Am I the only one with this issue? Or is anyone else noticing this too? I've replaced both the driver side and passenger side window regulators at least 3 times now on my 01 SS. They never seem to last more than a year or two. I don't even roll the windows up and down that much. Fortunately thanks to AutoZone lifetime warranty, I only had to actually pay for a new regulator once on each side. Every time it failed after that I just swap it out for free under warranty. But it really is annoying having to remove the door panel and replace them, both my door panels are starting to get beat up from removing them a bunch of times. Maybe it's just the Dorman ones that suck? Has anyone else experienced this, if so what have you done to prevent it? Should I buy a different brand of regulator? They all seem to be constructed the same and they always fail in the same exact spot. Right at the plastic retainer where the cable is fixed to, the retainer always snaps.

 

Could there be an electrical issues that frying them out? They shouldn't be going bad as frequently as they are...

 

No, not to my knowledge, as it is not the motor which is failing. The motor always still works fine. It's the mechanical linkage that fails, in the same spot every time. And it happens on both left and right doors. I'll get a picture of the failure once I swap out the driver side regulator again this week.

 

This latest time it happened with no electricity in the vehicle whatsoever. It's been parked with the battery disconnected and I walked by it one day to see the window hanging half way down, so it's definitely not the case where the button is stuck or anything like that. It's just crappy plastic materials used to retain the cables IMO.

 

Wow. I never had regulator problems with any 2 door car, always with 4 doors. I found with the Grand Prix that the 2 door regulators were metal, while the 4s were plastic, and assumed that was it. I guess the 3rd party manufacturers went cheap with time?

 

Ours are metal too, but they have plastic retainers clipped onto them. I'll get a pic hopefully tomorrow.

 

That is interesting. If the plastic breaking apart or if the cable linkage shredding?? Dorman is *usually* good for most those types of weird pieces, but sometimes, they fail and you need genuine OEM or a different brand (if available). You may also want to contact Dorman and explain the problem, perhaps they have a known issue they can assist with.

 

 

The 2nd and 3rd pics show a close up of the plastic cable retainers from the first pic. In the 3rd pic you can see the plastic has snapped and only 1 of the 2 cables are still attached.

 

Sadly, I am not seeing anything I can explain

If you look at the rest of the assembly, does the cable seem to be under any unusual stress?