power windows

[aych]

Hello,

Yesterday all 4 of my power windows on my 88 camry LE stopped functioning. my fuses look ok, what other problems do you think it may be? my central locks and sunroof still works ok.

[aych]

the other 3 windows have come back. its just the driver side window and controls that do not work ><! help please~

[Kep]

Intermitant windows are usually a bad wire going from the car to the door switch. Since all of them went out at once it is probably a shared wire going to the master door switch in the driver's door. Often you can hold the switch while you open and close the door (or wiggle the tube of wires in the hinge area) and the functions will operate (or not) as the broken wires come together and separate. You will need to open the driver door panel and start troubleshooting for a broken wire and then replace it through to the cab.

There are several DIYs for this and similar things in the Gen 3/4 forum and this forum that you can search out. I suggest that you do searches for "master door switch" or "master switch". There are likely others as well.

Kep

[aych]

i opened it up.. and snapped my hook in the process. but I searched it up, checked everything out, and determined that my BLUE WIRE has NO POWER!. the fuse is ok, since the other windows and the sunroof is working, now what?

[Kep]

Not sure what a "hook" is but hopefully nothing too important.

Before you spend a lot of time on this, are you sure that the blue wire that you mention is supposed to have power? Is this wire in the driver door?

OK, if you have no power at a wire at the master switch follow the wire to the connection in the door. Verify that there is no power there also. Next go inside the side panel on the driver side and locate that wire and see if this location has power. If it does, as I suspect, then the wire is broken between that point and the connector in the door. Most likely right where it passes through that rubber tube at the door hinge.

A quick and dirty check is to run a long wire from the battery (or a 12V source where ever) to where the suspect wire connects to the switch and try the switch. If this corrects the problem then go ahead and replace the wire. I found that I could snake a small wire (it was the metal strip from an old wiper blade) through the rubber hose and pull a new wire with that. Try not to pierce the rubber tube.

Kep

[Mike Gerber]

Kep,

"I found that I could snake a small wire (it was the metal strip from an old wiper blade) through the rubber hose and pull a new wire with that."

Good idea. I never thought of that one. It's something you can use as an emergency fish wire on the side of the road.

Mike