Hey guys!

It's been a while since I've been active on here... Growing business and family and such.

Well... The wife was driving my Lancer and the window was frozen shut as we've had lots of snow/ice this year [record year I think]. When she tried to roll it down and it didn't budge instead of just opening the door and doing it that way until the car warms up and the window is freed - she kept trying, and trying, and trying...

She did finally get the window loose but now it makes a scraping/grinding sound on it's way down and up. It only does it for about the bottom 3/4 of travel - the top 1/4 of travel is normal/quiet.

I removed the panel and got to looking and I see it's cable driven and there really only seem to be a couple of places this noise could come from. At first I thought it may be the track that the window rides in at the middle [cables from regulator attach at bottom and top] so I'm going to throw some grease in there and see if it quiets down [haven't gotten to the store yet].

If it's not that my other suspicion is that perhaps a strand or two of one of the cables snapped - specifically the bottom cable. When I actuate the window the bottom cable housing presses against the window hard as the window comes up and you can hear it 'snap' off of the edge of the window once it's past that point and when it's going down the cable housing goes the other direction away from the window. I listened to the passenger side window and I do not hear this.

I'm hoping it's the track but I suspect it's the cable. I also suspect I cannot simply replace the cable alone [i.e. likely the whole assembly is required].

All of that said - mostly looking to hear from anybody that may have faced a similar issue and has more experience with this than myself.

If I do need to replace the whole assembly I'm trying to determine if this is the right part:
http://www.oemmitsubishiparts.com/pa...WINDOW%20MOTOR

I'll be calling the dealership on Monday and getting the part number to see if I can find it online [i.e. part number so I can make sure I order the right part] as I've no qualms with replacing it myself [not too hard].

At any rate - I will post up what I did find the cause to ultimately be in case anybody else runs into this. I did run a cursory search and saw nothing that matched but if I did miss a similar thread I apologize for that.

 

If the motor is fine then all you need is the regulator.

http://www.oemmitsubishiparts.com/pa...OW%20REGULATOR

I have had one destroy itself on me andone more is on its way out. The plastic wheels that the cable goes over on the top and bottom are a weak point of all late model calls. When its cold they get brittle and that could be the source of the problem. Or the carriers that the glass bolts into are damaged, they are also plastic...

To swap the motor to the new regulator its only 3 torx screws to attach it to the new regulator and there are 6-7 10mm bolts holding the whole regualtor assembly to the door.

 

Turns out one of the cables jumped and they were rubbing together. Got it back on the right part of the spool and all is well.

Now that I know how easy it is to get to the glass I'm going to replace my passenger side with an unscratched window.