How to put a door window back on its support and regulator

Whether it is due to age of the Prius (2003), the icy winters here in Minnesota, or the over-use of window controls by small children, I've had the door windows in the rear of my Prius fall off their supports four times now. The first two times cost between $150 and $200 to repair. So I set out to learn how to fix the problem myself. I've attached a procedure, with photos, for how to do it. Aside from the about 30 minutes it'll take you to read the instructions and mentally prepare yourself, you'll find the job itself takes just about an hour if you're determined but a non-mechanic as I am. There is one part in the procedure where you need to use some force in an awkward position (hands inside the door), but otherwise it is just a matter of systematically taking screws and bolts off, thinking a bit about how to position things, and then putting things back on in the reverse order you took them off. I hope you find the directions and photos helpful. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the request for more details on the failure. The window in one case got stuck in a partially down position, with the small wheel wedged between the glass and the door keeping the window from falling further down. The regulator motor would make some weak sounds so I knew it wasn't burned out. In an effort not to burn it out, I stopped using the motor once it was clear it wasn't moving the window. The window in the other case simply slipped all the way down into the door, and couldn't be brought back up.

In both cases I was driving in the winter with kids in the back seat (who know how to operate the windows), and there was a metallic thud around the time of the failure. What I found in both cases on the bottom of the inside of the door was the metal support rail with the rubber liner still in it. So the support rail likely fell off the window first and then the small wheel on the regulator slid off the end of the track (which is open at both ends) to allow the window support rail / track to completely disconnect and fall to the bottom of the door.

I don't know how the support rail pulled away from the window but can speculate that one or more of the following were the cause. (a) water freezing around the window could have sealed the window in the up position; subsequent pushing the power window button in an attempt to lower the window could exert enough force to pull the support rail off (or partly off) the bottom of the window. (b) kids lowering the window part way and then leaning on the window asymmetrically could wedge the window (which has a bit of play) into a slightly stuck position which might allow the support rail to pull off the window if they then attempted to lower the window further. Since it has happened to both windows, to one window three times and to the other window once, it seems unlikely to be a manufacturing defect (though having no screws on the rails to hold the window tightly into the support rail could be a contributing factor). Could the mechanics who fixed the one window before not have pushed the window onto the gasket fully? Or could they have put some kind of lubricant between the rubber gasket and the rail? – which would be understandable given how tight a fit it is, but a bad idea if friction is a big part of what holds the window in place.

I hope this helps.

 

I guess one other possible cause for the instance of recurring failure (support rail separating after the initial repair) is if the track were replaced in such a way that the wheel were very close to running off the end of the track at some point in its motion cycle. Then if the wheel were to roll off the end of the track it could go *above* the support rail and when an attempt to lower the window was made, the wheel could pull *down* on the rail with sufficient force to pull it off. I guess that possibility would argue for being very careful about getting the rail support in the correct position when reattaching it.

 

Gluing it in to effect a permanent fix makes sense, as long as the lubricant is wiped off first and the glue is put between both the metal support and the rubber liner and between the rubber liner and the window. If ever the window truly broke (into pieces), you'd have to work a bit harder to clear out the last glued in bits. Otherwise, an understandable addition to the fix.