HOW TO REMOVE A WINDOW REGULATOR AND MOTOR FROM A HONDA ACCORD

Video Transcript

Greetings, viewers. Eric the Car Guy here. Today, we're going to remove a window regulator from the car in the yard without power. It'll be fun.

So the first thing we need to do to access the window regulator is remove the door card, or sometimes referred to as inner door panel. There's usually a couple of screws that hold things together, and there may be also some plastic clips. I know for a fact on this Accord we've got one Phillips-head screw here and one here behind the door handle. Sometimes there's a little plastic rivet that holds something in here. And on some vehicles they have screws that are around the circumference. So if you get a pull on it to take it off, and it's not moving, I would check for a screws around the circumference here. You might find some that are holding it in place.

So first, we may need to move this little plastic tab to access one of the Phillips-head screws like that. There we go, we have our first screw removed. Another screw located behind this access here. Now, this door handle is removed independently of the door card on this model. So in other words, push it to the side and slide it out. There's a little metal rod that connects to a plastic tab here. You just move that plastic tab out of the way, pull the rod up out of the door handle assembly, electrical connection here that needs to be disconnected. And this way, you don't destroy this when you take it out. If you notice, it's got little hooks. That's why moving it this way brought it out. Lastly, we're going to remove the door card. Like I said, check around the outside to see if there's any additional fasteners or screws around the outside. If not, it's usually just held in by plastic clips. Pull outward.

And then, in this case, we've got a door lock up here, which we need to move up past. Lift it up over that. There may be an electrical connection or two that you need to deal with. In this case, we've got the window switch here, and also there is a light down here. Door card is now free. Since somebody may need this part, we'll set this off to the side someplace where it won't get dirty.

The next thing you are likely to encounter is what's called the vapor barrier, and that's this piece of plastic here. And it's usually glued on. And sometimes there's other items fastened over the top of it. Personally, I like to remove these items just so that I have better access and I don't have to work around them. In this case, there's just a couple of Phillips-head screws and a 10-millimeter fastener here on the inside. Now I'm going to remove this vapor barrier to gain access to the fasteners for the window regulator. And it just sort of peels right out.

So now here comes the fun part and the dilemma at the same time. The window in this vehicle is all the way down, but I need it to come up here so that I can access the fasteners to remove the window from the vehicle. How do I do that without power? Well, I've come up with a rig with a battery that I'm going to use to power up this connector, which goes to the window motor itself. Check it out. s laugh at my stick pins. So now I'm to the point where I have to get the window to move into position. This is the connection to the window motor itself. It has two wires going to it. The way this works normally with a switch is current is applied in one direction going through the motor, and the window goes up. You change it around to the other direction, and the window goes down. You're basically going to take the place of the switch. So if you hook up the wires in one direction and the window's not moving, try them in the other direction and see if you can get it to move the way you want it to. Disconnect it here. Move the connector. And since these terminals are down inside this connector, I'm going to back probe it through here so that I don't worry about crossing my wires while I'm trying to get this to work. Butterflies and stars make everything better.

So you've probably noticed we moved to a different vehicle, exact same setup, everything else. But the window motor regulator on the other one wasn't working well. This one is, and I've got a better hack for you. Check it out. So rather than using a car battery, I've taken the 18-volt battery off of the impact tool, put some hair ties around the outside, and slid the wires in to the side to get power and ground from this battery. And I'm going to use this to power the window.

OK, I was having some trouble getting these connections to stay, so I just put these screws down in here and wedged them in-between the hair tie and also the wires to get them to make contact.

OK, now I need to get the window in position. much for this circuit. It normally runs on 12, so don't hold this on there for a whole lot of time. But I'm wanting to get the window to a position where I can access the fasteners right here, like I said before. Also, if you try this and nothing's happening, switch the wires around and try it again. Just where I need it to be. Now that I'm done moving the window regulator, I'm just going to disconnect power from my battery so I don't short my wires accidentally. Now that I have the bolts where I want them, it's just merely a matter of removing these two to get the window out. Before you remove the last fastener, make sure you're holding on to the window. You don't want it to fall down into the door. Now that the window is disconnected from the regulator assembly, I can pull up on it and slide it right out of the door. So if I'm after the glass, I'm done. If you want the window regulator, you've got a little bit more work to do.

There's three fasteners that hold the motor hidden here. Now, you only have to disconnect, or you only have to loosen, these two because they're slotted, but you have to remove this one entirely. Then there's these four fasteners here. And once again, this one you only have to loosen. You don't have to take it all the way out. We'll start with the ones on the motor. And this one we're going to remove. Then we got these four here. Or two, I should say. Loosen this one, and remove these lower two. We can also take princess pins back and remove the window regulator assembly. Lift up. Bring that part off. Same with the motor, just lift up, get it off its mounts. May be a little fiddly.

One last thing. There's that electrical connector there, or the plastic connector on the inside. Just pull the whole thing out this hole. And there we are. We got a motor regulator assembly. So there you have it. With a little bit of ingenuity and a battery, you can have yourself power in the salvage yard to harvest yourself a window or a window motor regulator assembly. Anyway, I hope this information was helpful to you. I'm Eric the Car Guy. I close each of my videos with "be safe, have fun, stay dirty." Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.