So my power window motor is dying. I've never heard of this problem before, and as a young electrical engineer, I'm curious as to an explanation. My window will allow rolling for about 1 second, and at a VERY slow speed, then it just gives up.... for a few minutes. Give it some time and you get another second. It's been doing this for TWO YEARS now!!! I can roll it all the way down and all the way up, just in one second increments at a slow speed with about 60 seconds in between each rolling event. Go figure!!!

Any ideas?

 

Logic tells me a couple things could be wrong. Could have an electical short, power window motor could be dieing, or your window lifting arms are binding and thus killing the system. To check it out i would recommend taking the door panel off and leaving the switch connected and watch what happens when it starts going down or up. If anything looks strange, sounds off, or smells wrong you should be able to trace it back. Additionally if you are feeling ambitious you can find which leads power the window itself and connect them to a different power source and see it that yealds any better results (might indicate a short).

 

I believe the window motors have thermal overloads in them, when overloaded, will trip and reset after they've cooled. This would explain the on-off-on effect you are experiencing. I would have to agree with the binding of the window lifting arms. My Bonneville was doing this and it was only a problem with the window alignment. A little bit of binding will stop the motor.