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Crazy Power Window issues on Passenger Side of '05 Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by kuz, Mar 12, 2014.

  1. kuz

    kuz New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2014
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    Location:
    Athens, GA
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    I'm a brand new prius owner as of this weekend. I just bought a '05 prius with about 115k miles. It has been awesome thus far. I'm still trying to figure out the whole efficient driving thing and I've spent hours reading all over the prius chat forums. This place is awesome.

    I bought the prius with 'unknown' power window issues. The basics are that the driver side windows work normally (both front and back). Both the passenger windows switches were unplugged when I pulled the switches/door panel off. As soon as I just plugged in the switch the windows roll down immediately and are non responsive when trying to roll them back up with the switch.

    I looked up the wiring diagram and saw that there are two power wires, a ground and two motor wires. If I manually connect the wires (+/- green/yellow) the windows will roll up and down just fine. So I thought I just had bad switches. I swapped the switches with the one that is working on the left rear and the same issues take place.

    I tried the window reset chicken dance but only with the driver side windows to no avail. It is a pain to try to do the 4/5/4 seconds with the manual wiring. I don't really know if it is a switch issue or maybe a cpu/relay issue? I searched the forums and couldn't find anything as specific as this. Anyone else had any issues with power windows? The dealer wanted to charge me $79 for diagnostics so I'm hoping to fix it myself before I resort to that.
     
  2. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Location:
    Wilmington, NC
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    In your first paragraph you indicate that both rear window switches were found unplugged. In the second paragraph you indicate that you used the left rear switch that was working. Did the left rear window roll down immediately when plugged in ?

    From what I read it makes it sound like you are troubleshooting with a switch that is questionable. Or am I misreading your post?
     
  3. kuz

    kuz New Member

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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
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    Hey, thanks for the reply and response.

    Sorry for the confusion, both the front and rear switches on the passenger side/right side (opposite the driver) cause the windows to roll down immediately.

    Both of the driver's side windows work well (although I plan on testing the driver panel switches that control the passenger side later tonight to see if they could be stuck in the 'down' position).

    I used the switch from the working back driver side window to test the passenger side ones.

    One other note of information that might be useful. If I hold the window switch in the 'up' position immediately after I connect it (as it immediately starts rolling down) it does pause the window from going down.
     
  4. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Location:
    Green Valley, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    1. Substitute the right rear passenger switch at the left rear window location, and see if the left rear window continues to behave correctly. If yes, then you know the right rear switch is OK.
    2. You can obtain an electrical wiring diagram at techinfo.toyota.com
     
  5. kuz

    kuz New Member

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    Location:
    Athens, GA
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Thanks for the tip. I took your approach and I used the working one and tested all the others. It turns out all the switches for the windows were actually working (the rear and passenger ones) which led me to the main switch on the drivers side. I took the drivers side master switch out of our camry it is actually worked! (I think the main switch down buttons were stuck) So I ordered a working used drivers side master switch off ebay so I hope that will fix it when it comes in. Thanks for all the tips. I'm looking forward to spending some more time in the forums, the community here is great!
     
    Patrick Wong likes this.
  6. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Location:
    Green Valley, AZ
    Vehicle:
    2015 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    Excellent troubleshooting on your part. Glad to hear you figured out that the driver's switches were faulty.

    Is it possible that if you were to remove the driver's window switches, you would be able to slightly adjust the position of the switch assembly vs. the trim plate that surrounds the switches, so that the passenger-side switches would correctly function?

    Perhaps mechanical interference is causing the switches to be stuck?