My 1985 740 gle wagon (newly mine) has a peculiar problem with the driver's side power window. The first 10 inches of drop work totally fine. Then, when it gets to about 6" up, it quickly slows to a crawl so dramatic I am tempted to push down with both hands to get it to move (which I haven't done, as I don't want to break anything.) After 30 seconds or so, it finally makes it to the 1" exposed point, and from there it zips down the rest of the way at normal speed.

On the way up, it behaves exactly as one would expect, a nice brisk rise through its entire motion.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any tips?

 

Take off the door panel and check that nothing is obstructing the slide arm in the channel attached to the bottom of the glass. It may be dirty, enough to cause a problem.

 

I took the door panel off and immediately the window began to behave nicely. I put the door back together and now my window works. I don't know why, but I am at least temporarily satisfied.

For anyone else who may stumble across this thread:


1. In the bottom of the well where the door handle/latch/release resides there is a plastic "screw" Turn it one half turn with a screw driver to remove.
2. Lift out the trim surrounding the door handle.
3. Pull out the power window control cluster (it won't come all the way, but you will get a lump with a bunch of wires hanging on.

4. On the bottom of the plastic panel there are two white clips. These are horsehoe shaped and lock around a (non-visible) peg coming out from the body of the door. Remove them either by pulling them down or popping them upwards into the plastic panel - you can retrieve them once you get the panel off. I did this with only my fingernails, but people with shorter/weaker fingernails may need a prying device - a plastic picnic knife would be enough, so if you use a screwdriver, keep in mind that it should be hard in the sense of force to get them off - Brains, not brawn, are required for this step.

5. Once you have the white plastic clips off, gently pry around the bottom of the door to pull the plastic away from the metal. I used only my fingers. There are several yellow plastic pegs that lock into the metal of the door.

6. Once you get the bottom off (or earlier) unscrew the **** from the door lock.

7. Finally, tilt the bottom of the door up and away and relieve the locking clips along the window.

Take not of where the yellow locking pegs are - when you put the door back on, you will need to apply light pressure on the outside of the panel at those spots.

While you have the door open, clean out the drain hole and wipe any gunk out of the bottom of the metal door frame so it can't collect water.


Thanks, BoD!

 

Thanks, Juneappal! I've got a very similar problem with my driver-side power window. I'll keep this in mind.

 

And exactly HOW does it help the window just removing the door panel and putting it back on? If something was obstructing it, may be, but... it sounds more like "anecdotal evidence".
After removing the panel, I 'd lube all the pivot points especially the "cross" which is probably dried out after some 20 years. Also, clean and lube the tracks where the glass slides up and down. I do that to all Volvos I get...