After replacing my drivers side window regulator twice I decided to see if it was possible to rebuild it myself, or at least with help from my brother. Let me get some things straight from the beginning, I am not a mechanic or try to be one, I just take the attitude "the worst thing that can happen is that I pay someone to fix my mistake."

Symptoms of a window problem that will benefit from this fix: a window that goes down but not up, or one that is not working at all.

Tools that will be needed:

• 10mm socket wrench
• 10mm open end wrench
• Screw driver (phillips)
• Spray adhesive (glue carpet back on & prop)
• Flash light or shop light
• 1 helper
  

Parts from Lotus that you might need:
(If the window has not fallen down into the door frame you might not need these, but I would guess that you will need them sooner or later.)

• Clamp & Clip (looks like a stingray or butterfly), #A100B6271S, $9
• Plastic Channel Slider (this holds the window to the window lift channel.)
     U.S. Driver's side, #A100B6211S/H, $7.
     U.S. Passenger's side, #A100B6210S, $7.
• Orange Plastic Door Lock thing, $3.

The Fix:
The first thing you will need to do is remove the inner door panel. I am going to take the easy way out on this and say see Charlie's excellent write-up on this! The hardest part here is removing the orange plastic piece. You may want to purchase a few of these from Lotus as well. I have removed mine without breaking it though. The only way I have been able to do this is by using 2 jeweler-blade screw drivers. Use one to start prying at the side of the orange piece and the other to pry from the top once you can get the driver in place. If you only pry from the side it will break. It can be super-glued back together. Now take out the speaker and take off the two access panels.

See the attached picture in ".pdf" format. Now that everything is off you will see 4 10mm nuts on the door panel--3 in the middle and 1 at top. The 3 are holding the motor in place and the other one is the top of the window track. These all need to be removed. Now you will need to roll the window down about half way and remove the clip from the window. There is a little plastic nub that goes through a hole in the glass and a little C type clip on the other side (part A100B6271S)--remove the clip and push the glass out. This is where you need a helper.

Once the glass is loose, prop the window up--I use the glue can in the speaker hole to do this. Now reach in the center access hole and find the power going to the motor and unplug it. There is one more nut that needs to be removed, it is at the bottom of the window lift channel inside the middle access hole, you will need to use the open-ended 10mm wrench for this one. Now that all of the nuts have been removed, push the bolts back into the door. The bottom of the unit must go towards the back of the car and the top towards the speaker hole. Getting the top to drop is the hardest part of the job; you will notice that there is a little grove in the door molding for movement. While you are doing this your helper should be holding the glass up as high as they can. (Most of your cussing will take place here.)

Now that you have it out you will notice that on the motor there is a screw holding on a little faceplate. Take it out and remove the plate. You should be able to see the spindle now. Under the spindle is where your problem is!! There is a little rubber piece that acts like a gear set. Most likely this rubber piece has broken. Take it out. I placed 3 nuts about the same thickness of the rubber in its place. Put the spindle back in place, lube it up, and put the faceplate back on.

Now test it to see if it works before putting it back in the door. Simply pull the power cord out the center access hole and plug it in and run the window up and down. If it all works, put it all back together now.

This job will take a couple of hours. Once again the hardest part is getting the regulator out and you would have to do that anyway.

— Write-up by Jade