Cost of electric window repair?

Lost_in_the_HTTP said:

Parts plus labor and figure at least two hours of shop time at whatever they charge. Scheduling is another issue. Shops are busy.

I replaced all four on my '95 Taurus wagon in a morning taking a little over an hour each once I figured out the first one. Yes, some plastic bits will break and they can be hard to find. Bigger issue for me was that the motors were riveted in place, no nuts and bolts. Had to drill the rivets out and find hardware to re-install.

Motors cost me about $50 or less each; I don't remember exactly now.

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In hindsight, I'm wondering how or why I made such a fuss over this as sufficient for a thread.

I must have "heavy summer repair-budget stress". I pointed out to my repair shop that they'd marked up a part in another repair by 200%. I just brought it to their attention. When I went to settle up this latest repair action with my truck, the owner of the shop gave me a $150 discount. But it's all a "wash" -- I spent a lot of ducats by the buckets this summer on my old cars.

So -- OK -- I'm happy with the result.

mindless1 said:

Do you only hear the motor attempt to turn, or you hear it spinning freely?

Could be the regulator, or could be the motor has stripped its gears. Motor replacement takes less time but you are looking at 1-2 hrs plus whatever a shop feels like charging you for parts. I'd look up the cost of both at some place like Rock Auto.

Taking door panels off isn't a big deal, just try not to wait till it's winter/cold so the plastic is less brittle and ideally use a trim tool (essentially a thin prybar with a slit in the end to get around push pin fasteners to pry them out). Harbor Freight or amazon sells a multi-pack for under $15. I prefer metal but the plastic make fewer scratches. I doubt that scratches matter on a vehicle that old because there won't be as tight a tolerance, will be a bit loose already, most likely, so less chance of scratching anything.

You might damage a few push pins so take your time and replace them if they break... I would not mind if only a single pin was broken but too many gone and the panel will rattle or not be held down good. Look for a screw around or under a panel where the door latch release lever is. There may not be one but it is a common place to put one. You might also want some double sided tape if you need to pull back a plastic sheet liner behind the panel, and it won't stick back on because the adhesive is shot after this many years.

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Thank you for the advice and comment, and thanks to everyone else here.

I paid to have it done, and as I may have said, I got $100 off to compensate for an overly aggressive markup on a part for my other vehicle -- the 95 Trooper.

I just came back from a trip to parts near Reno NV. As smoothly as my old Trooper ran, driving for the 8 hours really wore me out. I'm age 77, and am beginning to worry as to when I can no longer make these motoring trips. It's the same for DIY car repair and maintenance. I just . . . don't think . . . . I can chew the leather anymore!

crashtech said:

Usually, the best move for a body shop is to replace the motor/regulator assembly. The labor is almost the same, the potential for problems reduced, and the part price difference not prohibitive. A good shop can pre-order the assembly and have you in and out in a matter of hours. The work itself should take a good tech no more than an hour, though typically you'll need to leave the vehicle for about half a day because of shop workflow issues.

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Of course -- you are absolutely and accurately correct, and what you describe is precisely what my repair shop did for me.

I've made mental notes of how much work and therefore expense is reasonable for a long list of automotive repairs by independent shops, and over four or five decades, and I've occasionally done some of that work myself as a DIY car-owner "mechanic". When it comes to parts, I've done my own online research (since the availability of the internet) to determine reasonable parts prices. Although I occasionally have purchased parts from RockAuto, I use their website and websites for Autozone and O'Reilly's among others to assess reasonable parts expenses. Perhaps 30 or 40 years ago, I had a frequent experience of donning old military fatigues and Vibram-soled hiking boots to visit junkyards with a basic box of tools in search of used parts.

On this particular issue, I had input from my own brother as to what a repair shop wanted to charge him for the labor and parts when he needed to have it done (or do it himself) in recent years.

What else is a person to do? I have chosen this strategy of used-car, long-term maintenance and restoration, as opposed to a "trade-in" or more frequent sale of vehicles perhaps every six years. It's more inconvenient as a strategy, but it has saved me much money -- I have the spreadsheet histories to prove it.

Anyway, "mission accomplished" and done for my old Nissan truck. We originally purchased the 95 hardbody truck for exactly $4,000 in nominal dollars back in 2009, and we've added barely 10,000 to the odometer over the elapsed time. And we've spent at most $4,000 in restoration and repair over the 15 years. If I eventually need to unload this old vehicle to make space in my garage, Kars for Kids and other donation options are worth consideration as well as sale to a private party seeking a basic 4WD manual transmission truck in tip-top condition. Whichever of those other options I choose, it will not be a major loss to me given how long we've kept the truck and used it as we wished.

But in the meantime, I think it is wise to have this electric window failure repaired as I did. In this day and age, even ignoring the weather, would you park your vehicle in public with an open driver-side window? It seems like a bad idea.