Make a Stuck Window Unstuck?

August 6, 2005 5:44 PM

Anyone develop 'stuck window' on their Honda Accord? How did you fix it?

My '97 accord is a great little car, but the windows are starting to bind. It takes awesome force to roll them up or down now. They seem to be aligned correctly, the binding is more like "old plastic rubbing together" type binding.

I hear this is a common problem, but I have not seen a good solution.

Looking on google, one guy suggests taking apart the door and using silicon lubricant, but after attempting this, I am sure it is not for me. There is a plastic seal that looks like it would be hard to reattach, and the panel itself takes a good bit of effort to get off and on.

Ever see anything that works without requiring lots of assembly-disassembly? How much will a dealer charge?

After banging my knuckles again today after forcing the window up, I've had enough.

posted by clord to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

Yes, you need to open up the door panel and lubricate the mechanism. It's really not that hard to do, but if you're concerned about breaking something or don't have the tools, I'd say take it to a window-tinting shop or an auto-glass repair shop rather than the dealer. Both of those will have vast experience in removing the panels, etc, and probably will even have the lubricant it needs, and more than likely will be cheaper than a dealer.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:08 PM on August 6, 2005

Everything crash said is absolutely true. You can probably do the job on both doors in an afternoon.
posted by Kwantsar at 6:21 PM on August 6, 2005

This happened to my Accord and I've not had working windows in a year. Seriously.
posted by yodelingisfun at 6:43 PM on August 6, 2005

I broke the one on my Honda Civic about a year ago, ordered a part called a "Window Regulator" from HondaAutomotiveParts.com for ~$50, and installed it over a (very frustrating) Saturday, and everything's fine now. But yeah, probably better to handle it before it breaks.
posted by boaz at 6:47 PM on August 6, 2005

Glass repair shop is a good idea. I'll look into that. still open to other suggestions though.

One guy suggested that I put lube on the weatherstripping itself. Terrible idea in my opinion -- it would get all gummed up with dust.
posted by clord at 8:10 PM on August 6, 2005

On my car, the initial problem (which I only discovered when opening it up to replace the window regulator) had been that there are grooves in the front and back of the door with a felt liner in each that hold the window in place inside the door. One of the liners had become damaged and no longer fit correctly in the groove, so going over that section produced a lot of friction. I ended up cutting a piece of the liner out with a razor and epoxying it back into the groove permanently.
posted by boaz at 9:05 AM on August 7, 2005