Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Window Scraping Sound

Drivers side window sounds like it is scraping when it goes up and down.

I pulled the door panel off, the weather stripping on both sides, the pusher thing that holds the window to one side, but couldn't find anything that would be in contact with the window when it goes up and down.

It almost seems like one of the cables (looks like a brake cable off of a bike) is making the sound. I guess this cable system is what pulls the windows up and down?

Any ideas or common causes?

Yea recently my car has decided to do the same..Except my window jams and doesn't close all the way. Im going to take off the door today and see whats up with this. I can't be parking in a ghetto neighborhood with my window slightly open.

Originally posted by 95-gl-v6-4disc:

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Drivers side window sounds like it is scraping when it goes up and down.

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Look carefully at the bottom/floor of the door panel for any pieces that might have broken off or plastic shavings. You will need a flashlight for this. You might also want to wipe your fingers along the bottom to see what you come up with. The area that the pieces are found and the color and type of pieces will give you some clues as to the problem.

There are two areas that can cause the scraping that I know of:

The first place that can cause window problems is where the cable enters the window regulator/motor as it moves back and forth. There is supposed to be a plastic white tube (~ 1" long and 1/4" diameter) at the top of the window regulator/motor that protects the cable from scraping against the black plastic of the regulator/motor, but this piece often breaks and leaves the cable to rub against the regulator/motor. As the cable rubs against the regulator/motor, shavings fall of onto the door panel floor, but also into the regulator/motor itself. This can cause a scraping sound.

The second place that can cause window problems is near the top of the door. There is a small (~1") white plastic pulley (aka wheel) that the cable wraps around. This piece can also break and cause problems. It is VERY hard to see this piece. The only way I could get a look at it was to remove the two black rubber window mouldings/weatherstrip pieces that are at the bottom of the window. If you take those out, you can see a small white plastic pulley that the cable moves around.

When my window was having problems, I found both situations above. Either of these problems can lead to a need to replace the window regulator (~$125 at an online discount shop).

Originally posted by 95-gl-v6-4disc:

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I guess this cable system is what pulls the windows up and down?

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Yes, the cable is a closed loop system. That is, it moves around in a circle (not a perfect circle, but rather a D shape or backwards-D shape depending on the door). As the cable moves in one direction, it pulls the window up, and vice-versa.

Thank you.

It looks like the white plastic tube has broken loose, and the cable is rubbing where it goes into the motor. I put some heavy grease on it, and that seemes to have helped for now.

When it finally breaks, does the window regulator come with the cables as a single unit?

Mine did the same thing and evetually stopeed working at all (thank God it was in the Up postion) My hubby and his brother took it apart and found that the cable had frayed and was wrapped around something (not sure what, probably the pully) They pulled that frayed strand off and the window worked fine for awhile now it is stuck up again!! Can anyone tell me if we can replace the cable or do we have to replace the whole assembly in the door??