The drivers window came out of its track the other day. Please respond if this has happened to you. This is actually the second time it happened. Last time it took me way too many hours to fix including a trip to the wrecking yard to pull a part in the pouring rain.
It is such a poor design, the question is not why did it break, but how did it last so long.
For the most part I have liked this car. I have had it since '94. It is when crap design like this and crap workmanship causes me so much trouble, I can not say that I will buy another Pontiac. I am sure that it was cost savings that allowed this design to reach the production line.
I have a 92 Grand Am. I think it was about five or six years old when the drivers door window first malfunctioned. I have no one to blame for the initial breakdown other than myself. I kept using the switch to try and force open a power window that was frozen and covered with ice.
The following summer, I took the car to a Pontiac dealership and let Mr. Goodwrench fix it. The regulator was replaced. The repair lasted approximately three days before the window came off the track. I took it back to the dealership and let Mr. Goodwrench look at it again. Several hours later, after an adjustment was done to the window, I was on my way. That repair lasted approximately thirty days before the window came off the track again. I didn't bother going back and have lived with a window that can't be opened since then.
Recently, I saw a service bulletin that was issued for the 92 and 93 Grand Am in 1994. They have an improved run channel, rear channel retainer and regulator assembly. Maybe there are some similar improved parts for the Grand Prix.
It seems to be a common problem on the older Grand Am's. I know of two other Grand Am's that are roughly ten years old with the drivers side window off the track.
Even with the lingering window problem that I'm too lazy to try and fix, it's the best car I've ever owned. 240,000 miles and counting.
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