Azuki Panda

This past Thursday I was greeted to a sight no car owner wants to see upon getting home - a broken window. I have had a GPS unit and kept the window mount on the window and the GPS unit in the glovebox. The thiefs most likely saw the mount and smashed the window to steal the GPS. They also rummaged through the compartment between the front seats and took out my sunglasses but left it on the passenger seat probably since it was cheap and had prescription lenses.

First off, the Cleveland Police Department sucks. I tried to call in to report the crime but was told that it would take a few hours to send someone out. They actually told me to drive over at first but I said that I would rather someone come out to take a look before I move the car or change anything with the crime scene. My initial call to the police was at around 7:30 PM and at 1:00 AM I got a call from the police dispatch saying that they had been busy but would be sending someone over soon. This never happened and I had to call again in the morning. This time, I was told that they could actually do it over the phone and that police don’t actually go to the scene for incidents like this unless the car was actually stolen or if it was involved in a kidnapping. I wish they could have told me this the previous day….

Cleaning up the mess was a pain because of how many shards of glass there were. It’s a good thing it was tempered glass or else I probably would have cut myself. Even so, I got a small scrape from the glass. There was a lot of glass that fell into the door and I would need to take the entire door off and flip it over to get it out so for the time being it’s staying in there. When I got all the pieces in a cardboard box it was actually a surprisingly small amount in my opinion but that’s most likely because the glass is not that thick and when it’s in 1 cm x 1 cm pieces it’s very compact.

My next task was to replace the broken window. I called up a few places and got quotes for around $300 to fix the window. This was the cost if it was just the window that needed to be replaced and would be higher if anything else such as motors were damaged during the incident. I figured that this would be something that I could handle fixing on my own so I proceeded to call a few junk/salvage yards to see if I could find a passenger side window to replace mine. The ones in Cleveland mostly don’t sell parts and the one that did actually sell parts didn’t have the window. I was finally able to locate one at a salvage yard on Pearl Road, which is about 20 minutes away. They said that the window would be just under $50 which would include the cost of them separating it from the door.

I was tired and didn’t feel like getting the window right away and decided to get it on Saturday which in hindsight was a bad choice for two reasons. The first reason is that it rained Saturday morning and the second is that there was no one there to dismantle parts on Saturday. The first problem was solved by using a trash bag which made my car look really ghetto. The second problem was harder and involved me having to dismantle it myself. I got some practice by taking the trim off my own passenger side door. I was also able to check that nothing else was bent or broken.

I spent a lot more time than I should have taking out the window mostly because I didn’t have all the right tools. I have a socket wrench set from replacing my knock sensor but again, there was not really enough room. This time there wasn’t even room to wedge the wrench in. If I had an actual wrench and not a socket one it probably would have worked a lot better.

I ended up getting the window for $20 and replacing it was fairly easy. I have outlined how I went about the repair below:

 

 

Replacing a Nissan Altima Power Window (Passenger Side)

Note: If working with the driver side, reverse everything.

1. Remove the covering for the door handle by using a screwdriver and a cloth (to prevent damage) to push in on the 4 tabs, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. You will need to wedge the screwdriver in and slide around a bit to find it, but they are about 1/2″ in from the edges.
2. Unscrew the panel on the armrest. It is located in the rectangular cup area under a plastic piece which can be removed using a flat head screwdriver.
3. Undo the tab holding the armrest panel to the window control.
4. The inside of the door can be removed using a flat head screwdriver and a cloth to wedge in between the plastic and the metal of the door. There are 5 plastic tabs that need to be popped out. I started from the area just under the lock on the right side of the door and worked my way around to the left. After all the plastic tabs have been lifted the entire door piece can be lifted straight up to be removed.
5. The rubber trim on the top of the door can be pulled down. Unscrew the plastic bar that goes across the top. There is one screw on the inside of the door at the top right corner which needs to be removed with a 8mm wrench.
6. Remove the old mounting tabs using a 10mm wrench. It is easiest if the power is on so you can access them through strategically placed holes on the door. You will need to shift the window to two different heights to access them - one is with the window about halfway down and the other is with the window almost at the bottom.
7. Insert the new window and screw the mounting tabs in.
8. Do steps 1-5 in reverse order to put everything back together.

And here is my car all fixed up (yes that’s me in the reflection):