Went out to my car and the tire was half-flat. Second nail in two weeks. Yeah!

So I go to the store to get a can of fix-a-flat to try to hold me over for a few days while I beg for change (I'm in Toledo. I don't know anyone not having serious cash problems). I get to the store and my window won't go up. I take it home and pull the door panel but you can't see anything. I can see that the window is attached to the actuator but the actuator won't budge. I can hear the motor when I hit the switch both up and down, but nothing is happening.

First, does anybody think they know whats wrong here? Second, how the heck do you get to that stuff to work on it? There are just a couple of tiny access holes except for the sizable one at the bottom where nothing is.

It's an 01 Disco 2 that seems to want to bankrupt me. Oh wait, I'm already bankrupt. OK, she is trying to make me homeless.

Please help. Thank you.

 

9 times outta 10 the regulator assy has taken a ****e and is jammed, bent, or twisted in the door and needs to be replaced. has happened or will happen to all of us.

 

haha sloppy joe, yep sounds most certainly like a regulator. Your door panel should come off, use a door puller or a couple screw drivers I recommend the former. Once you get it off you will see there's access to the inside goodies from down below.

 

Thanks. I'll give it a try. So far I have been ok at figuring things out. Ouy vie.

 

why the heck would you use fix a flat, buy a plug kit for a nail and you've got a near permanent fix.

 

Hey Tweakrover. I know on the fix-a-flat. Weak but it was like midnight and below 30 degrees so I wasn't really thinking to clearly. This Rover of mine has really been being a pain since day one. I need it to give me a week of peace but she just won't.

So has anyone ever removed the regulator for the window in the driver's side door? I didn't do it today cuz I'm not feeling to well. I am going to try it tomorrow. The RAVE CD isn't that great for me as far as the finer points of getting it in and out and I have never had to do something like this ever.

If you have or at least seen it done, PLEASE clue me in.

Thanks everybody. Sorry for bitchen. I'm just kind of wore out.

 

OK, I got my drivers side window fixed. Below details the journey just in case a rookie like me has this same problem in the future. Hope this helps and makes sense.

I got the drivers side door panel off pretty easily. Six screws total and easy to find. Prying the panel off from the little plastic things that hold the edges of the rest of the panel to the door wasn't as easy but it did break free with some damage to those little plastic...um...I guess I will call them rivets. The speaker wire plug is then easily disconnected. You might want to tuck that wire somewhere safe. At one point I shut the door and almost smashed that plug.

At this point the whole door has a plastic sheet as a vapor barrier between the door and the door panel. I highly suggest using a razor blade to cut this plastic sheet so that when you are done, you can easily duct tape this plastic sheet back into place. I just ripped it away and it made a mess of things when I decided I still wanted it there. I had to use a lot of duct tape. If I would have been patient and made one cut, it would have been a lot better.

From there, there were six visible bolts that hold the regulator (which you can't see at this point beyond what peeks through the access holes) to the inside of the door.

It helps to first remove the two bolts holding the window into the regulator channel (if the window is in the down position like mine was) and manually pulling the window up and out of the way. I secured the now loose window in the up position with a couple of cloths pins wedged between the window and the weather stripping where the window and the door meet.

I then removed the 6 bolts holding the regulator to the inside of the door. Once it is free, maneuver it around and look for the wire and plug that goes to the motor in the little hole near the door handle. Disconnect it with a standard screwdriver. You might also pull the wire plug out of that little hole so you can find it easily when you put everything back together.

From there the regulator with attached motor comes out pretty easily. I had to play around with it a little bit but it wasn't maddening.

I got the whole assembly out and what happened was the half circle set of gears on the regulator assembly had simply gone past where the last teeth were. This is where I became confused. What is supposed to stop the motor from going to far on the half circle regulator gear? I removed the three star bolts holding the motor to the regulator assembly, remarried the teeth of the motor gear to the teeth of the half circle regulator assembly, put the three star bolts holding the motor to the regulator assembly back in and reassembled the whole thing back into the door.

Everything worked fine as far as up/down with the window, but when I let the window automatically re-open all the way without me stopping it, once again the motor just kept going until it ran out of teeth on the regulator half circle part. I was right back where I started with the window motor no longer able to engage the teeth on the regulator. The motor was once again spinning in the wind.

I looked everything over very carefully and could not figure out what is supposed to stop the window from opening to far. I searched inside the door panel looking for anything that might have fallen off. Nothing. The only thing I could have done was pull the other panel off the passenger side door to compare but I didn't want to do that because of the plastic vapor barrier sheet that you have to rip apart to get access. I didn't want to deal with doing damage to the passenger side door.

So here is what I did. At the bottom inside the door, there are two metal tabs about where the bottom of the window rests when fully open. They are on both sides on the front and back of the door and they have holes in them. Maybe this is where something is supposed to be to stop the window when in the down position? I don't know. But I took a 2" X 2" piece of pine and cut it to 29". I drilled two holes on both ends and bolted this piece of pine between the two tabs.

Now when the window comes down, the bottom of it hits the pine, which stops the window and kills the motor. It's not perfect. Now the window sticks up about an inch and a half and makes resting my arm on the door when I'm out driving around a little uncomfortable, but at least it won't go down so far that the teeth on the regulator assembly become disengaged from the motor gear. I may go back in and do some tweaking, but it's good enough for now.

In conclusion, this fix isn't all that bad and I would rate it easy for the non-mechanical type. The worst part was those plastic "rivets" you have to deal with when pulling the door liner off after the screws are removed. I would also suggest using a razor blade or something to cut the plastic vapor barrier off the door so it can be duct taped back on easily. I kind of ripped my to shreds. Other than that, it's a fairly simple fix.

I still don't know why my window suddenly started opening to far. If anybody knows what is supposed to stop the window, I would love to know. But for now, I have a Rover made of steel, aluminum and pine.

Thank you all for the help. Especially you Sloppy Joe.

 

Thanks for the detailed report. I'm sure it will help
someone in the future.

 

the general rule of thumb when using the windows is DO NOT roll them down all the way to the bottom.

i have to tell this to people who ride along with me. DO NOT bottom out the window.

when i did my passenger window i saw the same thing in that there really is not anything to stop the motor and reg. assy. from going too far. so as a precaution just dont roll em all the way down.

the good news is you just completed one of the common and easier jobs on a rover and more difficult for someone with little to no mechanical skill. GOOD WORK.

now its time to tackle something else. spike says it all the time to new owners. spend a day just fiddling around under the bonnet and under the chassis. take things apart and put em back together so you can do it anywhere you might be in trouble.

learn what and where things are.

enjoy