Some time ago my left rear window regulator started acting up. I procured replacement parts from Andrew at Bonnevilles Unlimited, and they sat on my workbench for several months.

http://www.bonnevillesunlimited.com/ Good parts, good price, good service.

The reason I was reluctant to replace the defunct regulator wasn’t because the job was complicated, but because I hate pulling plastic parts off these cars. And the reason I dislike that is because if you don’t know the trick to getting certain parts off you run the risk of breaking a tab or retainer of some kind rendering the part useless. Or at least not as secure as it originally was.

I finally got tired of looking at the new parts cluttering up my workbench, so I girded my loins and committed to changing the window regulator. First thing I did was search the interwebs for information on changing the regulator. I was mainly hoping for some detail on removing the rear door panel without destroying it. I found this video by Z-Speed and it’s pretty helpful and good enough that I decided I didn’t need to do one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UGsU_NYmVk

I did a couple things different than what was described in the video. First, my panel was not so easy to remove so I had to use a trim tool. I also pulled the valence around the door opening handle before removing the panel; he left his on. Do this by first prying up on the forward edge of the valence, then pull forward and lift out. He pulled his door module through the water shield, I disconnected the wiring from the door module, then removed the module completely. There wasn’t a hole big enough in my 2003 to push the module through the water shield. Finally, I didn’t remove any of the black foam blocks in the door like he did. There was enough room to pull the regulator out with those still in place. FYI, my trim tool is similar to this:

https://www.harborfreight.com/panel-cli ... L_EALw_wcB

One thing I didn’t get from the video is where the door panel retainers are located. This would have been helpful because I didn’t know of the two near the top of the panel. There are also the two that he talks about behind the armrest - jiggle the door like he describes to get those to release after you've popped the push-in retainers. For reference, this is the location of the push-in retainers on the back side of the panel:



I’m not sure what the common failure mode for these regulators is, but mine broke at the top where the cable makes a near 180* turn. If GM had put a bearing or a wheel there instead of the cable sliding across that plastic, these would probably never fail. The good regulator is the lower one in the pic. What's provocative about this is that the rear windows are rarely rolled up & down on my car. Certainly not as much as the front ones, yet the rear one broke. Weird.

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Resident Tightwad

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