Why does this all happen at once??!!

[eggdog23]

Last month I had to get towed in because the steering column lock broke--I also finally took the car in to get the door check welded back onto the driver's door. Over the weekend, two more problems came up:

1) heater was not blowing hot air. Air was somewhat warm until I closed all of the vents, which sent the coolant temp up towards the danger zone--then when I opened the vents back up (as I'm thinking "oh $h!t") the heat seems restored and the coolant temp goes back to normal. One side of the console vent seems colder than the other. Can there be a leak in the ducting that is bringing in cold air?

2) driver's side window has been slow going down for a month, but I thought mainly attributed to the cold weather. Today, there was a loud cracking noise, and the window will go down but not back up. It also came of its track. I got the window back into the fully upright and locked position, but is this fixable without taking the door apart, assuming the window motro holds up?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Alexlind123]

2) I am nearly 100% sure that you will need to take the door apart, its not very difficult.

Do yourself a favor and buy a Bentley manual.

[shogun]

I would remove the door panel IMMY!
Since one month you know that something is wrong. I would immy check that when I notice something. In the worst case you now have a broken toothed rim because it became more and more difficlult to get the window up.

If you notice something wrong on the car, fix it immy. That saves a lot of money instead of waiting that it breakes completely with much more damages.

[Kalevera]

There's not enough information in this thread to say much of anything. I don't understand how the engine could have overheated due to the vents being closed (although I can deduce why there wouldn't be heat in the cabin and an overheating engine), but I'm clueless as to why anyone would leave the blower on with the vents closed, anyway. Excellent way to kill the blower motor or final stage. It could be a sticking heater valve, however.

Usually when these regulators go "pop", it's one of the white plastic slider clips shattering and/or the ball jointed end of the regulator arm popping out of the clip. The glass came out of the track because one of the two arms that supports it is loose, or there's so much play in the regulator that the glass finally fell out.

Depending on where the window glass was when the pop was heard, the cause of the damage may point to a faulty position switch. But, given the circumstances, it sounds like the car needed a regulator anyway, and the plastic elements were tired of having to fight the window seals to move the glass.

Good used regulators are easy to come by, my friend Ian sells them for $25 or something like that on the 'bay. The fun part is installing them. Assuming this is for a '95, unless the job has been done before, there are rivets that will need to be drilled out and replaced with M6 bolts and nuts. The rest of it is routine but requires some care.


best, whit

[shogun]

2 hours job maximum.

signed: the regulator exchange expert :D

[eggdog23]

Sorry I let you guys down!

As far as the heat situation, I didn't really realize anything was wrong b/c my commute is only about ten minutes, so it is usually just getting warmed up by the time I pull in the garage. On the day in question, we had been driving for a while and my wife and I looked at each other like "Why are we so cold?" So hopefully a new heater valve will do the trick.

With the window, yeah, maybe I should have done something sooner, but it did seem to be fine when the weather was warmer, so my bad. Would you replace the window motor too at the same time?

I know a lot of people on this board do work on their cars that i would only dream about, but my crowning achievement so far was to switch out the fuel door hinge, so that's about my comfort level! Anyway, I do think I learn a lot just reading the responses here, even if I don't end up being the one doing the work. Thanks for your help.

[JonE]

There are two pistons in the heater valve, one may be sticking as whit mentions above, however, a malfunctioning heater valve should not cause coolant over heating situation. There is something additional wrong, like insufficient coolant (check the level in tank), air pocket in cooling system, thermostat, radiator partially clogged, etc. that need sorting out.

[eggdog23]

This is an update on what was wrong:

Driver's window clips had broken--replaced clips and window is now fully operational.

I had thought maybe the thermostat was bad, but they added a half-gallon of coolant and everthing appears to be operating normally now. Coolant level was normal before, so I wonder if there was some air in the system. I have not checked to see if that fixed the heat output, but I did not have the heater valve replaced.

After the original post, it had started rough a couple of times and the check engine light came on. Oxygen sensor was okay, but air filter and plugs were dirty. They replaced those and everything seems to be running better than ever.

Thanks to everyone. This weekend I am going to put new hatch struts in--hopefully that will be it for a while!