I have a 2006 Subaru Impreza sedan. My passenger side front window was broken by a thief who wanted my GPS. Ever since the window was replaced, it makes a strange intermittent spring (“BOING”) noise. I can’t seem to figure out what makes it happen but when it happens, it seems to be fairly soon after I roll the window at least partially down. I have mentioned this each time I have taken the car in for service, and they said they re-oiled the tracks or whatever, but it still makes that noise once or twice a week. Any ideas?
Someone is going to have to remove the inner door panel and watch as the window moves up and down to see what’s making the noise. The window, or more likely the mechanism that moves it, is catching on something inside the door.
Watching and figuring it out requires patience and time; something mechanics don’t want to waste and customers don’t want to pay for.
I think you have the same problem I had when I bought my used Toyota Matrix.
The driver’s door window would roll down half way and stop.
Open the door and you could roll it all the way.
Unfortunately, my brain didn’t click in at this at the time.
Close the door, the window would roll half way up and with a bit of effort…spring by.
Open the door and the window wound up and down, no problem.
Anyway, I had 30 days to get things fixed at the dealer I bought it from, except he was 1-1/2 hour away from me.
I took the car to their mechanic and he rolled the window up and down with the door open. He never tested it with the door closed.
He took it into the shop and checked it all over with the door panel removed (door open all the time).
Brought it back out 1/2 hour later , says he can’t find anything wrong.
It was raining like crazy that day so neither one of us wanted to keep the door open.
I left with the car and stopped at a coffee shop. When I came out and got back in the car, I thought, it can’t be fixed.
Rolled down the window to the halfway point and it stops. I open the door and voila! down rolls the window. It also rolled back up with no noise or problem.
AHA! Something inside the door was causing a jam. I took the car back and they gave the car back to the same tech and with a grimace took the car into his bay.
I watched periodically through the bay door window if he found the problem.
Later out comes the car, only this time I ran to meet him before he got away from the door. Find the problem this time? Nope, nothin’ wrong.
I asked him to sit back in the car and close the door and try to roll the window down.
Half way down it stops. He rolls it back up and looks out at me.
I said open the door and try it again. Up and down it goes like nothing is wrong.
I tell him, now, close the door and retry the window. Of course it wouldn’t work properly.
I didn’t have a clue as to what the problem was, but after 10 minutes goes by he comes out of the shop with a rectangle peice of metal with a bolt hole in one end and a bump in the middle.
Now smiling, he says “Here’s the culprit!”
Totota has a name for this metal peice, but basically what it does is stop your door from opening all the way when you only want it half way open. Most do not work well, even new.
I heard someone at the service counter call it a ‘door regulator’. Good a name as any.
It bolts to the door frame and sticks inside a slot in the door about half way between the hinges.
When this gets worn or bent, it folds in towards the side of the vehicle when the door is closed and does not swing out far enough to bother the window when wide open.
The window has worked fine ever since the new peice was installed.
Sorry for a long-winded post, but it just goes to show how frustrating some things can be.