Hello.
I have a car with manual windows.
It’s a mitsubihi colt cj0 from 1999
I can replace the door with electric windows. These are doors from the same model only with the upgraded electric windows and mirrors.
After long research I discovered that if I can unplug the wiring of the new electric door, I can install that new door with the wiring in my own car.
I’ll have to dissamble the door with a friend at the place of the seller itself.
I assume that the wiring of that electric window door wont go directly to the 12v battery. I’m wondering if between the wires and the battery there is some sort of decive under the hood.
If so
My question is:
What device will that be ?
Will I be able to also dissamble that ?
Will i be able to mount that device in my car ? To my battery or other component ?
Allot of videos and instructions out there , but nowhere how the wiring goes from the door to the power supply
Can someone explain this to me please ? I’m not a car engineer so forgive me for my ignorance.
Does you car have anything electric controlled on the door like a mirror?
Open the door to your car and look at the hinge side between the door and car body. Do you see a wiring harness going between them (it may be covered by a bellows or loom)? If not, you’re missing the car side of the wiring harness and the job is far more complex. If you have a wiring harness there, chances are you just need to plug in the new door. The harness supplies battery voltage and connections to other windows switches in a car with electric windows. No special electronic module is usually required…
This 1999 Colt had better be in mint condition for me to spend money for power windows . If it was mine I would strive to have it looking as close to new stock condition as possible .
The user switches needed to open and close electric window are usually on the doors themselves so the only problem is the wiring to get power to the window circuit and the wiring between the two doors (so the driver can open/close windows on the passenger side of the car). No way to tell if your car already has that wiring harness or not already in it except by looking for it inside or nearby the existing doors. If it has the needed harness already you’ll see the unused connectors. I expect it doesn’t have this wiring so you’ll have to buy it at a car junkyard. Suggest to secure the car’s wiring diagram for the electric windows before you embark on this adventure, so you can verify the correct color of wires are connecting to where they should.
The only thing which is electric on my old manual door is the audio speaker. So there is indeed a small rubber bellow between the door and the car itself. I think indeed it is a smart idea to check if there are more wires running in that bellow than just those of the speakers.
If there are non extra wiring besides those of the speakers:
Will it be possible to get the wiring from the other car together with the eletric door ?
Or will this be nearly impossible for the complexicity of such a wiring diagram ?
I will check it in my car and keep you guys informed !
Sorry for my late response, I’m from europe so the time zone is different overhere.
Thanx for all the fast responses.
If it isn’t pre-wired, you have a choice. To make the driver’s door open the passenger window would require running a small wire bundle between the doors across under the dash. Harvesting this wiring from a donor car might be more work than making your own. The wires are likely bound into the harnessing under dash and very labor intensive to liberate.
Alternative is to just provide two wires from fuse box to each door and the driver door switch only controls its own window.
I am in 100% agreement with @TwinTurbo… listen to this man he is giving you very good advice.
I WAS going to say that the device you are looking for is called a “Round Tuit” you need to get a “Round Tuit” and wire your car for power windows…lol…not. Theres my first joke of the day… Otherwise refer to my first sentence for actual help.
If you do this mod be sure to install a circuit breaker close to the source of power you tie to (I think you will need at least a 10 amp breaker). Window circuits and wiper circuits usually use a resettable breaker in the circuit, rather than a fuse, in case a problem does happen and too much current happens to flow for some reason. The breaker will reset itself and things will work again, assuming the circuit fault is removed. There may already be a socket in the fuse panel under the hood to install that option. If so that would be real convenient.
What are the chances that a salvage door will align on the stationary hinges on the car? If it won’t align what are the chances that an inexperienced DIYer can get things aligned?
I think it might be smarter to install one of those aftermarket and generic power window regulator retrofit kits . . . I just checked and Amazon sells a kit for 2 doors for a reasonable price
Another data point, there was a trunk-light option on my basic Corolla but I didn’t get it. Later I was thinking a trunk light would come in handy so I looked to see if the wiring for the trunk light was already there. It wasn’t. Likewise there was an optional cable operated trunk lid, so you could open the trunk from inside the car. The cable for that option wasn’t installed. However there are some connectors in the engine compartment presumably for optional ac, optional cruise control, and the optional automatic transmission, those were still installed even in the basic Corolla harness.
To be honest, this replacement of the 2 doors and the front flanks are not because i want eletric windows necessarily.
It’s because the bodywork of the car got damaged really badly.
Damage is at the 2 flanks and the 2 doors. I can get those parts from a car with the exact same color.
Ofcourse I’m aware that repairing a damaged body of a car which is over 20 years old will most likely be a ‘losing profit’ case.
But to be honest I’m more interested in the technical achieving of this project than what it will cost me.
It’s more a little project for knowledge about car wiring and installing ‘tech geek - stuff’.
I guess you guys as professional car technicians understand what I’m talking about ^^ !
I’ll keep you guys posted if I can see anything from the wiring iside the rubber bellow.
It’s holidays weekend at the moment so allot of visiting family and friends.
There’s something about rising to meet a challenge just for the personal satisfaction of achieving success despite the difficulty. You aren’t beat 'till you quit @Fosa2008_150933. Good luck and enjoy.
The door harness on the car with manual windows won’t have wiring for power windows inside the door hinge bellows. You need to unplug the door harness from the body harness connector and see if the cavities in the body connector are populated with the pins for the power windows and mirrors. The body harness might only have wiring for the door speakers.
So i checked a few hours ago and indeed it isnt pre-wired. The wires which are already there are for the speakers I assume. Thanks to the terminology used on this site i could determine what the defenition of the “fusebox” is. I never had any clue a car had one of those things ! I added a picture of the diagram and the fusebox itself.
Link to pictures:
few questions:
Will it be that simple to just run 2 fuses with wires under the dash to give both doors power ?
The controls for the windows and the mirrors are on the door itself so I assume the only thing the 2 doors will need are power.
Will I need access to two 2 fuses for both doors ? Or will they both run on 1 fuse ?
I can see from the diagram I only have 2 fuse ports remaining
I’ve noticed that the fuses are expressed in amps. Does that mean if the fuses has more amps than the doors need it will be no problem ?
What if both fuse connections have less amps than both door needs ?
Because I only have those 2 ports, will it block my attempt for the project ?
Sorry for all my questions, I have a very basic knowledge about electricity.
As I mentioned before, most vehicles do not use fuses to supply power to window circuits. They use a single circuit breaker to supply power to all the window circuits, which tie to the main panel on the driver’s side. Breakers are designed to reset after they trip and cool down. Fuses blow out and that is it.
The fuse sizes are determined by what size load is required and using the proper size wire to supply the load. If a short occurs on the power lead the fuse will blow out and the wiring doesn’t get damaged. I would guess you would need between a 10 to 15 amp circuit breaker to supply power to the windows. There may already be a socket in the panel under the hood or a socket in the harness wiring to install one.
As mentioned the circuit breaker is selected to protect the wiring in the event of a load fault. The wiring is selected based on the maximum expected load. The stall current of the motor is much higher than the operating current so you will typically find breakers on the order of 30A supplying all the windows (also anticipating more than one may be in operation at a time). If a single breaker is used, the larger wiring must continue to all loads to ensure any one fault does not result in burning up the wiring…