Power Windows Problem

Hi all. We have a '92 Volvo 940 wagon, my wife has mentioned that the power windows have on odd ocassion failed to work over the past few months, but it always "fixed" itself just a few minutes later. This morning, however, all control failed from the driver's side (we did toggle the child-safety switch too, but all four windows failed to go up or down no matter what), yet the passenger side switch continued to work fine. During my poking around this evening, I found the passenger door control fails now too. The fuse is fine; the relay is shared with the fan, and the fan works fine. I've removed the switch block from the driver side, and the switches themselves are fine (and it would be difficult to explain how all switches failed simulataneously anyway if the problem was the actual switch assembly).

I'm now at a loss for what else could be wrong. Must I pull the whole door panel off and find the ground point? I can't work out what else might be both intermittent (historically) and so systemic. Does anybody have any other ideas?

Reply to
Augasm
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You could try replacing the fuse anyway. Mine was doing that and I twirled the fuse a few times... it wore through the conical end and got worse until they didn't work at all. I suggested to a mate he get a volvo next. He said why, because it's got electric windows? I said no, because they still work after 25 years.

Reply to
jg

I did actually swap the fuse with the fan (both 30 amp), but that didn't work. I might pull the door panel off this morning afterall. It's just that I always find so much difficulty getting them back on again properly, I was hoping to avoid it ...

Please, any other ideas in case this one comes up cold?

Cheers

Reply to
Augasm

It's not so much removing them, it's that it's hard to see and work in there when you do.

Reply to
jg

Actually, you might have been right after all! I swapped yet another fuse in from a different position, and I got two of the windows back up before that stopped working too. Then I swapped in one of the spares, and it worked for a bit too. When it stopped working, I just gave the fuse a bit of a wiggle from the top (didn't pull it again), and now they're working again. I spoke to our mechanic, and he was dead set that the switches we the most likely problem. But the working/not working didn't correlate at all to what I did with the switches -- only fuses.

But this is not very satisfying, it's working now, but I don't feel that I really fixed anything. Do the fuses oxidize a bit over the years, even as the sit rubbing in their sockets, and this a higher current fuse would see the problem perhaps first? Or does this point to loose wiring underneath the fuse panel?

Of course the radio stopped working now too, but I suppose I can't have everything.

We're slowly proving all over again something my father told me years ago -- automotive electrical problems rarely have anything to do with logic, so don't be logical when you try to fix it.

For what it was worth, while I had a bulk of the stuff off the door, I pulled the inside panel off and had a look -- the ground must run back into the body with everything else -- the only wires that split from the bundle off the switches go to the power window motor -- there's no grounding inside there that can lose contact. Except for the cosmetic carpeted bit, I think I got it back together again too! I even had a part left over, which means I did it properly (it was some odd stiff kinked metal rod with a little brass bit slid onto it that was just laying in the bottom of the door. Maybe that was for the radio :)

Cheers, and thanks again!

Reply to
Augasm

I have had the problem often enough to be fairly confident if they have any effect on the works when you touch them, they satisfy my theory of electricity - it's always a loose connection (and the fuse is probably the worst connection in the line).

Reply to
jg

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