My rear window decided to roll down by itself the other day. I can't close it other than manually (just pulled it up), but it keeps going down over bumps. What am I looking at when taking out the door panel, the motor mechanism itself, or are there some kind of "arms" holding the window in place when closed that maybe went bad?

 

regulator.......

 

the regulator inside the door has braided steel wire that pulls the window up inside the door. often times, the connection to the motor/regulator will stress and break after years of use. you can find a new regulator on ebay for a good price usually, and it should only take an hour or so to replace.

 

that's a regulator gone bad
CraigB has a write up on his site with directions on how to do the front one, basically the same process in back. I had to do both rears shortly after I got my car. It took me a couple days, but that was because I was doing it at work between phone calls. It should take you less than an hour per side, the hardest part was getting the regulator of the motor. those screws were tight, I ended up using a hammer while turning to break them free.

I sell the regulators

 

Thanks guys. I didn't know a bad regulator would not allow the window to stay up. I have a few extra regulators but I'm afraid they're for the front. None of the regulators are interchangable right?

 

Not a one, each door is different

 

Usually, if you pop off the door panel you can see right away that something is wrong. On both of mine that broke, a pulley was broken and the wire wasn't set right.

On my rear one, it just woudn't move. I had the windows cracked to let hot air out and when I went to roll it up, nothing. I pushed it up by hand and then fixed it later.

My front one the window just dropped. I am a little surprised it didn't just break the glass