97 Expedition XLT 4x4

Okay, the other night I'm driving and out of the blue the driver's windows goes down all the way. It's not off the track or anything like that, it was just like I hit the switch and it auto-downed the whole way. I pushed the switch and put the window back up without any problem.

The next day it went down a few more times on it's own. The next day the window wouldn't work at all. The next day it worked perfectly. Now today it's not working again. All of the other windows work perfectly.

My thought is a problem with the auto-down module. This would at least explain the random going down of the window, but I'm not sure if a bad module would keep the window from working at all. Considering I could put it back up right away, I'm leaning towards ruling out the switch and the motor.

So any thoughts on this, and where is the auto-down module located? Hopefully it's not built into the GEM.

 

check your email

 

Hmm, been pawing over the window circuit and it looks like most of the controls are built into the GEM. On a positive note, I see that if the one-touch down relay isn't making contact on the Normally Closed side then the window will not go down. Maybe I just have a bad relay! A broken return spring will prevent the common from making contact with the N.C. side of the relay, while at the same time if the common is swinging in the breeze, it could occasionally bang up to the N.O. contact and make the window go all the way down just as though I pressed the down switch all the way. It's dark out now, so I'll have to check out that relay tomorrow.

 

Thank you for your effort!

I'll feel real bad if you typed all of that into the email. cause I do have the factory manuals and it looks like that's where all of that information came from.

 

I like you, but not that much! cut and paste. Sorry it wasnt much help to you

 

I did some work on it yesterday and confirmed the switch is good, the motor is good, and the one-touch down relay is good. I did find that up works no problem. The issue seems to surround making the window go down.

One weird thing I did find is the one-touch down wire coming off the switch had +12v on it. Applying +12v to this wire is supposed to active the one-touch down relay. If I instead ground that wire, then remove the ground, the relay kicks in and the window goes all the way down. I can then put the window up with the switch. Also, if I maintain the ground on that wire, then the switch will make the window go up or down just like it should.

Why do I always get stuck with strange problems that no one else ever has??