2008 Escape drivers window fell down. Window motor is working. Removed door panel, and there are plastic bits in bottom of door shell. Any idea what broke, and what's next???

ty

 

Look up a window regulator for your Escape on an autoparts website of your choice to get an idea of what they look like.

In general, a cable-driven regulator has the electric motor winding/unwinding a cable on an enclosed spool. From the motor spool, the cable goes off in two directions through a cable sheath to one or two vertical tracks that are attached to the door structure. On each track, the cable is bare and goes through/over nylon guides and goes to a trolley bracket. The trolley bracket(s) go up and down the track like an elevator as the motor winds/unwinds the cable.

The bottom of the window glass bolts or is riveted to the trolley bracket(s).

With a picture of the regulator assembly, and with this info, you should be able to figure out what happened.

A clarification - The motor spool of a cable-type regulator winds cable onto the spool on one end, while it unwinds it off of the other end. Reversing the motor swaps which end of the spool winds/unwinds.

Additional info - For many cable regulators, you can buy a regulator assembly complete with a new motor, or just buy a motor alone. I have learned my lesson. Whenever I need a new window motor in a cable-type regulator, I am buying the whole regulator assembly with motor. I will not try to mess with pulling the spool out and winding the cable just right, and trying to get it back in without it slipping or kinking up. I succeeded in doing that once, after great aggravation, then carefully adjusted the fine-tuning sheath adjustments, and ran the window up and down a few times before I put the door all back together. And on the last time, it hung up and kinked. Because way up in the door structure, a nylon guide at the top of the track had worn through. I only found it looking up with an inspection mirror while hanging upside down. So I got a whole regulator assembly, which went in easier than I thought. On that car, the glass was "bolted" to the trolley via some white nylon threaded disks reached through the top edge of the door. Not much working room, but do-able. Luckily, the shop manual mentioned that the threads on those disks were left-handed!

Yeah, that's more than you wanted to know, but a good look and think-through of it makes sense as to how it works. Of course, disconnect negative battery cable when hands are inside the door, and reconnect only to test.

 

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put in your Escape info and it will show you a view of all the parts in the window assembly