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Discovery electric window fix


TheRecklessEngineer

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Thought I would take a few photos whilst I did this, cos apparently its a common failure on discoverys, and probably rangies too. There is a tell-tale clunk and then you can hear parts drop to the bottom of the door. The window will then drop open. A strip of electrical tape along the bottom of the window is adequate to hold it closed short-term.

The fault is that the 3 spot welds that hold the half-moon cog (which binds with the motor) to the arm (that moves the window) eventually give up and fracture. The new part is £50-60 ish IIRC, so I thought I would have a go at fixing it.

First off, is pulling the broken bits out. Pulling the inside of the door skin off is easy - pull of the speaker by taking out the 4x screws. 1 x screw behind the door catch, and 2 x 10mm bolts holding the handle on underneath. The skin will then pull away with strategically located screw drivers. Remember to lift it over the toggle wotsit for the lock. There is a waterproof membrane inside this...pull it off carefully. This will expose the guts of the door.

You then need to take out the motor. The broken cog should be in the bottom of the door. There are 6 x 8mm bolts holding the motor to the door frame and 2 x 8mm bolts and 1 x screw holding it to the window. See the photo below. I found it easiest to get at the window bolts with the window more or less fully down. With a bit of fiddling you can then get the motor and arm out of the door. Remember the electrical connections.

DSC00037.jpg

Red circles are the 8mm nuts to be undone. Dont forget the window bolts too!

The nature of how the cog binds with the motor means that you cannot re-weld along the front and back, which would be the most secure and obvious place. So, I drilled 2 holes in the arm, and also slightly into the cog to help penetration. The photos below show the parts nicely cleaned up (before I put holes in the cog).

DSC00033.jpg

The arm

DSC00034.jpg

Its a bit tricky to line the cog and the arm up again, as there is very little in the way of guidance. I used guestimating the correct position, tacking it in place and then checking. It is easy to check if it is correct by reconnecting the electrics to the car and winding the window up and down a few times. It should be a smooth motion. Remember to keep your fingers out of the mechanism!

DSC00035.jpg

Tacked on ready for testing

When you are satisfied, weld the hell out of it! I also added some weld on the sides after the photos below (please...no comments on my welding!) Add a little grease when its cold again.

DSC00036.jpg

Welded up and cleaned up

Assembly is a little more fiddly. I found it helped to reconnect the electrics, and wind the motor all the way down. This allows it to fit back through the hole more easily. Refit is the reverse of above!

If all goes well...this should take about an hour, and is much cheaper than the new part!

Hope this helps someone!

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I did exactly this job for someone a while ago (well he did the taking apart and reassembling - I just did the welding). I drilled the spot welds out of one piece and used the marks in the other to line it up, then just welded through the drill holes. It hasn't broken yet, so hopefully yours will be fine. The original spot welds looked pretty feeble; I'm confident that the repair is stronger than the original.

Gus

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 months later...

Hi All

I quote from this:

"Assembly is a little more fiddly. I found it helped to reconnect the electrics, and wind the motor all the way down. This allows it to fit back through the hole more easily. Refit is the reverse of above!"

I also opened the window last night after the window ran completely down and sounded like the regulator ran out of the motor. I took everything apart and, took the complete motor etc out.

I noted then that the regulator ran out of the motor's gear indeed.

I went back to the car with only the motor taken apart from the assembly , connected it and turned the switch in the open position, and the motor just kept on running without stopping, as i was under the impression that it should stop after a while. I then asumed that the window has a stopper at the bottom and the BCU tell's the motor to stop automatically when reached this point.

So I then put the motor back on to the regulator and installed it all back again in the car.

Tested it and boom, down went the window to the bottom and sounded like the regulator ran out again. I lifted the window with my hand back to position and then it went up again all fine.

I will now put a white sticker on the front passenger window to say that it shouldn't be opened it to the full extend because damn, I dont want to do the excecise again if i am not 100% sure where to look for the problem :huh:

So the question is what is wrong. Ho will I be able to fix it. Is it a problem with the BCU?

O, and my regulator on that specific door was welded before by my friend and it is still lasteing after 10 months.

Any advice will help, thanks.

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Hi All

I quote from this:

"Assembly is a little more fiddly. I found it helped to reconnect the electrics, and wind the motor all the way down. This allows it to fit back through the hole more easily. Refit is the reverse of above!"

I also opened the window last night after the window ran completely down and sounded like the regulator ran out of the motor. I took everything apart and, took the complete motor etc out.

I noted then that the regulator ran out of the motor's gear indeed.

I went back to the car with only the motor taken apart from the assembly , connected it and turned the switch in the open position, and the motor just kept on running without stopping, as i was under the impression that it should stop after a while. I then asumed that the window has a stopper at the bottom and the BCU tell's the motor to stop automatically when reached this point.

So I then put the motor back on to the regulator and installed it all back again in the car.

Tested it and boom, down went the window to the bottom and sounded like the regulator ran out again. I lifted the window with my hand back to position and then it went up again all fine.

I will now put a white sticker on the front passenger window to say that it shouldn't be opened it to the full extend because damn, I dont want to do the excecise again if i am not 100% sure where to look for the problem :huh:

So the question is what is wrong. Ho will I be able to fix it. Is it a problem with the BCU?

O, and my regulator on that specific door was welded before by my friend and it is still lasteing after 10 months.

Any advice will help, thanks.

HI,

I had a similar problem to this on my sandbags D2. The quadrant with thte teeth on that the motor drives is very soft and the end stop had worn away allowing the motor to run off the end of the track. I think the motor stops on overcurrent when it hits an obstacle i.e the frame at the top and the raised teeth at the end of the quadrant at the bottom.. On ours, the raised "stop" had worn away but once back "on track" the window would go up and stop when it hit the frame. I put a bit of weld on the end of the quadrant and ground it back to make an end stop and it's been fine ever since. (It was a replacement "after market" regulator by the way).

Hope this helps.

Scrumps

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I think it's a good move to fit 2 x rubber buffers in the bottom corners of the door on the ledge, so the window does not go down with a thump.

From memory they were apx. 1" high, but you'd need to check that in situ. Why LR never fitted them is anyone's guess.

Maybe it's that thump that buggers up the spots?

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  • 3 years later...

I just had the same problem. If you look at the crescent cog it has three small spot welds to hold it on. I just drilled a 6mm hole through each one and used pan headed machine screws. The gap between the cog and the motor in narrow so I linished off the heads and when it all went back in it works like a dream :D

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I drilled out my last one and welded through it then as a belt and braces thing stuck a bead on the inside of the cog.

Worked a treat up until the nylon wheels disintigrated.

And the 10p fix for them does work for them, a few months at any rate....tbh its easier to buy a new one off fleabay and do a bit of pre-emptive welding before fitting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tried to put up my front left window this morning and nothing happend but the engine was working so when to your forum and got good help to take it apart. It wasn't a question of bad welding or broken piece, but just a guide (pics #1288) that had worn up and the half moon gear rack was jumping on it and allowed the window to go all the way down.
post-49478-0-37973200-1359586779_thumb.jpg

So I tapped a 1/4 thread in the hole of the half moon gear, and put a piece of screw that would come to make a top with the engine braket in order to stop the course.post-49478-0-68530700-1359586780_thumb.jpgpost-49478-0-85460400-1359586781_thumb.jpg

an hour later it was working so this hopefully can help some body
















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  • 6 months later...
Tried to put up my front left window this morning and nothing happend but the engine was working so when to your forum and got good help to take it apart. It wasn't a question of bad welding or broken piece, but just a guide (pics #1288) that had worn up and the half moon gear rack was jumping on it and allowed the window to go all the way down.

attachicon.gifIMG_1288.jpg

So I tapped a 1/4 thread in the hole of the half moon gear, and put a piece of screw that would come to make a top with the engine braket in order to stop the course.attachicon.gifIMG_1290.jpgattachicon.gifIMG_1291.jpg

an hour later it was working so this hopefully can help some body

Eric - Thanks a bunch for your post- especially the pics, they are very helpful. I have been trying to fix this problem of regulator gears shooting past the power window motor teeth for a while without success. I will follow your method/instructions to fix my window that won't stop before disengaging from the window motor.

You are the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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