Windows acting up after 12v battery change

Run the owners manual calibration procedure

 

that’s what happened.

 

Maybe it will be fine in a few days, the system needs to adapt. You try to continue to press or lift the button when the glass has reached the end, hold it for a few seconds, and let it go to see if there is any effect.

 

For what I paid for the car, is too much to ask for the owner's manual to come already calibrated?

Seriously, I'm not sure if the procedure is covered in the OM ... I just searched through my 2010, and if it's in there, it's not easy to find. There's a section on "Initialization" ("The following items must be initialized for normal system operation in case such as after the 12 volt battery is reconnected ..."), which is the place it should be, but my 2010 OM only mentions the oil change countdown and the TPMS (neither of which is even affected by disconnecting the battery!).

The other reinitialization steps are definitely covered in the Repair Manual, but how many owners are going to look there? The procedure is "Initialize power window control system."

The power windows definitely need to be reinitialized sometimes. They have a safety auto-reverse function where if something stops them on the way up, they will go "oops, hit something" and back off a little, and stop. To automatically close, they need to know where "all the way up" is, so when they go "oops, hit something" they realize it's ok if what they hit was the top of the frame and they don't have to back off in that case.

I had never looked this closely at the Repair Manual procedure before. It has three flavors: a procedure for if you have replaced the window regulator with a new one, a procedure for if you've removed and reinstalled the same one, and a procedure for if it balks when opening.

Oddly, it doesn't give any procedure for if you have simply interrupted the 12 volt power. In fact, it says "HINT: When the battery is replaced, it is not necessary to initialize the power window regulator motor assembly."

So maybe they designed it in Gen 3 to normally remember where up is across a simple loss of power, and maybe that's why the Gen 3 owner's manual doesn't mention it. But if it did forget the position for some reason, the second procedure (same regulator, but needs to relearn where up is) is probably the right one to use:

• Fully close the power window by fully pulling up the multiplex network master switch assembly or power window regulator switch assembly, and hold the switch for 6 seconds or more after the window is fully closed (if the power window does not move or stops halfway even when the switch is fully pulled, release the switch and fully pull it again).
  
• Fully open the window by pushing down the multiplex network master switch assembly or power window regulator switch assembly, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully opened.
  
• Release the multiplex network master switch assembly or power window regulator switch assembly. Then fully push down and hold the switch for 4 seconds or more.
  
• Fully close the power window by fully pulling up the multiplex network master switch assembly or power window regulator switch assembly, and hold the switch for 1 second or more after the window is fully closed to reset the glass position and complete the initialization.

There's another notice in there that this should be done on the local window switch for whichever window you're initializing.

 

@ChapmanF like you I couldn't find squat in the Owner's Manual. Really though, it SHOULD be in there.

I searched the Repair Manual for the text string you mention, and found the instruction you cut-and-pasted, on pages 5423,5424. Printing those pages to PDF I discovered a previous version I'd saved, nearby page 5407, with similar instruction and mention of 12 volt battery disconnect.

I've attached both excerpts.

Note, if a memory saver device is attached before disconnecting the 12 volt battery, you will dodge any problems. Other issues: all radio presets are lost, plus trip meters, that sort of stuff. Too, for the first few start ups post-disconnect, I've found the engine does an odd rev-up, some sort of calibration procedure?

I've found the windows don't mess up every time I've disconnected though. While I have a memory saver system, I sometimes intentionally don't use it, when doing brake work, when I really want the car to be in comatose mode.

 

If I remember right, there was such a procedure mentioned in the Gen 2 OM (too lazy to download one and look right now). But with this "HINT" now in the Gen 3 Repair Manual ("When the battery is replaced, it is not necessary to initialize the power window regulator motor assembly"), it kind of seems like they decided to make the where-is-up memory nonvolatile for Gen 3, and figured that meant they could de-clutter the owner's manual a bit.

So maybe now it's not really supposed to forget where up is just because power is lost, but there might be certain oddball circumstances where it still does, and now there's nothing in the OM telling you what to do if that happens.

 

Yeah I'm not sure if my windows have ever crapped out. I've got a vague memory of it happening, but it might have been our previous vehicle, lol.

 

No, for your problem, the power windows, start with the master window control in the driver's door, going through the reset process for each window. Then repeat on each individual window controller in the other three doors.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The smaller of the two is maybe an easier read. In a nutshell:

run window down, holding switch all the way. Run it back up again holding switch all the way, AND continue to hold switch, say 5~6 seconds more.

 

Start at the master window controller in the driver's door, repeating the process for all the windows.

Then repeat the steps on the window controller on each of the individual doors (front passenger, rear doors) if necessary.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It lost its calibration memory during the power outage.

 

What made it a little mysterious is that Gen 3 windows are supposed to remember their position information during power outages, which is why the Gen 3 owner's manual doesn't have instructions for making them relearn. Gen 3 only has those instructions in the repair manual, because they're supposed to be needed only when the window regulators are removed/replaced.

Gen 2 windows were not made to hold their memory across power outages, and the Gen 2 owner's manual (I got unlazy and checked it) does contain the relearning instructions.

But for whatever reason, this Gen 3 window did end up forgetting the position info.

 

Do you guys know if disconnecting the 12v battery resets the 5,000 mile service indicator?