Rear Window Failure 99 (Pics)

[ticaz]

Hello T4R!

Had quite the experience the first night I brought my 99 4runner home. When I purchased it, I realized the back window didn't roll down, and my key remote was dead, so I couldn't test it that way. My rear wiper and washer worked fine, so I ran out and picked up a battery for the remote, and guess what... it worked!! I figured I just had to reset the rear window (read about it on T4R.org) Yahoo...ooops. You can't bring it back up with the remote, and my switch in the cab still doesn't work. Boo.

Figured I would pull apart the dash and check the switch connection, and I was surprised to see it had "Become Unplugged". So, plugged it back in and it worked!!! The window started rolling up, then BANG!!!! The window fell back down. :wtf:

Guess I know why it was unplugged now. :bash:

Figured it fell off the track or something, so I started pulling the back hatch apart to see what was up. (Calling for rain all night of course). Anyhow, I had quite the surprise waiting for me. Turns out everything was rotten/rusty inside. I managed to take everything apart and slide the whole window assembly out.

Here is what things looked like outside of the truck. You can see the tracks are all rusted out.





Upon further investigation, my main issue were all the bolts holding the tracks to the window sheared/rotted right off as well as this little plastic ring failed and let the window drop out. See pic above.

Anyhow, thank goodness for my Mechanic Brother in Law who came to my rescue. We managed to find some flat bolts at the store to replace the rotten ones. I got the tracks cleaned up... they weren't as bad as I thought.

Here is a pic of the new bolts going in. We had to trim the bolts flush with the nuts to prevent them from catching on anything. You can see that plastic ring that failed again too.



Once we got the tracks bolted back on the window, we mounted the whole assembly back in the hatch an bolted everything back up.







Sorry for the poor pics... was getting late and just wanted to get the window up.

Anyhow, after doing this we were able to get the window up under it's own power. It's actually almost back to working order... except for the little plastic piece that hold the window in the track.



I have an idea to possible fix it if I can't find the parts. I will keep you guys posted. Surprisingly, the door/hatch is still pretty decent, and all the hardware is still good.

Anyhow... gonna try and find parts to rebuild the window mechanism... maybe even try and track down a whole new hatch.

Anybody else ever have this issue? I really wan't to get this thing working haha... it's one of the reasons I bought this vehicle.

Sorry I don't know the proper names for all the parts. I am no mechanic.

Cheers.

 

[JWaldz]

Looks to me like te previous owner had some problems with it falling off the track and most likely woke up a couple times to it raining and the window down. Could be why all the rust is in there. I would check the whole back area and under the carpet for rust as well. Glad you caught it though, good luck with the fix! Pretty crappy the previous owner said nothing, hate that for ya.

 

[ticaz]

Looks to me like te previous owner had some problems with it falling off the track and most likely woke up a couple times to it raining and the window down. Could be why all the rust in there. I would check the whole back area and under the carpet for rust as well. Glad you caught it though, good luck with the fix! Pretty crappy the previous owner said nothing, hate that it ya.

Checked the floor when I bought it... seems really solid. Was undercoated often. Yah, kinda sucks indeed about not knowing. Makes me nervous to find out what else he may not have told me.

Oh well, still happy with it. I expected small issues for the price I payed.

 

[Nashvegas34]

You can't bring it back up with the remote, and my switch in the cab still doesn't work. Boo.

Yuck, that looks nasty. Good job going after the hassle of fixing it yourself.

Kind of a tangent, but since you mentioned above that you can't raise the window with the remote, remember that you should be able to raise and lower the rear window using your actual key in the hatch keyhole (assuming the window is working normally). Just turn the key and hold it, left for down, right for up.

What is all the red in your pics? Looks like someone sliced themselves open and bled all over it.

 

[Ghostrider]

Well from this item and others about differentials rusting thru and Toyota's problems with the pickup truck - I am wondering if they had anyone even try to prevent rust on the 4Runner. There are a lot of threads dealing with various parts rusting after about 10 years.

 

[JWaldz]

What is all the red in your pics? Looks like someone sliced themselves open and bled all over it.

Might be some kind of grease for the mechanical parts in the hatch, mixed with moisture and rust?

 

[ticaz]

Kind of a tangent, but since you mentioned above that you can't raise the window with the remote, remember that you should be able to raise and lower the rear window using your actual key in the hatch keyhole (assuming the window is working normally). Just turn the key and hold it, left for down, right for up.

What is all the red in your pics? Looks like someone sliced themselves open and bled all over it.

I read about that in the manual, but completely forgot. Thanks for reminding me!!! No matter which way I put it up, going up was what caused the whole issue to begin with.

To answer your question about the red inside... it's a rustproofing thats offered here in Ontario (http://www.krown.com/process.php). They drill a bunch of little holes in your vehicle then spray rustproofing material inside (the red stuff). They then plug the holes with plastic caps. I am assuming all the red stuff is the rustproofing material they use, though I have never actually seen it in person. My 4runner has all the holes and caps, so I am assuming thats what it is. Works good, but didn't help protect the actual window mechanism.

 

[Maritimer]

There has to be a faulty seal somewhere. That looks abnormal.

 

[4R99JB]

Thanks for sharing the experience. It will help if I ever experience any of these failure modes in the future. Good luck with the fix.

 

[ticaz]

There has to be a faulty seal somewhere. That looks abnormal.

Well... I have two small holes in the 4runner. One is in the rocker panel, and one is right where the rear wiper arm connects to the tail gait. It's small, but allows moisture and rain water in the hatch. I think that's what may have led to this... so yes I believe you are right.

 

[fightman80]

Glad you got it figured out man! I hope you can get a good deal on a new / used hatch!