So my window motor is going out on my 2003 Z. Is there anything I can do to salvage it or should I just cough up $230 for a new one? Any cheaper places to get a replacement than the Nissan parts counter?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

i had both window motor regulators replaced before warranty ran out on my 03. Chances are they will eventually malfunction again. i'd like to find out who made these crapy units. Nissan probably out sourced these parts to save money.

 

I took it in to Nissan twice as it was just starting to go out, they couldn't reproduce the problem and in the meantime my warranty expired

 

welcome to the club. I bought a used one off a member here who converted the car to a race car. They go up on ebay for about $160 or so. Nissan really dropped the ball on these sh#*@y motors

 

Do the new ones being sold by Nissan have a longer life expectancy than the stock ones on the 2003's?

 

don't hold your breath.

 

bought mine on ebay from a nissan dealer. saved $100. Took an hour to put in.

 

take the door panel off, remove the metal sheet holding the window to the door. remove the motor from the assembly and unplug it. clean out the inside of the motor (there will be carbon dust buildup... thats whats killing the motor). once the carbon dust is out, reassemble everything, and it should work like new. happened on my GF's Z. window wouldn't go up anymore. dealer quoted her 500 dollars. took me 2 hours to figure it all out and have it back together working like a champ (would be much faster now that i know what the problem is). oh best of all it was free.

 

Mine is going out on my 2005 on the passenger side. Good luck finding a new one cheap.

-Acree

 

Check the Kragen website. I bought mine from them (online) for about 130+$30 core+tax.

These are refurbished, and apparently use better carbons than the OEM.

Installed mine a couple of months ago and working fine so far.

 

My passenger side is about to crap out

 

is no one a DIYer? if your going to go through the trouble to pull the motor out to replace it, just clean out the old one and save the 300 dollars for a track day. they will still work.... i should get in the business of refurbishing these things.

 

I cleaned mine twice. Each time it worked for about a week. I thinkthe brushes were just too worn down. Last week I took it in to Auburn Nissan and had it replaced. I have an extended warranty so it cost me the $100 deductible. They did the work in about an hour and it works fine now.

 

KevinD,

When you say "clean the brushes", do you mean:
- removing the motor
- removing the motor endframe (round motor can)
- cleaning the blushes on the brushplate ?

 

Autozone sells replacement motors for about $160 plus you'll get $40 back when you turn in the old motor. I installed one on my drivers side and it works great. Autozone also warrenties the motor for life....who's life I'm not sure but that's what I was told when I bought it.

I had also tried the "clean the old motor" trick and it worked for a few weeks before stopping again.

 

The window motors will break when as soon as the warranty ends. Nissan planned it that way.

 

My passenger window goes up a little slower, does that mean it could be going out?

 

Yep, that's what mine started doing. From when it slowed down until when it went out was around 2 months.

 

My passenger side window got slower over time then eventually stopped working. Cleaned the brushes and now its faster than my driver side.

Check out this link, not sure what page its on but there are pictures to help. Should be in the 2-5 page range IIRC.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....t=window+motor

 

My passenger side is also going out? Why is it usually the passenger side? I was talking to nissan when my passenger motor was going out and they said it would cost around $230 for a new motor.

He also stated that the 03 Z was known for the passenger window going out. Uhhhhh..... Shouldn't that be under warranty if their is a malfunction that is known?