tvr s2 intermittent electric windows.

[drak ula]

sometime my windows will go down, sometimes they won't, sometimes they will come back up again, sometimes they won't. have searched the wiring diagrams and fuse diagrams in steve heaths book but seems there is no mention i can find of electric windows in the wiring diagrams or the fuses, i would have imagined they were fused and probably have a relay too, but seems to be no mention of either, was hoping to find fuse and or relay and maybe bad connections, corrosion etc on terminals or a dodgy loose wire somewhere, but can it be right they are not powered through the fuse box or a relay? if so i guess it means either dodgy or dirty switches in the dash or dodgy wires or terminals between switches and window motors. oh well more work for another dry day out in the street :-(

[Barry S1]

My near side does that, try taking the switch out,
mine has a bad condition,move the wires about and
it's fine

[glenrobbo]

First try a PTFE spray on the runners. If this fails, have a good look at the felt channels that the glass slides up & down in. The felt can wear away leaving just the rubber backing, which resists movement.

Replacement felt window channel profile is available from various trim suppliers such as Woolies.

[drak ula]

glenrobbo, that's a great tip, will try that today, have some gt85 which has ptfe in it, will try that and check the felt (see if it still exists) and when you said 'woolies' is that some specialist trim supplier or did you mean woolies as in woolworths which as far as i know sadly doesn't exist anymore? cheers
barry s1, yes will check switches and connections today too.
thanks guys, still surpised the circuit is not fused!

[steve j]

I would start at the switch, it`s a common fault, my S2 had the same fault, it turned out to be the switch.

[Top Gear TVR]

I've known trouble at the 'cable through the A piller to door points on speaker cables.....i'm not sure windows are immune to this

[glenrobbo]

drak ula said:

glenrobbo, when you said 'woolies' is that some specialist trim supplier or did you mean woolies as in woolworths which as far as i know sadly doesn't exist anymore? cheers

www.woolies-trim.co.uk

Edited by glenrobbo on Friday 15th January 12:17

[drak ula]

ahhh that's brilliant guys, yes i've checked the runners now and there is no felt to be seen, just rubber, and also the wires from the motors are cut and joined in several places with crappy block domestic screw block connectors so i can expect corrosion in them, i will replace the wires by using butt connectors with heatshrink and try and sort out the runners, will check the switches too, all very helpful, cheers.

[Oldred_V8S]

If it is intermittant then check the switch as Steve J said.

I would also suggest checking the wiring to the motor.

A) Test the system voltage with a meter and record this reading. Place the meter probes on the battery post, not the connections.

B) Undertake a voltage drop on the wiring to the motor whilst raising the window. Plug your meter leads in the back of the motor plug and operate the motor to raise the window. If you don't see +12v then swap the meter leads over. Test again and if the voltage reading is less than the system voltage (A) move the black meter lead to a good earth and test again. If still not seeing 12v you have resistence in the wire/switch of the lead you are testing. If now OK, you have resistence in the earth side.

I have changed the runner felts on my car and it is much better. I have also fitted a relay modification to enable a better supply to the motor.

[drak ula]

Right, update, i spent all afternoon today investigating and partly sorting the problem.
turns out the 'intermittentness' of the windows working sometimes and not working at all sometimes, plus when they do work, work very very slowly, turned out to be down to a bit of just about everything.
after wiggling everything about cluelessly until they worked, then went through every fuse one by one pulling them out and testing the windows until i found one that fused the windows, even though the fuse diagram online from the s club website and in the steve heath book, both show diagrams for the s2 windows not listed on any of the fuses in the main block and meticulously searching through the diagrams did not reveal any fuse hidden elsewhere, but i just couldn't believe there was no fuse, eventually i found there is a fuse!!! but it is not in the main block (or diagrams) and is dangling loosely beside the main block with a brown wire with blue stripe, and two blue wires with red stripes. pulling that fuse stopped the windows, replacing it started them again. i cleaned the terminals and the fuse and it is less intermittent now, but still very slow, turns out as suggested that the felt is completely absent from the runners and the glasses drag up and down in grippy rubber, so for now i have use ptfe (gt85) spray in the runners until i can get some nice new felt runners from woolies. i also pulled the motors out of the doors and replaces the really nasty old and chopped and repaired wires from the motors all the way up to the footwells where the wires were in decent condition.

[Barry S1]

I found mine at the weekend too it's
the one at the bottom all by itself
30 amp, seems very big

[phillpot]

Barry S1 said:

30 amp, seems very big

Them's powerful motors ...

[drak ula]

30 amp seems almost not a fuse! mine has a 15 in and even with the motors straining away trying to push the glass up against dragging grippy rubber and me holding the button down hard, it's never blown a fuse in 6 years (or i'd have found it before now). wierd how it isn't on any diagram though.

[drak ula]

and i think my whole fuse block in general is well past it's useful life. i might get a couple of 10 way bus type fuse boxes with the led warning lights on each fuse, one big positive bus in and all the circuits just have one terminal per fuse then, and i could run one for permanent live and one for live through ignition. and it would leave me a couple of spares on each in case i ever wanted to wire in anything extra like usb or lighter socket for charging sat nav, phone etc.