Power window help - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

fsrxc1 · 07-16-2008, 10:44 AM

Ok guys i need some help....heres the back ground.....my father had his camry fixed at the body shop....now the window doesn't work...he brings it back...the move some wires and it works....he closes the door, now it doesn't work again...lol...i tried to track down the problem...it's not the main switch, as i swapped it with mine..any ideas of what it could be? Any help would be great...oh it's the drivers side window...the power lock switch still works and so does the mirror...ok thanks again

scott.joyner24 · 07-16-2008, 12:04 PM

what wires did they move? the ones going to the master switch? maybe a bad ground in the wiring harness itself. before you check the wiring itself, there is a mini relay for the power windows in the fuse box on the inside. check your owners manual for the exact location in the box, but it is a pink mini-relay. if it is still good, going to have to check the wiring to see where your short is. use one of those voltage testers you can get at wal-mart.

fsrxc1 · 07-16-2008, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott.joyner24

what wires did they move? the ones going to the master switch? maybe a bad ground in the wiring harness itself. before you check the wiring itself, there is a mini relay for the power windows in the fuse box on the inside. check your owners manual for the exact location in the box, but it is a pink mini-relay. if it is still good, going to have to check the wiring to see where your short is. use one of those voltage testers you can get at wal-mart.

I don't know what the moved...but when they put the mirror back together they used freakin masking tape...so i soldered those and used heat shrink to seal them...the locking mechanism still has power and all the other window switches work, so i don't know if it could be the mini relay, but i will check..thanks for the advice.

Kep · 07-16-2008, 12:18 PM

Try holding the window switch down (with the key on) while slowly opening & closing the door. If the window twitches it is likely a broken wire in the loom running between the door and the body. If the wire is too far gone you may need to verify the grounds and hots with a multimeter. You can also use a multimeter to verify that you do or do not have power to the motor itself. It would be better if it is the relay. Of course, also look for more masking tape!

Kep

fsrxc1 · 07-16-2008, 12:45 PM

yeah i thought of that....i was wiggling the wires in the loom...but damn toyota sealed it so well with that rubber boot its a pain...is the only way to get that off is to cut it??

Kep · 07-17-2008, 02:41 PM

When I did mine I just used a multimeter to read the resistance of each wire (inside plug to door plug) and replaced the wire that was broken. I didn't want to loose the protection of the rubber sleeve. If you try this I used the metal strip from an old windshield wiper blade as a wire snake. Worked pretty well.

Kep

dz63 · 07-23-2008, 07:43 PM

Don't cut the rubber boot. You can manipulate it and pull it out if you are careful. I did this on my '96 Camry. Every single one of the wires inside the rubber boot - where the flexing occurs when the door is opened and closed - were brittle and cracked - some wires broke and others simply shorted each other out.

I was too cheap to buy a new wiring harness, so I cut out all of the bad wires and soldered in new wires, and used heat shrink tubing to insulate the solder joints. I kept the solder joints outside the "flex zone". There are about 12-15 wires per door.

Not sure if this is a common problem on the '96 Camry, but I suspect that it must be because over a period of 3-4 years, I have had to replace all the wires inside the rubber boots on all four doors. Over time the original wires cracked and either shorted or simply broke and the window would not work. It is a pretty easy repair. I think it took me about 2-2.5 hours per door.