the driver’s side window wouldn’t roll up on my vehicle, and being the young and naive (and broke) college student that i am, i decided to take the car to a local mechanic to see what could be done. they said that they would have to run an electrical diagnosis to assess the problem. after running their $79.99 electrical diagnosis, they told me that my window was broken (duh!) and that i would need to have $350 worth of work done to fix the problem. i know i have been taken by the mechanic and i’m completely out the $80 for the supposed necessary “electrical diagnosis” but is there any more affordable way to fix the problem? and what exactly does an electrical diagnosis do, and does it really tell what’s going on with the window?
Let’s try to salvage something out of this. When the mechanic said that the window was broken after doing the electrical diagnosis, is he really saying that the electric motor that raises and lowers the window is defective as opposed to a switch or the wiring harness?
If this is the case, you may be able to get another window motor from an automobile salvage yard for your car and find someone to install it. If I understand the diagnosis correctly, you are being told that it isn’t a switch or the wiring to the switch or from the switch to the motor. An independent body shop might be willing to install a used motor for a reasonable amount.
The diagnostic charge is commonplace, and this one is reasonable. It prevents people from having the shop diagnose the problem and then saying “no thanks” and fixing it themselves. That costs shops a lot of of money in tying up the bay and the technician. $100 an hour +/- is typical.
What he probably did was remove the inner door panel and check to see if you had 12VDC at the motor when the button is pushed. If you did, that tells him you need a new rgulator assembly. The “regulator assembly” is the entire assembly that contains the window motor and the mechanical linkages that move the glass. In many vehicles the motor is not replacable seperately, the entire assembly needs replacing. Based on the estimate, that would be my guess here.
You could shop the boneyards for a replacement door and cannibalize the regulator assembly. Do you have any friends who are good with tools?