was causing major friction against the glass, making the motor strain, bent it straight and all was a lot better!
Pete

340_singh wrote:I come to the conclusion the motor is shagged! need a new one, my one stil works just a little slow.

Get it looked at before it stays open and wont go back up again!

Oooooh, manual windows. That's the way to go!




Never had any of my windows stick open as I've always had a little handle to wind 'em shut with.
Spam, spam, spammity spam...

not sure wether to bother with the conversion or not now

you can get universal window kits from maplin thier great! made in taiwan..... last you long enough and they can be used and replace the stock volvo motors.

just wire them into the volvo wiring.

Manual windows are good, but mine have failed, the handle fell off twice

You just pop the end bit off, place it on, screw the screw in and pop the coverf on. Simple

Well all is well again! After some MSN conversations with Steve and Hugh who've 'been there done that' as it were, I decided to take the motor iteself off, held in with those lovely torx/star headed bolts. Easy to remove a motor, but a right royal PITA to replace with the rest of the mechanism in situ.

Now I can see why Haynes went for the remove the glass, (all very well if the window is operational for you to get it to the desired level! Doh!) then unbolt all of the lifting mechanism and motor route. Basically the motor shaft was being held 10-15 mm higher than it should have been where it would join the two faces of the motor and housing. This I thought was due to the cogs of the gears and the worm threaded drive of the motor not wishing to pass one another, as the motor shaft was not locked to twist it into place like a threaded screw, the motor just span once it made contact and friction took over. Not the case, Steve told me he'd found something covering the hole at the bottom where the shaft is held in place to keep it central. So, plenty of poking about with a screwdriver to clear the hole, (I can't be 100% sure, but it looked like some retractable plate had covered it) and a fair bit of luck combined with wriggling the motor and twisting it to screw it into place and it finally found it's way home.

It would have had to have been pouring with rain, quite cold, and to cap it off dark while I was doing this, but I now have a working window thanks to a donor door I had. I really wanted to avoid taking all of the mechanism out, and still couldn't really see what advantage this would gain me, other than being able to possibly see the obstruction more clearly. I managed to prop the glass up with a piece of wood.

The worst part was not having a secure and weather proof car with the window open, but at least once you have removed the motor you can manually pull the window up, then wedge it up with a piece of wood cut to the correct length!

Mick, for all of the hassle I've seen 300 electric windows being, I would stupidly still have them. IMO it is only the motor that lets the system down, probably through lack of use. It is more common for it to be the passenger side which if used far less. They're in a pretty damp environment, and with lack of use it's hardly surprising. So, I don't think it would be too bad if you make sure you use them regularly, they are useful at times. If you want I can give you a hand fitting them now I've had a crash course in repairing the things!

Pete

Go for the conversion, they are no where near as bad as are made out. The switches can go after a while cos of arcing, but thats a simple job to replace, I'm putting my money behind the non use arguement too, it's the same as any electric motor. Get the WD40 and abuse the commutator end if anyone else has this problem (yeah, ok, so they are nicely cased.. just don't loose anything )

They are the simplest window mech ever, at least they arn't operated by door switches, that brings another 2 wires into play (having had to abuse a Citreon ZX a month or three ago, we got it easy )

The only problem I've ever had is the rubber that sits in the channel to the front of teh door coming loose and jamming the window, but thats a simple restick job, other than that I havn't had any trouble on Kar or Beast

I finally went to a garage recommended by the local Volvo Club; he just swapped the motor with one from his 'Volvo graveyard' and problem fixed! It's still a slow process to get the window up or down.. I suspect the frame may be slightly out of shape. But apart from that, and the misfire that tok me a couple of months to correctly diagnose, the car has been going beautifully.
We've actually decided to 'rationalise' down to just one car for the family and the Volvo is going to be 'it'.
The next not-so-urgent job will be to get the central locking operational again.