The driver’s side window on my car seems to have suddenly become a little slow when opening & closing, particularly at one point about halfway up / down. Passenger side’s fine. I’ve had a look on the forum & there are a few recommendations for NAs where this problem’s occurred, most of which seem to involve removing the door trim & lubricating the channels etc.
Does anybody know please - is this a relatively easy job on the NC, would I need any special tools & what sort of lubricant’s recommended?
Before you start getting inside the door (behind the door card) have you tried cleaning the quarter glass upright in the channel where the glass slides? I did this on my previous models, Mk1 with manual window winders and MK2 with electric windows. In both cases it resolved stiff to open/close windows. In addition a few wipes of silicone spray or as I used Autoglym rubber and vinyl treatment to ease things.
Of course it could be in need of further investigation if the above doesn’t work, it’s door card off time.
Thanks Mick - yes I tried cleaning inside the quarterlight channel & wiping some silicone inside there, it did seem to make a slight difference but hasn’t totally cured it. Good idea re. the Autoglym product, I’ve got some of that so will give it a try.
Only noticed the problem because I closed the window with the engine off today; on investigation I found it’s a bit better with the engine running, presumably due to the extra available current from the alternator however still a little slow at one point.
The battery’s fully charged & in good condition.
How much slower is it.
My daily driver already has a dsicrepancy between the passenger and drivers side, and it’s only 3 years old.
I guess a consequence of one side rarely being used and still like new.
Thanks Keat63. It’s been slightly slower than the passenger one for a while, think I just noticed today that it seems to have got worse - starts off OK, slows down noticeably about half way down / up (worse when going up) then speeds up again.
Yes the passenger side’s had much less use than the driver’s side; although the car’s only done just under 37,000 miles it’s necessary for me to open the driver’s window & stick my head out of there in order to get the car safely up & down my narrow drive - avoiding the doorstep on one side & car port pillars on the other - & also safely in & out of my rather narrow garage. Meaning that, whenever I use the car, I have to open the driver’s window first & again when I put it away afterwards.
I had this on my NA, don’t know how applicable it will be t an NC but just in case. If you do take the door cards off, check all the mechanism parts are bolted to the door firmly and in the correct position.
When I was putting the window mechanism back together I found that there seemed to be very little allowance for the position of the guide channel, on the door nearest the back of the car. If it was out of position horizontally it seemed to cause enough friction to slow the window down toward the middle of its journey. On my car the channel has one or two bolts on the side of the door and one on the bottom, you can loosen them so the channel moves to suit itself, and wind the window up and down to see the difference.
I couldn’t find a position for the problem to stop, but it helped enough.
Does the NC use cables to operate the glass, or a single arm running in a channel.
Would a lubrication session on the moving parts inside the door card help.
Thanks Keat63 - I have a download of Mazda’s manual for the NC, looked at that yesterday & it seems that it’s cable operated. If it gets to the stage where I have to take the door card off I’ll lubricate everything - will have to wait for some drier / warmer weather though as there isn’t enough room to work on it in my garage.
My windows are the same, hardly work at all when the engine is not running, although the battery is always fully charged up
My other car a A Nissan Qashqai has windows that work better but, they too are sometimes a bit slow. I think that the motors that move the windows are probably not powerful enough.
Very pleased to report that this problem’s now fixed!
I’d cleaned inside the window channel at the side of the quarterlight (hardly any dirt in there) & then sprayed some silicone lubricant on a rag & wiped that around the rubber / felt guide within the channel as soon as I noticed the problem last Thursday, but it didn’t seem to make much difference at all.
Didn’t use the car again until this evening, put the window down to reverse out of the garage & the glass slid down like new. Tried closing it & that was as good as new too - guess the silicone had probably needed time to soak into the seal?
Thanks to all who responded - much appreciated, it appears then that the fix was the same as MickAP’s.
I think the silicone needs to dry to be at its most slippery.
I used some on the horizontal bar at the top of the door as my drivers window was squeaking.
It still squeaked while wet but stopped once dry
