 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2010-12-01 11:33:00
Electric vehicle windows are great! ‘cept when they break!
Answer: Getting the interior door panels off of most vehicle doors is a pretty good chore…especially if you want to get them off without damaging them in the process. There are hidden keepers, and sometimes there are special tools required for the removal of the panels. And after the panel is off, what you find inside usually looks like a mess to someone who hasn’t seen inside the door before. And that includes most folks who drive cars! If your electric window isn’t moving up and down like it’s supposed to do, you probably have something like what you see in the picture. When the motor that raises and lowers the window wears out, and/or the teeth are worn off inside that little motor, it won’t move the glass. Sometimes you can tell something is getting ready to happen because the window begins to perform irregularly…either slower in its movements, or jerky while trying to raise or lower the window. The parts that hold the glass, and move it up and down are normally all metal except for the “connecting” parts, which are usually plastic. The cable that is extended and retracted is a metal cable, usually connected at the ends with plastic parts. There are also “regulators” that sometimes break or wear out, disallowing the electric windows to operate. Generally, if the cable or parts are worn to the extent that the cable jumps the track, or winds around the other parts inside the door, it’s easiest to just open that panel up and replace the system in one fell swoop.
Back in the old days, there used to be “parts” available for these repairs, but the individual parts became largely unavailable due to the manufacturer’s going to the “full replacement” idea that it makes more sense to just replace the complete window operating mechanism in its entirety, rather than trying to “fix” it, leaving some of the old worn out parts in place, waiting for another breakdown, which is sure to come. If you’ve made the attempt to remove your door panel to try this repair yourself, you’ve probably discovered that there are some things required in that removal process that you don’t know how to do. A good glass shop technician has all the right tools and removal techniques to make short work of this repair, and that’s probably the best solution for most folks.
Some pickup trucks have electrical sliding glass in the rear of the cab that sometimes wears out or breaks, and there are some tricks to accomplishing those repairs or replacements as well. Whether you have a broken windshield, side glass, or back glass, or your electrical devices have quit working, you need to get a factory certified technician to handle that job. Those are folks who are trained by the factory rep in all of these systems so that you end up with a great result.
Today, most of the windshields used for replacement glass come with the mouldings attached, and encapsulated directly to the glass. All of our glass meets or exceeds the original equipment manufacturer specifications and all are installed with factory specified primers, urethanes and sealants.
Interestingly, some models of vehicle windshields also come equipped with a “rain pad” inside the glass, up center top by the rear view mirror. This “rain sensor,” when present, detects when it’s raining on the windshield, and automatically turns the wipers on. The built-in override of this device overrides the manual controls to let the windshield wipers go faster when it’s raining heavier, and slower when the rain lets up…neat huh? Additionally, those side mirrors sometimes have a way of getting caught on the side of the garage door and broken. Whether your side mirrors are heated or not, a good glass shop can replace that mirror for you too. It’s important that the wires that control the heated mirrors be re-attached correctly.
If you just have a “chip” in your windshield, you should know that most insurance companies allow for the repair of windshield chips in certain locations on the glass, and cover the cost of those chip repairs completely. Nothing out of pocket for you to pay. So, whether you’re driving a “beater”, or a brand new vehicle, if your glass systems are giving you pause…call or go into a full service glass shop, and put those problems behind you…More next month…
