Hi – Got an 05 Mazda3 and my window switch on the driver’s side, only the one that controls the passenger’s side window, does not work. It does click, and it does work from the passenger’s side switch. I can certainly pull the door panel off and look at the wiring, but I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Any help would be appreciated. Also — is it worth it to check the fuse or something else?
Thanks in advance.
It’s not the fuse. If it were, the passenger side switch wouldn’t work either.
I tend to suspect the switch itself is bad. It’s likely wired such that everything routes through the driver’s side, which means any other failure in that circuit would fail both the passenger and driver side switch. That the passenger side does still work suggests that the driver side switch isn’t making contact when you switch it.
Pull the door panel, and check for obvious things like frayed/broken wires or wires that aren’t completely plugged in. If you don’t find anything, then unhook the plug that feeds the driver side switch, and get out your multimeter. Set it to measure resistance (Ω) and put one lead on each side of the switch contact. The reading should be 1 because the switch is open. Then operate the switch. If resistance doesn’t drop below 1, then you’ve confirmed a bad switch.
No reason to check the fuse since the window does actually wok, just not from that switch. What you’ve described points directly to the switch itself. It’s possible that the wiring has broken as it passes from the body to the door and you should check that, too. Once the door panel is off you can probe the switch with an ohm meter or volt meter to test if it really is the switch.
you may not have to remove the door panel, the switch panel in my -09 mazda 3 pops out from the armrest, and you can check the switch easily (rock auto for a new one)
Awesome! Thanks for the swift responses!
If you open the drivers door, you’ll see a rubber conduit between the body and the door.
Inside this conduit are all the wires for the drivers door switches.
Because the drivers door is the one that gets opened and closed the most, the wires in this conduit get flexed the most to where they can break. You then have no control of the locks/windows for the other doors from the drivers door controls.
Tester
Another possibly quick solution to try is to open up the switch if possible and clean between the contacts that would touch when the inoperative button is pressed.
I had one where visually, there might have been just a little bit of dust where the copper contacts would touch. A little ‘erasing’ like with a pencil eraser and the switch worked again (and compressed air didn’t).
+1 for that answer. Fixed a mirror switch in my Chevy truck that way. Pulled the switch apart and I used a pencil eraser to clean the contacts.
