99 Forester, 172K miles

 

My driver's side front window is binding a bit as I raise and lower it. I haven't opened things up yet but am wondering how these mechanisms tend to fail. Might it be the motor gear or do I just need to lube up the tracks. I'm wondering what others have experienced before I open things up.

 

From diagrams that I've seen, the regulator on this car is a lever and meshed gear type, unlike the cheap cable and plastic pulley systems that repeatedly fail on my other two vehicles.

IMHO I would spray some white lithium spray grease in the tracks and see what happens. Subaru makes a pretty stout electric window. I've seen legacys with 300k with original electric windows they were slow but they still worked

There are 2 or 3 bolts that attach the window frame to the regulator.

 

Sometimes one of these begins to back out and causes similar symptoms. You have to pull the door panel to check.

 

They are either 10/12mm bolts.

 

You can lower or raise the window until the bolt appears in an opening.

 

In one case the bolt hole wasn't directly in an opening, so I drilled a 1" hole though the sheet metal so I could reattach.

 

O.

Thanks for the advice. I'll check it out after the weather warms up and report back.