New Owner, Rear Window

Hey all, new owner here, 1990 SR5.
Rear window doesn't move. Already tried the quick wiper motor bypass, as seen in the pic. It beeps when I push the up button but doesn't move when I press down.

New to being my own mechanic on cars but I have experience on motorcycles, so I should have most the tools and relative confidence to figure this out.

Where should I go from here? Should I grab a multimeter and start testing connections? If so which ones? Or is there a manual way I can roll this window down?

 

Here is a link to rear window troubleshooting information.

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/RearWindow.shtml

 

Disconnect the connector from the window motor and test the connector for power and ground with a multimeter. Have someone hit the switch and depending on which terminal is power or ground, you should get one reading that says 12v in up and switching down -12v or vice versa. As long as you get that change. The switch reverses polarity, that means the power and ground switch. So say you press up and get 12v, then pressing down you should -12v, which is the multimeter telling you that the polarity switched. I hope I’m making sense lol. If you do have power and ground at the connector in both the up and down position, then you have a bad motor. If you have nothing at the connector, then you’ll either have a bad switch, a bad rear window module, or bad wiring. Those rear windows are a pain lol. FYI doesn’t exactly have to be 12 volts, I was using that as a reference, it just has to be at battery voltage, so a volt either way isn’t a big deal.

 

I would just put 12 V directly to the motor and see if it goes up or down. That will either confirm the motor is bad or not.

 

They're picky about BOTH latches being fully closed, too. Otherwise that will also produce a beep.

Don't disappear OP! Let us know what you find!

 

That's what I figured. I tried to look at the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual and it looked like there are a ton of safe guards in place that was meant to prevent the window from being destroyed. But I also had a hard time reading it...like I said before this is more or less my first time with these things and I never touched electrical stuff on my bikes as much as possible. With this 4runner I'm more than willing to do it all myself now...just been snowing and I don't wanna work in the cold right now lol. But will do, I'll let y'all know what I find. I think I'm going to start with the window motor first, and eventually find a way to remove the wiper motor entirely...I don't see myself using it.

 

I believe that the hatch has to be locked too in order for the window to work.

 

True, and it should pull the lock down as soon as you start to roll the window up, but I'm sure this could fail, too

 

With the key it should. With the button I don't think it would.

 

So for a split second today I tried it with the door locked.
The window didn't roll but the motor was clicking. The rest of the windows roll down VERY slowly. I know the battery is pretty much fucked right now because I couldn't get it started in the cold. I think I'm going to get a new battery and try it again.
But the window motor was clicking when I pressed the down button so that's a good sign...right?

 

I'd say that's a very good sign, esp if you get a click and no beeping. IME the battery needs to be very healthy, particularly if the mechanism (regulator) has been neglected to get the window to go up on these older 4Runners.

The relay in the control box was also allegedly undersized and overheats. Lower voltage causes it to overheat that much sooner.

I recently had new relays soldered in per a thread on Yota Tech, it seemed to help some but was not a panacea

 

Good job, I ended up buying a used one off of ebay and replaced the bad one. Works well. My soldering skills are none existent unfortunately.

 

She's a friend of mine who does electronics for a living. My soldering skills are also questionable

 

Alright y'all, I finally took the time to get it. Here's what happened:

I disconnected the motor and was able to push the window down and open the gate.
I connected the motor to it's power source and i was able to move.
I greased EVERYTHING that moves and pushed/ pulled it to confirm the grease worked and holy shit did it make a world of difference.
I also cracked open the motor...it is rusted to FUCK.
I put everything back together and also learned how the sensors work, and was able to get the back door light to turn off and the motor to work.
It rolls down so smooth...but rolling it up is a different story. I had to have my wife press the button while I guide and pull it up. It'll go up, just that the motor isnt getting enough power. I believe this because the rest of the windows are also very slow going up and down and the battery died during the winter.

I think that's it. I want to explore the possibility of a manual hand crank for that window.

 

I would not install a hand crank due to it would be a pain to have to craw back there every time you want to open or close it.

 

Did you replace the window motor ?

 

On the one I was dealing with the second it hit the weatherstripping on the way up it'd slow significantly. Liberal grease helped some, but then I noted one side seemed to be "pinched" together while the other side had a noticeable gap between the rubber front to back.

I imagine it's supposed to be on the snug(ger) side to prevent rattles but I opted to take a pry bar and open up the tighter side. This definitely helped.

Between greasing EVERYTHING (including weatherstripping), prying the weatherstripping open, and new relay(s) in the control module, I got it working "pretty good". If it's under, say, 40 to 45F it's best if you still help it up with your hand, but the crazy thing is you BARELY have to help it and it makes a world of difference. You can NOT help it even on cold days and it'll go all the way up but gets damn slow in the last ~25%

I'm honestly wondering if this regulator isn't just flat worn out 'cause you can tug and shove the glass up/down maybe 1/2" (edit: might be more like 3/4 to 1") anytime. If its worn and the gears aren't meshing properly that'll cause binding I'd think.

In 280k miles I imagine that window has been cycled a lot....

 

I'm very happy to find this thread! My rear window has quit working. It initially worked, then got weak and quit. The motor was replaced first and it worked for a while again. Then one of the racks it rides in rusted and broke so it would go down a bit then go crooked. Replaced that and it worked again for another bit then it just quit. Doesn't respond to the button or the key, so I can't open the back at all. It lives in AK, I'll be back there April-Sep and now that I have a garage to work in out of the weather I'm planning on following some of these tips and see if I can't figure out the problem. Thanks for the info here!

Sharon

 

I am having a similar problem and plan on taking the motor out tomorrow as I put power to it and it did nothing. New motor is on the way, but in the meantime. How did you get the gate down with the window still up. I have tried unlocking with the mechanisms in the door, holding them open and then trying the handle and I get nothing. Maybe this is specific to my vehicle, but did you have any special trick you tried to get that gate down while the window was up?