Shattered passenger window

Apparently the heat just blew out my passenger window. What a great day!

Anyhow, I found the glass for $130. The local shops want around $350-375 to replace it. Is this something that's not too hard or should I just pay to have it done?

Personally, my passenger window lets wind in when I am travelling faster than 35 mph, and I can hear it the entire time I am on the highway. This is probably due to an alignment issue caused by people opening and closing the door using the glass, and the last time I had my door panel off, I couldn't find an easy way to check out the problem without ripping everything to hell. This was 2 years ago, though, and I can't remember that situation very well.

Point is, the glass is not surrounded by a rubber seal and installing without proper alignment could lead to the problem I continue to have. If you do take it into an expert, I personally would remove the plastic door panel myself before taking the car in to save them labor, and thus save you some money.

Basically the glass is held in place by a couple clamps on a bar (the carrier) that the window lift mechanism moves up adn down.

Zach as for the window alignment, you have top open teh door with window fully up; there is a bolt at teh bottom of the window track on the right (near the back of the door) that you have to loosen and move the bottom of the window lift outward in order to move the top of the glass in so that it presses on the wetherstrip as it shoud. Then retighten the bolt. I just did this 2 weeks ago, I did not move it far enough but I did get rid of the pesky whistle on the highway. I am thinking about opening the door back up to move it a little further.

Albertj

Found a local body shop I trust who is going to do it for $225. They can have it installed Monday so I'm going to shell out the cash.

I should have known to crack my windows. It always takes my breath away to sit in there after it's been sitting. Lesson learned. This is more than I've spent on all repairs combined in the 2 years I've had the car, closing in on 200k.

Excellent info Albert, and manofmany, I'd do the same thing you are. After all, if they break the glass putting it in, it's their loss monetarily, not yours if you were to do it yourself.

ZEP wrote:

Excellent info Albert, and manofmany, I'd do the same thing you are. After all, if they break the glass putting it in, it's their loss monetarily, not yours if you were to do it yourself.

it's not that tough - I would not expect them (or you) to have a problem. The only thing is it's easier to do if you get one of those suction cup handle things from a hardware store (they are $5 to $10 each). Makes it much easier to hold the window.

Albertj

manofmany wrote:

Found a local body shop I trust who is going to do it for $225. They can have it installed Monday so I'm going to shell out the cash.

I should have known to crack my windows. It always takes my breath away to sit in there after it's been sitting. Lesson learned. This is more than I've spent on all repairs combined in the 2 years I've had the car, closing in on 200k.

I would still follow instructions that are posted on here as to how to remove the interior door panel, and do it yourself. Not to save money, but to save the so called experts from breaking the plastic bits inside the panel.
I had my door replaced by what i consider the Best Body Shop in the area, And They Are, unfortunately they must have put a learner on the task of removing the interior door panel and some other seemingly easy parts to remove. Well, he broke several pieces on the door panel and caused ME more aggravation than it was worth.
The door replacement and body Work was perfect. But, I have a door panel that needs work, still.
Do yourself a favor, read up on here as to how to remove the panel correctly, it is not hard, and do it yourself before bringing the car in for any window work.
Then put the panel back on yourself. You will be glad you did.
I even went through the hassle of copying the simple procedure of how to remove the door panel and left it on the seat and told the owner of the shop where and what it was. "Good Idea" he said. Still friggin ignored by the moron that broke my door panel and haven't been able to get a replacement yet.
The body shop says they will pay for it, if I can find another MINT panel.
They are non-existent.
Just my $0.02 and hopefully a heads up that saves you aggravation. you can have the panel off in a few minutes without hurting it.
Good Luck

Excellent advice from Rick. I've yet to see a pro who can take this door panel off without busting a plastic tab or ruining the pull handle.

deekster_caddy wrote:

Excellent advice from Rick. I've yet to see a pro who can take this door panel off without busting a plastic tab or ruining the pull handle.

Yep, the pros break the pull handles off if only because on other GM cars they separate. On this car the pull handle is intended to act as a handle for the door trim panel and is not intended to separate from the door.

The pros also tend to break the plastic hooks on the back of the door panel.

Albertj

In my case the doobie tried to pry up the panel that has all the door switches in it as well.
That is plastic welded to the rest of the panel, guess how that came out.

Rick makes an excellent point - leave as little for the "pros" to do as possible - e.g. I've been removing my center caps and locking lug nuts before going to the tire shop for four cars now...

Great advice Rick. Even if you don't want to do the work yourself, take the door panel off and leave it at home. The dealer ruined my pull handle, and now it is permanently seperated. I used some really tough epoxy that my dads factory utilizes and plastic welded to sheets of metal to the door panel with holes drilled through it so the bolts for the handle can thread into actual door, that was ten years ago, its held up really well but if I give it to a shop to remove that would be it.