The Old Gal has been sat for a few months over winter, battery disconnected. I gave it an overnight charge and she started up wonderfully, all seemed well. I reset the passenger window, but the previously working driver's side refused to budge. I could hear a clicking as I engaged the switch but no movement. Now, because my brain is melting with the boredom of this lockdown, I steamed in without further ado - got to be the regulator motor, right?

Ahhh, the devil makes work for idle hands. I had an apparently working spare motor, so stripped the door and removed the existing one - but alas, no joy with that. I've had the switch apart, though I am assuming that as I can hear a click/thump when I press it, it's probably working.

Of course, after tearing into it, I read the forums and the various threads pertaining to windows, door microswitches and Door Open warnings etc. That'll teach me, I have no idea if the problem lies there or with the control module, or wherever.
One thing I did notice when I put the battery back on and went into the house for a while, pressing the remote locking on the fob made the passenger side lock/unlock/lock/unlock/lock/unlock/lock in rapid succession. The driver's side was having none of it.

Any pointers would be welcomed, I must confess to getting easily distracted looking through pages of search results - I have about 25 tabs open, lots of which are about other unrelated issues I need to tackle.
(It all got a little Disney's Fantasia when I got to the car with my toolbox. I went from whipping off door card to get the regulator motor,to deciding to tackle that rear quarter glass which has fallen off the regulator while I was at it. And the duff rear speakers. If I'm not careful I'll have a pile of bits where the car once was, and no idea what I was doing or where I'm going! Like I said, Coronavirus Stir Crazy)

So, firstly, which pins on the motor could I dab 12v onto and see if it moves? Is there a definitive way to see if it is the microswitch or the control module without taking more bits out or spending money on just replacing stuff "in case"? Battery seems good, but only given it a cursory dab with the voltmeter after charging it - so cursory, I can't recall what it was, 13 something volts, IIRC. Anything else I should look at as a prime suspect?

Many thanks in advance

 

Hi, what a headache. Let me ask a few questions to get started we dont want to assume anything:
Does the window drop for door opening?
What happens when you put key in door and turn it clockwise to open windows/ roof?
Does the roof work from inside switch ?
does the door handle lock / unlock either or both doors?
Does the mirror adjustment work?

do you get puddle light with door open?

FWIW windows have jammed because of debris, happened to me once. The click makes me think of this , especially if all other door switches work.

Sounds like you have the door card off, maybe check for 12v at the window motor instead of applying 12v?

John

 

Cheers John,
Sooooo, I have put it all back together (almost), so we can start from scratch.
1. Window doesn't drop when opening or closing door. It used to, last time i drove it.

2. If I put key in door and turn clockwise, the car locks - well, we have that multi-cycling of passenger side lock. The driver's side doesn't lock, either manually or with key.
I didn't actually know that the windows and roof opened with the key in the door, haha, but it doesnt work. Turning clockwise just locks the car.
The roof drops fine from the switch inside.

3. The door handle lock, from inside, when pushed, locks drivers door, and sets off the aforementioned lock/unlock cycle (x5) from the passenger door, accompanied by some clicking from driver door. The passenger side doesn't lock after the interior handle has popped in and out 5 times.

4. Mirror adjustment does not work. I don't know if it is supposed to have auto-fold, that has never happened. In my afternoon of madness yesterday, I opened up the switch back, and naturally was left with bits of the mirror control in my hand and no idea how it went back together, duh. I put it back how i thought it went, it clipped together but the L/R selector rocker is stiff. I haven't forced it, but will open it up again, and see if I can re-seat it all.

5. The puddle light works when the door opens, turns off when the door closes.

When the window button is pushed momentarily to open it, the clunk is a long one - kerrrrrr-lunk ( like the window would click to engage and drop the glass automatically to the bottom and click off as it stopped. However this gap is only about 3 seconds.) Pressing the button to send the glass up, the clunk is only as long as you engage the button.

6 I don't know what the pins/cables on the connector are, there are a couple of thicker cables into each side, then some thinner ones. I wasn't keen to jam meter probe tips into the connector in case I bend the line sockets and they subsequently don't make a contact with motor pins, so thought it would be easier to put some mini croc clips on the motor out of the door, and see if it shifted. This is actually more so I can return the spare I bought from a breaker it turns out to be duff!

Hey, at least the sun is shining and I'm not supposed to go anywhere anyway!

 

Yes, if you put key in door, turn clockwise, hold for a second, windows will all go down,continue to hold, roof opens. When roof is open, turning key in opposite direction closes roof than windows. If front windows closed already, they will drop 1/4 inch until roof secure. BTW it takes the roof less than 20 seconds to close.

Mow we have proven power to the drivers door.

FWIW cycling, as you describe are a sure sign of a slightly low battery charge in my 1998.

Stand by I'm going to go look at the window regulator on the shelf downstairs.

John

 

well looks like I tossed my regulator in the trash, but good news I have photos from its removal.
just wanted to give you a view of the connector location. If you can safely get to it (obligatory don't put you friggin fingers in there with battery connected) pull it out and use your voltmeter to verify 12v.
at the bottom of the glass, the arms attach to a horizontal channel. Debris in the channel can stop the window movement. I had a remnant piece of glass from a yeRs old broken window in mine once.

John

 

Just occurred to me. If door card off what do you see happening when you push open button and hear noise?

 

Thanks John, I appreciate your help.
I've had the regulator actually out of the door, nothing blocking the channel, all moves smoothly.
Regarding the regulator connector, which pins should I measure across? Looking at the connector from the rear, there's 6 wires going in. Top row, from L-R, a thick OrangeBlack, thin black, thick purple/blue. 2nd row, L-R, Purple/white, orange/purple, lilac/black (these 3 all thin). Am I right in thinking the thick wires will be 12v live and the black will go to Earth?

When I press that Open button, nothing happens, other than the clunk. Nothing appears to be trying to move.

I'll have a try in the morning at that key in the door thing, are you sure it was clockwise? All it seemed to do was lock mine (mind you, I did try anti-clockwise, just in case, and it did nothing too)

There is always the chance it is the battery, I suppose. There was 13.4v across the terminals this morning, and I did fire the car up when I was mucking about. Battery is 3 years old this June (so actually only done 33 months, and as I laid the car up for both past winters - ie. Nov till May, it's not had a hard life). I'll whip the battery off my daily drive XJ8 tomorrow and give that a try.

 

Oh, you have to laugh. I bet you're from the UK? That would reverse the key direction, I'm always on the other side!!!! For you, turn and hold key counterclockwise. :-)

Regarding pins, gosh I thought the white connector next to the regulator motor was single pair. I'm going to go look at the schematic for you be right back.

Great description about the movement/noise. Does it sound like a circuit breaker noise? (Short in regulator motor overheats thermo breaker immediately) that will sound like a click.

John

 

Ok going to attach schematic. In case it doesn't show - 2 wires go to motor orange blue & orange black.
***Edit: yesterday I went too fast. My statement that the window motor is grounded was wrong - sorry. The black ground is not in the motor circuit as I stated. As per the diagram only OU & OB connect to the regulator motor. They switch polarity to change window direction.

hey do note: the wire's are position numbered in diagram too.
Dont be frustrated, these cars are famous for wires color changing from schematics designation. They would tend to stick with the logic though: one base color (orange in diagram), each wire with same base different color stripe.

Hope this then answers 2 questions. Where to apply 12v, and where you read 12volts.

Keep us posted. John
T

Wires out of driver door control module.

Motor: wires in
he other wires in that connection are to monitor window movement.

 

Keep at it MrGrey,

Well as you've said, this Covid19, has given you the time to dive into this problem. You seem to have dived into your troublesome driver’s door. Keep safe, battery off if you’ve got your fingers inside the door skin.

+1 to Johnken - the man knows what he’s talking about!

For my two cents, you’ve obviously got different problems on both doors and it’s weird that they occurred at the same time.

Putting 12 V on the window motor regulator should tell you if this is the source of your window trouble.

Plus there are numerous micro switches all over the place in the car to confirm what is where esp. for the convertible hood sequence. Your passenger door lock trouble is a classic case of a bad one, of the 3, in the latch mechanism. Good news is that the switch is cheap (I keep spares in a my box of bits) but getting to it is a bear! Our eminent Rev Sam aka sam1174 has a YouTube video of how to get to the latch.


BTW GGG has a correction on how Rev Sam removed the vertical drop link

 

Thank you gentlemen.
I had another look yesterday...and took the switch apart and re-seated the LR selector for starters. It now switches smoothly between L and R mirrors, the little joystick thing moves freely.
I decided then to whip the doorcard off the LHS (passenger here), disconnect the motor and stick the replacement onto the end of the loom there and see if it shifted. Success, so I at least don't need to return that little item, I'll keep it as a spare even if it isn't needed. I proceeded to plug the existing motor back in and moved round the car to the original problem area, leaving the LHS doorcard off (because while I am at it, the speakers with the disintegrated foam surrounds might as well get sorted).

Now, I am pretty certain that when I tried the window master switch, the LHS button didn't do anything at all. The RHS, however, dropped the LHS window! It wouldn't go up, no switch clunk, just the LHS down. What?
At this point, the battery was reading 12.3v so I whipped that out, held the pos/neg cables together and dropped in the battery from my XJ8.
This got me back to square one, ie. driver window does nothing, just the switch clunk. Incidentally, the sound is just the normal sound you hear when you open the window, minus the motor noise, it's not a disturbing clunk, if that makes sense!

Which led me back to checking the voltage at the end of the RHS loom, ie. the window reg motor - ZERO volts. So, from the answers you chaps have posted, could I well be looking at 2 different problems?
1. A duff control module on the driver's side, giving me no window and no mirror control. 2. A dickie latch on the passenger side giving me the cycling lock. Both exacerbated by having a battery which is not at its best. Does that sound likely?

Sadly, here in the UK, it is not worth trying to drive a car like the XK8 year-round, because the roads get heavily salted between October and...ooh, May-ish.( I kid you not, it doesn't matter if there's any REAL risk of ice, if there's a cloudless night, Mr Gritter will be out merrily coating the roads. Someone somewhere is making a nice pile of cash from this idiocy, it makes my blood boil) So, anyway, I have found to my cost that it's kinder on Jags to leave them on the drive until the sun comes back out - but that means they are exposed to all the rain, hail, snow, leaves, bird crap, etc, and all sorts of problems develop. I guess it's just my bad luck, they all present themselves at once...

 

I think you said you're ok with electronics, hope this helps. You can even trace the signal to the module here.

John