Did a search on the issue and came up blank with one post saying the window regulators are not known to fail on the Prius. My new-to-me ‘04 Prius with 160K miles has trouble with the driver’s window going back up. I noticed the window was crooked when going up and the regulator sounded like it was working hard. Without help physically pulling the glass back and up it would sometime go into safety mode and roll the window back down. I’ve taken the door panels off and searched for loose or missing screws on the regulator. Verified all the screws are in place (looking at the door, two screws on the horizontal bar to the LH, four screws holding the regulator to the RH), the two mounting screws for the glass onto the regulator are also there and tight. However, the glass has the ability to rock quite a bit within the track and I’m wondering if the window regulator is physically worn out before the motor gave up the ghost ( which would be surprising) or if the tracks can be adjusted tighter (doesn’t seem likely) or if there’s something I’m missing altogether. Any help would be much appreciated. I’d rather not blindly throwing parts at this problem to save time and money.
Depending on parts and difficulty, it could be easier/cheaper to replace the entire door. Doors in my area are available from people on craigslist for about 50-75 bucks (parting out wrecks).
I appreciate the suggestions so far. Have been looking into proper lubrication. Aside from paint match issues, swapping doors is neither necessary nor a feasible option for many, many reasons. That would be like opening a whole can of worms to deal with what is currently a nuisance.
If your door panel is already off I would remove the bolts that connect the regulator to the window. Manually raise the window all the way up and tape it in the up position. Connect the switch back up to the window and see if if the regulator operates like it is suppose to. This isolates the regulator from the window and then you will know if it is the regulator or the window binding in the track. This will give you direction on which way to go.
After reading some of the suggestions and wondering if lubrication would do the trick, I checked the passenger side window and noticed it has a fair amount of wobble as well. So maybe there’s nothing inherently wrong with the tracks or regulator. I took the panel off the driver side door again and greased up the scissor-pivot and the two rollers inside the track where the glass mounts to the regulator. The roller in that track which is toward the front of the door is difficult to reach and I noticed it doesn’t move very much compared to the other roller. I suspect he entire design puts a lot of weight on the front roller and so the window tilts to the front when rolling up? At any case, the window is indeed rolling up better now although I still have to help it a little by pulling the glass backward to keep it in the track. It isn’t a complete fix but gained some headway today.
Thank you for the link, Mendel Leisk! Damn... I noticed that I missed lubricating the roller in the “upper track” of the regulator that attaches with the two bolts.
Follow-up... Greasing those points for the window regulator made it run smoother but didn’t resolve the forward tilt of the glass as it slid up and against the front track to go up poorly. I went to a junk yard and looked at some other window regulators they had to see if I noticed a difference with the one I had in the door. The awareness of my problem was immediate. Over time the window regulator may start wearing at the center of the “X” where the two moving bars “scissor” together. That center point (with the arrow in the illustration) will exhibit some play if you wobble the glass. A new part will have zero play. I purchased the recycled regulator and will install it in the coming days. I fully expect that to resolve my window-up issue.
Final post: The new part is in the car and the new regulator pushes up the window smoothly and at a nice, flat angle. If anyone has problems similar to this in the future, note first whether the glass is dramatically tilted forward when going up. Take the door panel off and grab the glass and manually move it back and forth to see if there is obvious play in the center part of the regulator where it “scissors” together as I described in the above post. If so, that is your problem and the regulator simply needs to be replaced.
