Intermittent rear power window failure on 02 civic

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I have a power window issue with my 2002 civic with about 120K miles on it. this has happened intermittently over the last 2-3 years but now it’s not fixing itself so i need help.

The other day, I had opened all the windows while driving. When I got to my destination and wanted to put them all back up, the driver’s side rear window did not go up. Neither the driver’s seat/master switch nor the rear door switch did anything. No noise from the window at all when activating either switch. I checked the power window relay fuse under the dash and it is fine. If I try to pull the window up, that doesn’t work either.

In the past when this has happened, I typically would just pray for dry weather and wait a few days, and it would eventually work again on its own. I seem to recall that shutting the rear or driver’s door a few times might have helped a little too. I have a vague memory from a few years ago that it may have also happened (the same exact problem) with the passenger side rear window, but i can’t be 100% in my recollection of that.

I don’t drive the car a lot, but i’d like to not have a sheet of plastic taped around the window, it looks pretty junky. I don’t really need the rear window to be fully functional (though that would be great) - i would be content to get it into the up position and then never open it again.

I am fairly technically adept though i have no formal training in car repair or electrical work. Any advise you may have will be appreciated.

2

I would first check the wire bundle coming out of the driver’s door near the door hinge. When they get brittle and crack you get all kinds of intermittent problems. That’s where I would start.

3

thanks for the input, missileman.

I came to a partial solution to the problem so figured i’d post it in case somebody else comes looking for this same problem.

I took the door panel off of the driver’s rear door (the one with the window stuck halfway down and the sheet of plastic taped over it). I found the 2-prong connector that goes to the window motor. I used a 12V power supply (B&D Jumpstarter/battery booster) and it worked! I got the window to go up. I decided to just leave the window up, leave the motor disconnected from the power input, and put the door panel back on. I’d rather have a window that’s always up than one that gets stuck down, especially since i don’t drive the car much.

So I know that the motor is fine, it’s something with the input to the motor. I think i recall a prior cartalk episode in which they recommended replacing the relay. If i find myself with lots of free time, i may try to do that, but in all likelihood i’ll just leave the window up and let that be the end of the story.

Hope that helps somebody, someday.

4

I put the print here. There are some fuses F24 would be for driver side rear window. Can you control it from the rear. If the master switch is bad the rear switch will not work either.