I had this happen to me last weekend. I was in the parking lot at my school, and my window just about fell into my door. I said oh crap, and eventually with some finesse, propped it back up, and it locked in place closed. I left it like this for a few days, but the sun was starting to make me sweat my ass off in my car even with the passenger side window open and the sunroof.
So on Wednesday, I parked in my driveway and said "the hell with this... if it's going to be fixed, it's going to be fixed now." I pushed the button to roll down the window, and to my surprise... the window went down... straight down with the force of gravity to the bottom of the inside of my door.
After cursing violently for about 2 minutes, i took the doorpanel off, which is a sinch, only broke one plastic clip... You have to pull it away from the door on the bottom, and on the top by the window, you actually have to pull it up, as to move it over your doorlock. Then you disconnect your Mirrors wire, and take a look.
I noticed that the metal tracks that the window connects to the actuator/regulator with, were FILTHY. Years of dirt and grime actually seized a part that needs to slide in a track connected to the window, in order for the window to open properly. So i took off some weatherstripping, and removed the whole glass.
I grabbed a wirebrush, a toothbrush, some Q-Tips, some grease/grime remover, some chassis grease, and a towel and got to work. I cleaned all of these mechanisms, scraping away all of the crust. When i saw the metal again on the tracks, i made sure everything was lubed up good, and i re-assembled it. I greased everything up reallly good so that there was NO friction.
The reason the window fell was because... well on the bottom of the glass, there are two tracks. In each track, goes a slider. The slider needs to move freely through the tracks. Connecting the sliders to the actual Power Window Regulator, is a Ball Joint. When the slider seizes, the ball joint pops out, causing one side of the window to fall. As you can imagine, when one side falls, the other will follow eventually.
Needless to say, when i put it back together, it ended up breaking again. So i took it all apart, sprayed EVERYTHING WITH LITHIUM GREASE, re-assembled, and called it a day. That day has now been a week, and after continuous use, i can proudly say that it works better than it ever has, no clicks/shifts/scrapes...
So don't go replacing things you don't have to...
My fix took two hours (because i didn't apply the lithium grease the first time) and cost nothing because i had all of the supplies. You can scrape the crap off with a screwdriver if you really had to, then get grime remover and use a toothbrush to finish it off. You must use something equivalent to chassis grease for the track, since it seems to have to be thick.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Jeff
