Heard that sticky electric windows is a common problem, and a car I’m going to look at over the weekend suffers from this.
What’s the standard fix if it’s particularly bad? Is it just a strip/clean/lube job or is there more to it than this?
Cheers
ric
Hi Ric
Go to Halfords and get a tin of there own brand sillicone lube(yellow tin),take your door card/panel off and spray all the channels don’t be shy with it,they are just dry,run the engine because there not the fastest of things to use and press the electric window botton up and down a few times untill your happy,don’t forget to spray the door lock and mech etc with the door card being off,and now you have your hands dirty, do both sides and you should have no prob’s for some time.
Kind regards
The grease used on the cables really gums up over time. Depending on how much time you want to spend on it, you can remove the actual electric window motor assembly from the door (but keep it plugged in, make up an extension with some wire and spade connectors, and see if you can get some grease into the cable capstan. On most cars, there are 2 screws securing a plate, that you need to carefully remove, to get at the cables (don’t remove the plastic capstan!). On some later cars, it seems Mazda has introduced a small hole on the underside of the capstan. I think this is intended as a water drain, but it serves as a useful way to get a spray grease in there. Work it in, using the electric window buttons to move it back and forth.
Note, the aftermarket screw-type motors (no cables) have their own problems, even worse. They can seriously rust up inside.
Hi,
My wife bought a 1998 Mk2 recently. That had a sticking passenger window. Took the risk and bought after knocking another £200 off car price. Tried to clean & lube no joy.
Took to local MX5 specialist who along with other things fixed it for a small amount of money.
Went thro all the bills received with car and one was for about £400 for a motor for the window.
So it could be a cheap job to fix or not.
One thing I did, was help the window with a push and it did go down fully and back up no problem but then stuck again about 3 inches down next time.
Take Care
Dave
You could also check that the hard rubber seal where the window enters the door isn’t causing a problem, mine is kind of perished and was getting push/pulled down into the door as the window went down causing large amounts of friction and problems righting itself as the window went up as well.
Mine had a sluggish passenger window when I bought it. I opened up the door and found it was an aftermarket type (same as one on mx5parts). Silicone greased channels and works fine.
Interestingly, my drivers side is the original and works fine, after 19 years!
I agree with using silicone grease, it works fine. One of the reasons why electric windows seize up is that they do not get enough use. If a car has air conditioning people tend not to open the windows very often, hence the problem. Same applies to electric mirrors, people set them and they are very rarely altered, so the motors seize. So when your windows are operating smoothly give them a little excercise once in a while.
Regards Geoff Peace.