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  • Electrical, Please help

    Can somebody help me out? I have a 96 Formula ws6 and I recently have had a few problems with the electrical that I can't figure out. I apologize in advance for being just a driver and not a mechanic. But I am hoping that this is part of the reason we have message boards for mechanical people like you to help driving idiots like me. It all started on a rainy day, Pouring rain, as I ran into the house and set my alarm I notice that my headlights popped up and then went back down. Now everytime I lock or open the doors the lights pop up then back down and I hear a grinding noise for about 5 seconds. Now I read somewhere that the gears might be stripped and I can take it apart myself and rotate the stripped gear to fix that.... Can anyone verify this, and is this common to happen to both lights at the same time??
    Now that's not all, a few months later my drivers side window starts acting up. I take apart the door panel to find that the window switches were breaking and I rotated them with the passenger side door lock buttons to get the window to roll down when pressed. Then the window starts to only go down part way and then as I drive about 15 mins longer it would go down about an inch and then stop again. This process repeated itself going down then up......VERY FRUSTRATING ON NICE DAYS WANTING THE TOPS OFF. O.k. now for the weird stuff, then all of the sudden the drivers side window works fine and the passenger window starts to do the same thing now. It will only go down about a half inch and then stop and about a half hour later it will go down again, needless to say I leave them up now, again very frustrating summer for me. Now for the back round information, the battery was getting low, and I have since replaced and I have the same problem. I was thinking of replacing the relays to see if that worked, but I really do not have the money to replace things that do not need replacing and I am here now for maybe some shortcuts or past experiences that someone might have had. Before I get called a cheap *******, or told to take it into the shop, I seriously struggled and am still struggling to keep this car. I bought it new in 96 and then 3 years later went through the typical rotten nasty divorce, well she obviously got the kids and everything else I worked hard for I was not about to give up my car. The first car I bought on my own. I had to refinance this thing and I am almost done, about $1500 to go. Seriously I had G.M.A.C. out looking for this thing about 5 times. I hid it and bought a 84 beat up escort/ sweatscort- no air, to drive for the time being. I worked too hard to get this car, to loose it along with my kids. Don't get me wrong, if it were up to me, she could have kept the car and everything else and given me the kids, and I would have been a happier man today. Hell with the money I would have saved in child support, I could have ran out and bought a new one, had she gotten my car and let me have my son in the divorce. Well anyways I am getting close to having it paid off and I can now start to use those car payments to start fixing the things I let go due to the low income. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the book here, but I just don't like loose ends.........
    Thanks.

  • #2
    O.K. posted this before reading anything on this message board. From what I read, it sounds like my relays are overheating and my motors are going to need to be replaced. But I am still confused as to why all of the sudden the drivers side door works fine now, even before I changed the battery, but the passenger side one does not now.... Crazy,
    Anyone know if maybe this sounds like a loose connection or something? I will try and clean the connections this weekend and see if that works. Is this worth it, or from experience, does it sound like I am going to have to replace the motor?
    oh and by the way, my fricking power antenna took a dump too. I am pretty sure I can order a new motor for that and replace that myself, does anyone have a link similar to the one that shows the power window replacement instructions that I saw in the message boards? Sorry can't remember the website, but it was on page two of the meesage boards, under replacing power window message, I think....
    Thanks again

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    • #3
      One at a time:

      Headlights are the gears, but it's probably just one. One motor is so loud it can sound like two, and mine have done it for a long time. The trick is on bfranker's site I belive, I'm sure somebody can post the link. You don't take the motor apart, you just disconnect the arm from the motor, then manually rotate the gear 180 degrees by using the adjuster on the motor itself. It's pretty self-explanatory once you see his site.

      Windows sound like switches to me, just bad connections that happen to work minutes later. My car has one touch up and down added on with my alarm, and it is real sensitive to pressure (child safety feature, will shut down window motor if too much pressure is applied to keep you from getting caught). I can't tell you if I've had the problem or not because the one touch package is so sensitive I just figure it's that thing acting up. I can tell you one thing though, the passengers window is dependent on the drivers door switch. Since it seems to alternate between doors, I would suggest cleaning up just the drivers switch or replacing it, that should solve the problem.

      Is the power antenna motor not turning at all, or is it turning and the mast doesn't come up? If it's the latter, then you can buy a mast kit from GM and just replace the mast itself. That will save you a bunch of money. If the whole thing is bad, buy an aftermarket one. They are much cheaper. If you want real cheap, just get a standard antenna. Hopefully your 96 is treated to hand washings and not auto car washes anyway, so you won't have to worry about taking it off.
      "No, officer, that bottle is my onboard Halon system"

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      • #4
        First...... watch the language, it's a family type board.

        First problem, headlight gear(s) stripped. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the free fix, if that doesn't work, replace the gears.

        http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/index.htm


        Second problem, the switches break and are a cheap replacement when they come apart.


        Third problem, window motors frequently burn out, here is the

        fix:http://csce.uark.edu/~jgbertr/rb/alt...ndowmotor.html

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        • #5
          Thank you both for the tips and links...........

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