I figured it was only a matter of time. So I've been driving with a busted front passenger window for a while. That one I know is broken plastic bearings that I need to replace.

Well yesterday my front drivers window broke on me. I was stopped and rolled the window down to speak with someone, and when it reached the bottom I remember hearing a crack type noise. When I tried to roll it back it, it wouldn't move at all. I can hear the motor moving just fine, but it would budge.

So today I pulled the door panel off to take a look. I had to unscrew the window motor to shimmy the glass back up and give my wife the garage back. I know the motor still turns when I hit the button, but it appears to be a gear/track issue with the motor in the middle of the panel. I know its not the plastic bearings in the bottom because I was able to watch them slide. Basically I had to unscrew the motor and pull the window up. So now window is up and the motor is rotated down to the opening in the bottom of the door. I'm really not sure where to go from here. I'm not sure what is the common break point or how to go about fixing it. Does anyone have any ideas or pointers?

 

Get a new motor. They can strip. Or you can get a new motor/regulator and be done with it for a good while.

 

I'd swap in both. One of my pass window regulators broke on the top rail where you couldn't see. Found the "bushing" in the bottom of the door or what was left of it. Do both and like Best said be good for a long while.

 

Sounds like a new motor required. I had a similar issue and when I pulled the motor out, the cover on the main motor-driven gear had popped off and the gear itself was in three pieces. There are other threads in this forum that discuss the different wiring options between different years of the Disco 2. The replacement motors sold by AtlanticBritish come with the wiring built into the motor, whereas the later model Disco 2's (I have 2004) had a plug at the motor, with an extension going to where the older model wiring snapped in. It's a fairly easy job once you figure out which one you're dealing with.

 

Hey Robert. Haven't seen you for a while.

Here's some more color commentary about the window problems. Nothing contrary to others; just more info.

First, the white plastic rollers. A few years ago a great guy on this forum designed two-piece, 3D-printed replacement rollers that you can still buy on shapeways.com (I presume). GREAT idea, and they may have worked well for others, but no matter what adhesive I used two join the two pieces in place it didn't last (I tried three, I recall). In the end it just wasn't worth it to keep trying to make that solution work since replacement regulators are (were?) ~$35 each. Not worth my time to try to get the 3D-printed rollers to work.

Next, the motor. In my truck, I could hear the motor running just fine. And when I removed the motor and bench tested it (seemed to) work just fine. But when I applied physical resistance to the output shaft to simulate it working under load the motor ran just fine but the output shaft did not turn. There's a plastic hub between the motor and the output shaft that can shear. I'll add a link to my earlier post with a video illustrating this if I can find it.

The good news is that replacement regulators and replacement motors aren't expensive (compared to other DII nightmares). Good luck.

 

I encountered the same problem earlier in the year. This is how I fixed mine:

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-bottom-98746/

 

Here are the metal window regulator rollers:

https://www.ebay.com/i/163590463619?...8aAiDNEALw_wcB

 

Yea I know, my Discovery has been running pretty smooth (at 191k now) so I've been lacking. But I miss the group so I'll probably be hanging around some more.

If I buy a new motor + regulator, should I still replace the plastic rollers with metal ones? Or would the new plastic ones be fine?

And thanks for the input everyone!

 

I'd not seen the metal rollers until acg posted the link yesterday. Unless you can see your regulators are bent or otherwise fubar I'd probably keep them and replace the rollers with the metal ones. My recommendation to replace the regulators was based on plastic rollers only.