The rear driver-side window on my 2001 Sebring Convertible just stopped working (it is in the full upright position). Pressing the button makes no noise at all. At first, all the other windows worked fine, but now the driver door window is having intermittent problems (this all started in the past 12 hours).

I took the inside panel off and was able to at least get to the connector to the quarter window motor. Multimeter shows a very brief bit of power when the switch is pressed, then nothing.

The quarter window was left down in a rain storm two days ago. Window worked fine the next morning and all through that next day. Since there appears to be a problem with full power at the connector, I'm not certain that the rain was the cause.

That window was recently (two months ago) worked on by my local dealer because the cable snapped. I do not know if the replacement included a new motor at that time.

It looks like all fuses are fine.
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What is my next step in diagnosing the problem? Is there a relay or anything else that I can check before concluding that I need to spend money on another motor?

Thanks

 

Now the passenger front window is acting up. I'm not going to even risk testing the passenger quarter window.

MRR

 

There is a window drop relay in the driver's door. It is activated by the top-down switch, but the individual window switches also activate the windows through the relay. You need to remove the door trim panel and peel back the water shield to get to it.
I would certainly check that before replacing the motor.
Do you need directions to remove the trim panel?

 

I have the Haynes manual, so I think I'm ok.

On my way home today I recalled that when I put the top down after the rain storm the windows didn't go down. But, I had assumed that it was like the driver's door and I just didn't push the button back all the way.

I noticed today that the passenger door doesn't work well from driver's controls, but works fine on the passenger side. Because of that, I thought that I might need to just replace the window controls on the driver's side. The manual doesn't say that I can get the controls out without removing the entire inner panel, but I'm about to see if I can.

Assuming it is the relay; can I get that at any auto store or do I need to look for it online?

Thanks for the response.
MRR

 

Took apart the door trim and water shield. Shield is in horrible shape. I swear, every place I've had the dealer do some work has been simply torn apart. Ok, back to what's important;

I cannot tell what the relay is in the door. Nothing looks like the defrost relay, at least. Only thing that looked like it might be a relay was in the center of the door; lot of wires leading into it, under the plastic cover was a circuit board with four cubes that look similar to the small relays in the engine compartment. However, it was black plastic so I couldn't see the electronics. In any case, I could detect nothing wrong visually (solder wasn't corroded, plastic wasn't melted). I also tried to look at the door switches (no, you cannot remove it just by removing that one screw). Got switches out of the door panel, but could not get the card out of plastic surround. However, the switches sounded ok. I do not know what all the connectors go to, so I didn't test for continuity (16 connectors with four switches, each switch either up, down, or off = 2880 blind tests).

After putting the door back on, the other three windows started to magically work correctly. I went to hook up the driver quarter window to test it, but discovered that it was hooked up and was still not working.

So, I'm back to where I was (but now armed with the ability to take apart the door panel). Is it still possibly that circuit board in the door? Can someone other than a dealer test it?

Thanks
MRR

 

I went to Applebees for happy hour and tipped my waiter 50% (still cheaper than regular price). When I went to my car, and the driver's quarter window started working properly. Karma fixed my car.

Since this is not a reliable way to have a functional automobile, can anyone still provide me with the information on those relays?

Thank you very much,
MRR

 

One final question. Does the window button on the passenger door go through the relay in the driver's door or does it have it's own relay in the passenger door for when you use the passenger window switch?

If it has its own relay, then maybe it was the relays in the driver's door. If the passenger door switch uses the same relays, then it seems more likely that it was a problem with the switches in the driver's door.

MRR

 

I sent you a PM with (hopefully) a picture showing the window drop relay.
If it's any help, the passenger side switch operates the passenger window directly, it does not go through the relay on the driver's side. From the wiring diagram, it appears to use a power transistor rather than a relay on the passenger side.
It could be that you got a little water in the plugs that caused some minor corrosion there. Pulling and replacing the plugs may have broken through the corrosion and re-established a good electrical connection.
My watershield was also trashed by some amateur who did some additional damage in the course of making a very slapdash repair to the driver's side window. You can buy a replacement watershield (I think it was about 35 bucks at the dealer). It comes with the adhesive applied; peel and stick. The latch and lock rods feed through the shield, so it's a little tricky, but not too bad to install.

The RD/BK (red and black I assume) wire from pin 8 on the window drop relay leads to the left rear window motor. Its corresponding pair is DB/WT (drab and white?) and that comes off pin 2 from the masterwindow switch. Current one way through these wires operates the window down, reversing the current operates the window up.

Since you already have established that the motor is still good, the relay is the most likely source of the problem.

Let us know how it works out.

 

Like I said, it magically started working again, so I'm going to leave it all alone after I take the back apart again and adjust the window. Thanks for the help.

MRR

 

I just had this exact same problem with my 2002 convertible and it turned out to be a broken wire in the harness between the door and the body.

I first confirmed that the rear window motor was good by taking the panels off on both sides of the backseat and running a wire from the rear passenger side window connector to the rear drivers window. Once I confirmed that the motor worked I started working my way backwards to the window controls in the driver’s door. After a while I did remember that the summer before the rear window dropped when the top went down and I had problems getting it back up and at the time I grabbed the rubber covered harness between the door and the body(drivers side) and gave it a shake and while holding the window switch and I got the window up.

With the driver’s door panel removed follow the Red/Black wire from the window drop relay to the connector on the body. Between the door and body the rubber cover can be easily pulled back, then remove the oval connector holder in the body by pushing in the four tabs (3 tabs with a screwdriver and the backside can be pushed in with a 2”inch nail. Once that is removed unplug the connectors and then push the whole harness back into the door and then back out where the speaker would be, this gives you lots of room to work on the break. There was a good 3-4 inches from the body connector to be able to nicely splice the break. I ran a 12 gauge wire and made one splice near the connector and the other was a good 10 inches inside the door.

I have seen another convertible in the city with the top down and the drivers rear window up so this seems to be a common problem.

One note. From the window drop relay the wire was a red/black, however once it when through the connector at the body they switched it to a red/white wire…..I guess just to confuse things.

The fix can be done in 60-90 minutes…..the troubleshooting and finding the break took 2 evenings.