This is probably just a set of really random circumstances coming together to form a coincidental problem… BUT. Hear me out.
I drive a 1997 Ford Taurus. The front driver’s side window won’t lower… MOST of the time. When I bought the car, the owner said he had the motor replaced, but the problem came back after a few weeks.
When I press the switch to raise or lower it, you can hear a click underneath the dashboard near where the fuses are. A pretty good mechanic friend of mine said that sound could be coming from the relay, but that means it should be working. Moving along now…
So, I have a window switch that makes clicky sounds under the dash, and I get bored in traffic sometimes, so I just randomly push it. It never lowers… UNTIL one day. It was 15 degrees outside, the heat got stuffy in the car, so I rolled the other windows down (yeah, all the others work fine). and then I pressed my driver’s window… and it -lowered!- I know the motor is working, and it was probably just a short.
Well, Going through drive thrus was finally fun again. And the window worked perfectly until early spring when the temprature got up to the 60’s… I thought, “Must have shorted out again.”
a year later… The very first string of days that the temprature got down to below freezing, the window started working again, and stayed working till it warmed up into the 60’s…
It has repeated this pattern for the past 4 years. If the weather stays below freezing, the window starts working… and then stops working when the weather gets warm again.
Is this just really really REALLY strange coincidence? Or does anyone have any idea about what in the heck could be causing this?
Rather than your window motor having a “short” it more likely has a intermittent “open”. It is strange how the only electrical failure most people know of is the “short”. Don’t accept a diagnosis on the basis of “it sounds like it should be caused by X”, continue to do diagnosis (check for loss of signal,intermittent contact, and over amping conditions causing a breaker to open).
I think you mean an open not a short. A short would mean a blown fuse or damaged wire and it would not fix itself.
In any case I would guess you have a bad relay, or a wiring problem.
In a car over 10 years old I would not be surprised to find out the wires that go between the door frame and the door may have broken down and may be in need of replacement.
There are a number of possible problems so it means someone will need to start checking until the find the problem. Someone with lots of experience, especially if it is with cars like yours, should be able to find the problem, but they will not know how long it is going to take until they find it. So trying to tell you how much it is going to cost is guess work.
Good Luck