John said:
Looking for advice on fixing my driver's side door power window. I have the
factory manual but a few things aren't clear.
Q1) Pg 23-44 "Front Door Trim Panel" tells me to remove the speaker flag.
What's a "flag"?
The "flag" is the little pointed bat ear looking thing at the front of
the door at the lower corner of the window opening (just above where the
panel ends). Depending on which audio system is in your Concorde, that
flag could be empty, or it could have a very small speaker in it, but in
either case it does have to be removed to get the panel off.
Q2) Same section, item 9, refers to a "trim tool". Where can I find a
picture and can it be rented? (I assume this is a flat metal strip like a
"slim jim" for opening car doors. but I'm not sure.
Besides a bunch of screws, there are two plastic (round serrated)
retainer clips holding the panel to the door. The trim tool is to pop
those loose. Ideally you would use that, but it's totally
unneccessary. With the little bit of pull force it takes to pull those
clips from the door, no damage will be done by just pulling on the
panel. (If you find that they don't come out with light to moderate
force, then STOP - you probably haven't removed all of the screws.)
Those clips are re-usable a certain number of times, but you might want
to drop by the dealer and ask for what they call the "white" clips - two
per door - they'll probably charge for them. Do not get the generic
ones from the "Help" aisle of the auto parts store - they are far
inferior (materials) to factory clips and may or may not be sized right.
Also, you may find that the 3 screw holes in the panel along the bottom
edge are cracked and broken out - if not already, chances are about 95%
that they will be eventually. Chrysler sells some clips (kind of
special purpose rectangular fender washers, factory-painted to match
your interior) to cover the cracks and hold the panel in place. If you
need part numbers, let me know - we've found on the forums that the
Chrysler dealer parts people don't know about these clips or pretend not
to be able to find the part numbers to order them even though all the
info. is in a Chrysler TSB. Even if your panels (drivers and passenger)
aren't cracked yet, I highly advise that you put these clips on as a
preventative (i.e., once they crack, if left for a long time, they get
so broken out that the clips might not even work - the clips would
prevent the cracking in the first place).
I'm mechanically inclined, read manuals thoroughly before I start such
projects, but have never removed a door panel. I'm not positive my problem
is the motor but I have a hunch it is. When the panel is off, I should know
pretty quickly by hooking up a spare battery to the window motor.
I happen to have a spare motor/regulator on my shelf - from a salvage
door when I had to replace my Concorde's driver's door due to an
accident. I tested the motor and it is good. Let me know if
interested.
Any advice from the experts would be appreciated. It there's a Chrysler
mechanic out there who's had significant experience with these doors, what's
the probability the problem is a motor as opposed to a switch? In other
words, which has the high failure rate?
Judging from the 300M ezBoard and
www.dodgeintrepid.net forums, both can
be problematic, but the motor is far more likely. They have replaced a
lot of them under warranty - is that a possibility for you? BTW - I
also have the 5-switch panel from the salvage door too, but you might
prefer to get that from the dealer - they aren't that expensive.
BTW - come on over to the 300M and/or dodgeintrepid.net forums. There
are no good Concorde-only forums that I have been able to find, but
those two groups welcome us - same cars mechanically and electrically,
so the advice is transferrable.
Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")
