The electric windows on my mk1 (1992 Eunos S-Special) have been a pain ever since I bought it in 2015. I’ve replaced the cables once and they were magically smooth and quick - for a while. Have had them out a couple of times since then to clean the cables off with wire wool and lubricate. But they inevitably corrode and slow down. They’re now unusable again - just got the door card off (again - very tedious job) and they are again corroded.
There does seem to be moisture in the bottom of the door - not loads of it, but it’s not bone dry.
Is this normal? And is there anything I can do to stop it happening? I’m guessing that it’s the weatherstrips between door and glass that are not as snug as they might be. Given that’s an £80 outlay from MX5parts I want to know that it’s going to fix the problem if I do it!
Alternatively might it be that the plastic lining between the door card and the door isn’t sealed properly? Taking it on and off means the black gunk does a less and less good job each time - is that worth replacing? (Sheeting and/or gunk?) And if so, any suggestions what to use?
It is a terrible job and I failed to rewire the unit. In the end, I bought a secondhand unit for a friends car with as you say rusty wires but it worked very well for a year until they sold the car.
Have you removed the old grease from the metal window slides and regreased with Castrol LM or similar grease. Not put new grease over the old grease.
Have you put plenty silicone grease on the non metal surface upper window slides.
You must check the door drains and get rid of the trapped water.
I would also greased the wires on the replacement unit.
I believe the plastic membrain is there to protect the back of the door cards and it would not effect the steel wires but I may well be wrong on that count.
The black stickey stuff is just horrid to deal with.
This is a general problem with these cars especially if they live outside.
Having said that you seem to be having far more of an issue that would be expected.
I serviced our Eunos window mechs well over three years ago - greasing cables, cleaning and silicone lubricating channels, etc. May look at is again this year but windows both work without issue. Car stood outside, less than 2 miles from the coast.
Rust on the upper cable where water pools and holds should take 10 years or more to start to physically snap the cable. Perhaps your door weatherstrips are really poor and the inside of the door getting far wetter than normal? These are not particularly well engineered and there are gaps but there should be a good seal along the majority of the weatherstrip length.
Thanks both - helpful. I keep the car outside and I’m less than 200m from the coast! But I doubt that’s going to be making that much difference. I don’t think the seals are bad - that’s why I’m loathe to replace them.
I think reading your comments I haven’t greased the cables sufficiently. Sounds like I need to do it properly this time and see how that goes. Is “service quickly, service twice” the mechanic’s equivalent to “buy cheap, buy twice” ?!
Its possible that the replacement cables, aftermarket, are a poorer grade of wire than what was used by Mazda.
The passenger door on my 96 has an aftermarket wormdrive window regulator. It really gets rusted. Its not going to break, but it might burn the motor out.
Interestingly, the factor motor on the drivers door had a little drain hole in the housing for the captan, perfect for a grease gun. Earlier cars don’t have this hole.
At one time, you could just buy the manual regulator from Mazda for £25 a side, and strip out the cables from that. We used to do that a few times, but it was a pain. Most often, the capstan gets trashed when the cable lunches itself and the poor owner is left pressing and pulling on the switch, but hearing a motor grind away.
The screw drive units are to be avoided at all costs; they just rust up inside. Funnily enough, not had an issue with the power windows in 20 years, except for the odd slowing down, and then a quick regrease in situ.