Window has up and down problems

Good morning my 97 mercury villager has a problem with the window on the drivers side. At times it can go up and down fine. Other times it will down and not come back up. If I kind of play with it and bring it down piece by piece it may work. What is the problem and will I have to shell out a lot of money for this. I wish I had the old fashion mamuel windows. Thanks Tony

It is most likely that the window regulator will have to be replaced. There is a slight possibility that lubricating the assembly will resolve the problem, but only a slight one.

A first step would just be to clean all of the electrical connectors and clean and re-lube the regulator and rubber window tracks. That might just take care of it all together.

For $20 at an auto parts store you can pick up a repair manual that will tell you how to pull the window switch, door panel, etc. - if you feel ambitious enough to dig into it.

I find that the repair manuals. like Haynes, are very good at telling you how to do jobs that you ae not likely to do, like tear the engine down, but don’t tell you much about the jobs a home mechanic is likely to undertake, such as the one mentioned here. I like Haynes best among the cheap manuals, but it is a pretty sorry guide.

I do think the Haynes are terrible. I almost returned the last one I had.

But it will tell you the tricks to removing the door panel & switch and the basic procedure for testing the window’s power and such.