Window switch preventative maintenance

Do you like your 'Express window down' feature? well for me it is a nothing more than an eventual failure at some point.
The small white plastic 'catch' tab that holds the switch in the down position,.holds onto the switch causing extra force to be applied to 'pop' it off,. which stresses the plastic and then the rocker breaks off.
This happens when you stop the window from completing its travel all the way to the bottom,.usually happens when its raining and you just want the window down a little so you manually pop the switch back to the neutral position,.the white tab is lodged under the chrome actuator, and it breaks,. leaving you with a window down and no way back up,.unless you take a pen or something and poke the tiny little button,.
I usually remove the white catch for the ewd, but i didn't get around to it on the black wagon and it crapped out today,.i,ve replaced 3 of these switches,.
To remove the white catch just grab it with pliers and it pops right out making your drivers window fully manual,.so when you go thru the drive thru for coffee and its raining,. you don't get so wet,.

Nick
now if any one has an old switch that's electrically nfg,. and would like to pop off the drivers window actuator and mail it to me?

Good tip Nick, that is one of the most annoying "features" on that switch design.
And for those who do break the lever, here is a simple fix I came up with without replacing the lever. I took a piece of scrap aluminum and bent it on a 90 degree angle, ground it down to fit in the cavity of the lever and then cut it to the same length as the other switch. I then epoxied it in place and reinstalled. Worked perfectly and defeated the express down feature.

Yeah, I always removed that tab too, after I lost my switch/rocker on my first two B's.

Good tip, Nick.

ya, it just feels like it wants to break everytime I stop it!

This is a great mod Nick and makes complete sense.Wanted to do my new Dorman switch but
unfortunately this mod only works on the factory switch.My dorman is nothing like the original.
Jim

.

like the aluminum idea, i,ll need to scour around and find something,.

Nick

I just ripped mine out! Thanks!

Glad this was updated on the 94-96 cars. No "catch" on the newer switches and the express down only engages if you hold the switch an extra second.

That '99 Caddy Catera I owned had express down and express up on all four windows. That was kind of neat...and all the switches were on the center console. You could jump in the car on a hot day and push all four switches once to drop the windows together. Was also nice when pulling away from a drive-thru and you wanted to put your window up while the family is screaming for Mcnuggets and you're trying to hand out bags and steer.

One other thing I miss on that Caddy was the rear door glass that went all the way down...like in my Suburban as well. I guess I should not complain, since the rear door glass on the old G-body wagons didn't go down at all....I should consider myself lucky that the wagon has moving glass in those doors at all. Ha!

-Mike

81X11 wrote:

Glad this was updated on the 94-96 cars. No "catch" on the newer switches and the express down only engages if you hold the switch an extra second

-Mike

you better check your info,.

91-96 windows switches all the same including the dorman stuff,.check ebay for pics,.
i,ve had a quite a few 94-96 cars (91-93 don't interest me)

phantom 309 wrote:

81X11 wrote:

Glad this was updated on the 94-96 cars. No "catch" on the newer switches and the express down only engages if you hold the switch an extra second

-Mike

you better check your info,.

91-96 windows switches all the same including the dorman stuff,.check ebay for pics,.
i,ve had a quite a few 94-96 cars (91-93 don't interest me)

Hmm.. Mine doesn't "click" like on my friend's Impala....and I don't remember that white plastic "arm" sticking up...but the express down feature works fine.

The Roady after 94 uses shorter chrome buttons...different from the ones in your pics above and the all the Caprice ones, but the switch itself could be the same. When I got my car you had to press REALLY HARD to get the right rear window to go down using the 4-button switch, and I ended up pulling a switch out of a 96 FWD Park Avenue...it was the same setup and plugged right in.

This is what mine looks like:

Mike,your switch in the pics looks exactly like my dorman switch thats sitting right in front of me.
Nicks right about the switches but I think dorman changed their design to cover a wider range
of GM products!
Jim