Don't pull up your electric car-window

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ghostjmf
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Don't pull up your electric car-window

#1 Post by ghostjmf » Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:31 pm

if its stuck.

A. It probably won't go up all the way anyway &

B. If what they call the regulator hasn't already damaged the window, you just have, probably

This sucks so bad. On top of paying for new regulator/motor combo, as for this car they're sold as one unit, & of course labor, I had to pay for a new used window. Which is the wrong tint, even though numbers on window are identical. But better than a new new window, which due to age of car was possibility.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#2 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:40 pm

This was why God invented the hand crank, and why those damned automotive engineers should have left it alone...

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#3 Post by Beebs52 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:06 pm

Oh man. We had one go out out of town. Way expensive. Sucks
Well, then

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#4 Post by ghostjmf » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:17 pm

I know lb is just being sarcastic, but for a rare time I agree with him.

I had to have the crank replaced on the driver's window on my last car. $112.00 or so.

This useless thing is waaaaaaay more. Now that I have to have an EZ pass, I don't even need to roll down the window for tolls.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#5 Post by Beebs52 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:22 pm

littlebeast13 wrote:This was why God invented the hand crank, and why those damned automotive engineers should have left it alone...

lb13
I agree, too.
Well, then

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#6 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:30 pm

ghostjmf wrote:I know lb is just being sarcastic, but for a rare time I agree with him.

I wasn't really being sarcastic. Every car I've ever had (including the 2017 littleredsonic) has had manual windows, and there isn't a time in my entire car driving life when I've ever said to myself, "You know, I sure wish I could just push a button to roll this window down rather than take a couple seconds to work out my biceps." Power windows are just another useless vanity innovation that make things cost more...

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#7 Post by ghostjmf » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:45 pm

I'm amazed they're still making them.

I guess if I'd shopped based on hand-crank windows I'd have found something in 2010 when I bought my current car, but it was hard enough to find a hatchback (I was still under the delusion I wanted to fit my bike or furniture in back) & a seat that went far enough back, so I could sleep in it. I had to settle for 7/8ths, instead of all the way, in seat-backness.

There's a lot of electric crap on my car that I religiously never use (cruise control, sunroof) but I *do* use the windows.

I also wanted & didn't get a distance radio (law used to require them so you could tune in emergency broadcasts; I had the mechanics pull the radio from my old car in case the came-with of this car ever dies) & an antenna. A real one, instead of what's painted on the rear window.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#8 Post by Bob78164 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:48 pm

littlebeast13 wrote:
ghostjmf wrote:I know lb is just being sarcastic, but for a rare time I agree with him.

I wasn't really being sarcastic. Every car I've ever had (including the 2017 littleredsonic) has had manual windows, and there isn't a time in my entire car driving life when I've ever said to myself, "You know, I sure wish I could just push a button to roll this window down rather than take a couple seconds to work out my biceps." Power windows are just another useless vanity innovation that make things cost more...

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#9 Post by ghostjmf » Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:59 pm

And oh-yeah; I definitely wanted a stick-shift, because I hate that hesitation thing modern automatics do between gears, but people around here do tailgating on hills, & a stick rolls backward an inch or so when you start up again after being stopped halfway up a hill. I've taken to driving around the hill I live on during high-traffic times just to avoid that unwanted company on the grade (its almost flat to get to my street if you take the long way around).

So my next car will be an automatic. Sadly.
Last edited by ghostjmf on Wed Jul 11, 2018 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#11 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:41 pm


My Sonic appears on almost every list of cars available with retro features in the Car & Driver article. Mine only has the manual windows and manual mirrors, though. I really wish it had manual locks as well, because the one thing I miss most about my Neon is not having to lug around that goddamn remote that may or may not work that has the key that is constantly popping out while it's in my pocket....

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#12 Post by Bob Juch » Wed Jul 11, 2018 6:47 pm

littlebeast13 wrote:

My Sonic appears on almost every list of cars available with retro features in the Car & Driver article. Mine only has the manual windows and manual mirrors, though. I really wish it had manual locks as well, because the one thing I miss most about my Neon is not having to lug around that goddamn remote that may or may not work that has the key that is constantly popping out while it's in my pocket....

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#13 Post by triviawayne » Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:19 pm

littlebeast13 wrote:This was why God invented the hand crank, and why those damned automotive engineers should have left it alone...

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The same exact problem can happen with a hand crank

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#14 Post by ghostjmf » Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:30 pm

triviawayne says window can fail on a hand-crankable window too:

It can. It did to my last car. The repair cost $112.00 or so. This repair, same garage, cost $724.00. "Only" $200.00 of which was the new used window. When crank goes on a hand-crankable window, generally the window doesn't break at the attachment point to the regulator.

Even if like stupid me you try to pull it up.

Regulator for manual window works differently.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#15 Post by littlebeast13 » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:44 pm

triviawayne wrote:
littlebeast13 wrote:This was why God invented the hand crank, and why those damned automotive engineers should have left it alone...

lb13
The same exact problem can happen with a hand crank

What ghost said....

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#16 Post by ghostjmf » Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:16 am

Technically, the handle we're all used to turning on a hand-crank window is considered part of what is these-days called the regulator. It causes two plates to squish the bottom of the window along its horizontal axis from either side, then lift the window up. I think.

Or it can be a cable arrangement. Or, the article says, rack & pinion.

https://www.howacarworks.com/bodywork/a ... mechanisms

https://www.buyautoparts.com/howto/elec ... ulator.htm

Whereas in electric windows the regulator is attached to the bottom of the window. In, it appears, a variety of ways, depending on car manufacturer (same as variety with manuals, just diff variety; I had looked up a bunch of stuff on how 2002 Acura RSX-Ss attach, but no way I was taking my door apart myself anyway). And the regulator is driven by a motor. Which is activated by the switch we push. Electricity goes through cables encased in a rubber protector that you squish every time you open & close the door.

Lots to go wrong.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#17 Post by triviawayne » Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:33 am

ghostjmf wrote:triviawayne says window can fail on a hand-crankable window too:

It can. It did to my last car. The repair cost $112.00 or so. This repair, same garage, cost $724.00. "Only" $200.00 of which was the new used window. When crank goes on a hand-crankable window, generally the window doesn't break at the attachment point to the regulator.

Even if like stupid me you try to pull it up.

Regulator for manual window works differently.
and when was that on your last car? When it happened on my car, it was over $300, and that was more than 10 years ago.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#18 Post by ghostjmf » Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:41 am

triviawayne:

On my last car it was over 10 years ago. But the prices at the garage have not gone up *that* much. The cost of the parts were trivial & I was mostly paying for labor. And whatever I did to window myself did not render it useless.

On this repair the labor was around $250, parts $250, & window $200.

And if we'd had to buy a new new window from Acura I hate to think of the cost. And the tint would probably still not have matched.

That darker tint is not going to help my vision at night. I have to look out the window a lot when driving because I'm told my peripheral vision is lousy.
Last edited by ghostjmf on Thu Jul 12, 2018 7:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#19 Post by ghostjmf » Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:51 am

Basically, the reason I am no longer driving my last car, the beloved Acura Integra, is that nowhere in the US of A did they have a working turn-signal thingie, & believe me I begged. I later learned that this car had a club of devotees nationwide & it was them I should have been begging, not junkyards.

You can't pass inspection around here without a turn signal. Or drive at night. Even though I am the only person for miles around who uses theirs. (An interviewee recently told Terry Gross on Fresh Air that when he complained to his Boston taxi-Uber-Lyft driver that the driver wasn't signalling, the driver told him "why should I want people to know where I'm going".)

After a car is out of production a few years the manufacturer no longer has to provide parts for it.

And the RSX is out of production too, since 2006.

RSX was "Integra gen 4" in Japan but here Acura had stopped using word-names so they called it RSX. After 2006 they decided they no longer needed a "bottom of the line" car. The RSX is already sedanned-up enough to make it just not as sporty, in driving, as the Integra was. For instance, RSX is wider so can't do those neat 3-pt turns in Boston's narrow streets.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#20 Post by triviawayne » Fri Jul 13, 2018 5:37 am

As someone who buys their own parts, yes, prices have gone up *that* much in the last 15 years. I'm now paying almost double for many parts.

You also have an Acura, the "luxury" brand of Honda. The word "luxury" always adds to the cost of parts, and if you were to have it done at the stealership, labor would also be higher.

Everyone looks out the window a lot when driving, it's called paying attention to your surroundings.

You can't pass inspection anywhere without a turn signal; but yes, you can certainly drive at night without one, as you can clearly see by your "fact" that you are "the only person for miles around who uses theirs".

Considering the RSX is built on the Civic platform, you "may" have been able to get a Civic window for much less.

If a $700 repair on a 12+ year old car is the biggest bill you have, you should consider yourself lucky.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#21 Post by ghostjmf » Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:52 am

triviawayne:

For me, looking out the side windows when driving is to make sure no-one's in my car's blind spots or would have been seen by my missing peripheral vision if I had enough of it. Which I've been offered surgery for; insurance would cover it because with me its not for cosmetic reasons. However, what *is* cosmetic, & why I don't want it, is that I would want to look like "young me", not those squirrel-eyed people you see in all the "after" ads. So I'll just keep my ageing deepset eyes.

I am physically able to drive without turn signals at night, but its not legal. So I don't do it.

This is far from the only repair on this car in recent history. However, I probably could have avoided the $200.00 for a window, with the wrong tint, which is peeling at the top, so I think its someone's aftermarket idea, if I'd just not pulled *my* original window up.

As an update, the blue tint does *not* seem to make things darker at night. Still bugs me during the day, though.

My garage is not the dealer. On that rare occasion when I was sent to a dealer, several cars ago on a Civic that had a carburetor problem that even a new carburetor (or the dealer) couldn't fix, I found that dealers have absolute contempt for old cars, even though they're models of cars they sell.

As for buying a Civic window; part of Acura's ads for the RSX talk about how various features, including the windows, are lighter & thinner. So they're probably not interchangeable.

I'm sure my garage looked into it, before they scouted this one out from New Hampshire. Nothing I looked up on the internet suggested using a Civic window.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#22 Post by triviawayne » Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:09 am

ghostjmf wrote:triviawayne:

For me, looking out the side windows when driving is to make sure no-one's in my car's blind spots or would have been seen by my missing peripheral vision if I had enough of it. Which I've been offered surgery for; insurance would cover it because with me its not for cosmetic reasons. However, what *is* cosmetic, & why I don't want it, is that I would want to look like "young me", not those squirrel-eyed people you see in all the "after" ads. So I'll just keep my ageing deepset eyes.

I am physically able to drive without turn signals at night, but its not legal. So I don't do it.

This is far from the only repair on this car in recent history. However, I probably could have avoided the $200.00 for a window, with the wrong tint, which is peeling at the top, so I think its someone's aftermarket idea, if I'd just not pulled *my* original window up.

As an update, the blue tint does *not* seem to make things darker at night. Still bugs me during the day, though.

My garage is not the dealer. On that rare occasion when I was sent to a dealer, several cars ago on a Civic that had a carburetor problem that even a new carburetor (or the dealer) couldn't fix, I found that dealers have absolute contempt for old cars, even though they're models of cars they sell.

As for buying a Civic window; part of Acura's ads for the RSX talk about how various features, including the windows, are lighter & thinner. So they're probably not interchangeable.

I'm sure my garage looked into it, before they scouted this one out from New Hampshire. Nothing I looked up on the internet suggested using a Civic window.

Just because of your "problem" doesn't mean other people don't have to be constantly looking out their side windows--trust me, we do.

It's illegal to drive without turn signals during the day as well. Plus you'll never get me to believe you never drove one mile over the speed limit, went through a questionable yellow light, never failed to use a turn signal when it was working, parked where you shouldn't have, or SOMETHING not legal.

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#23 Post by ghostjmf » Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:04 am

triviawayne:

Its legal, at least in Mass, to use hand signals during daylight hours. We all had to take tests to get our licenses that included this info, but from people's reactions to my using them when my turns were out, no-one remembers them. Conscientious bicyclists, who do not come equipped with blinky turn signals, also use arm signals & from drivers' reactions, no-one remembers them. They do become aware the bicyclist is going to do *something*.

I *have* driven one mile over the speed limit, at times. I once got a ticket for driving 5 miles over the limit (55 in a 50 mph zone). Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, this was a speed trap. I'm certainly happy I wasn't speeding this June 30th, when about 6 patrol cars, cop-lights off, passed me between western Mass & here.

Its always questionable to go through a yellow light, but its also legal.

I have *never* failed to use a working turn signal. I learned to drive in Ohio, not Massachusetts.

I always park where its legal. I have gotten tickets for parking where it was clearly marked that it was legal to park. They just love to give out parking tickets here. Talked myself out of one of them at the hearing. At the other hearing the officer chose to ignore photos of "you can park here" signs. To pursue it would have cost more than the ticket (locally there are enormous fees for a further hearing, which fees you only get back if you win).

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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#24 Post by Estonut » Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:45 am

ghostjmf wrote:At the other hearing the officer chose to ignore photos of "you can park here" signs. To pursue it would have cost more than the ticket (locally there are enormous fees for a further hearing, which fees you only get back if you win).
Why would this go to a further hearing if you had photographic evidence of your innocence?
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Re: Don't pull up your electric car-window

#25 Post by ghostjmf » Sun Jul 15, 2018 6:06 am

Estonut:

Ask the hearings-officer. Their answer to me was "so ask for another hearing".

The photo was of the "parking rules at this address" sign. Their claim was that I should have disregarded the sign, as I was still too close to the bridge over the railroad track. I had measured the distance, which they could too, & I was not too close.

People park there all the time & don't get tickets. "Snow + me parking" = ticket.

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