How-To: Repair / Replace a Window Regulator or Window Motor on a 2000 Land Rover Range Rover P38

I had to replace the window regulator on my 2000 Land Rover Range Rover P38.  Here I show you how to do it too, with lots of pictures.  The window would go up, the motor was working, but as it reached the top it would go "clang de dee clang clang clang", or "rat a tat tat" in a disturbing way, or something like that, over and over (-:

First, to gain access to the

window regulator, we need to remove the door panel - the entire tan assembly on the inside of the door, as in the picture on the right.

 

 

 

 

Note the screws involved are posi-drive screws, not Philips head screws, and you should definitely invest in a couple posi-drive screwdrivers (size 2 and 3 especially) if you are going to do-it-yourself on your Range Rover.  Posi-drive screws rock because they have extra flutes that hold the screw on your screwdriver nicely, but using a Philips screwdriver on them will, well, screw them up.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 1:  Remove the plastic surround that goes around the door latch pull by pulling the latch enough that you can unscrew the one posi-drive screw and slide the plastic to the right so the tabs on the left are not broken:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2:  Remove 2 posi-drive screws hidden in the holes on the underneath of the Range Rover's interior door pull.  See the 2 holes below marked with my lovely black arrows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3:  Remove the small tweeter speaker inset triangle assembly at the corner of the door and window.  It just gently prys off when you pull from the top:

See the metal clip just north of my thumb in this picture to the left?  That is what holds this triangular plastic assembly on.  Then you can unhook the plastic connector that connects the speaker wires to the Range Rover, and set this assembly to the side somewhere where it won't get crunched.

 

Step 4. Remove the door panel. Here is what the door panel looks like removed, from the backside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has clips that plug into the Range Rover's door, and hangers that hang over the door at the top.  Look at these pictures showing the white protruding clip coming out the back of the door panel, and the galvanized or gray looking metal hangers:

You need to start at the bottom of the door panel, and use a forked pry bar to pry each white clip loose.  Make sure you get close to each white clip as you pry, so that you do not apply undue strain on the door panel itself.  Once all the white clips are pried / popped out, you can lift the whole door panel up so that its hangers become free of the door, and set the whole inside door panel assembly aside.

Ah, now we almost have access to the inside of the door of the Land Rover Range Rover. 

 

Step 5. We need to remove the black foam moisture / sound barrier piece, preferably without damaging it.  It is attached by a black putty adhesive that stays soft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the black gunk in lines in the pictures below?  This is what stays on the door after removing the black foam barrier.  Some also stays on the foam barrier.

The best way to remove the barrier without damaging it seems to be to use an xacto type hobby knife that is basically a long thin retractable razor blade.  The blade is thin enough to be flexible so you can kind of edge it along the door while cutting or slicing thru the black adhesive.

Going slowly, you can slowly slice thru the soft adhesive and pull the barrier away from the door.  Go too fast and not carefully and you will discover the barrier foam sheeting tears very easily. 

 

The adhesive is applied all along the perimeter of the inside of the barrier even around the door latch pull area.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5b.  You will have to unscrew the door outstation, and the door speaker and amplifier, as they are attached on the outside of the barrier.

 

 

 

After unscrewing the door outstation, door speaker, and the door amplifier from the door, unclip their associated plastic wire connectors, and set them to the side. 

Then continue to remove the foam sheeting from the adhesive, until you can completely remove it and set it aside as below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we have full access to the inside of the door, such that we can inspect the window regulator:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The window regulator itself, a new one, is shown below right.  Above you can see it installed in the door. 

 

The black unit on the installed window regulator is the window motor.  It is featured in the photo below.

The motor sits mostly on the side facing us, but is attached via star drive type screws on the other side of the window regulator, facing away from us.  So to replace the window motor, we need to remove the window regulator.

 

 

In this case, our window motor is good, we just need to remove the existing window regulator in order to repair or replace it. 

 

Another shot of the window motor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6. Now for the fun stuff -- the window regulator is attached to the door via four rivets.  It is also attached to the railing that holds the window itself, and we need to deal with that.  First we need to lower the window so that we can detach 2 clips holding the window regulator ball joints in to the window bottom railing.

To the left you can see what I mean by the window bottom railing - there are 2 gold colored rails that attach to the bottom of the window glass.  The end of the regulator arms have a ball joint that attaches into plastic inserts that then move back and forth in the gold rail tracks.  The arms can scissor open and closed more thus pushing the window glass up and down.  We want to disconnect the glass from the regulator first.  We will disconnect the ball joints attaching the window regulators two arms to the rails attached to the bottom of the window glass, and then you might need a helper to lift the glass once it is loose from the regulator. 

My expert Range Rover repair helpers were otherwise busy working in the back of my Range Rover, so I kind of just managed it by myself with some kind of wild arm gyrations and advanced Twister moves.

 

 

In the photo on the left, you can see the clip that you pull out to remove -- it is the clip that holds the ball in the ball joint.

  You can then pull the end of the regulator straight out towards you to pull the ball out its joint in the blue square plastic piece, leaving the blue square plastic runner piece still in the gold colored track.

On the left side facing the inside of the door (photo to right), the pin is removed by pulling it straight down, and then you can pull straight out from the door to unseat the ball from its joint in the blue plastic square runner.

 

Once both ends of the window regulator are detached from the window bottom rails, carefully raise the window to the very top, and use masking tape to hold it in a full up position.  As mentioned before, a helper is useful for this, but it can be done by one person who is a semi-professional contortionist.

As you can see, I prefer pretty blue tape, as chosen by my helpers, but even plain old brown masking tape will work perfectly well.

Now to remove the four rivets holding the window regulator to the door.  This must be done by drilling them out.  Use a drill bit with a diameter slightly larger then the hole in the middle of the rivets, and hold the drill at about a 45 degree angle. 

 

 

The angle shown in the picture to the right is not really enough, but the drill bit sizing is about right on.  The rivet shown on the right is the 4th rivet not shown in the next picture.

 

 

In the picture below, the locations of three of the rivets that are not shown in the picture above are marked with more of my expertly drawn arrows.  Note there is another rivet there that you should NOT drill out.

 

 

So drill out all four of those rivets that are indicated and that are actually holding the regulator to the door.  Then disconnect the plastic connector attaching the door wiring to the window motor, and then you can remove the window regulator from the Range Rover's door.

 

 

To the left, a rivet drilled out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we can inspect the Range Rover's window regulator, and see if it can be repaired, or if it should it be replaced.  In general, you should just replace it with a brand new window regulator.  Since it takes so long to get into the door, it is just not worth it to to install a window regulator that is not in perfect flawless condition. 

 

However, if you are on a super tight budget, you may be able to repair broken teeth, as we see my Range Rover's window regulator has. 

A few teeth, as here, can be repaired if you are handy at welding, lots of broken or worn teeth and you should just replace it.  Really, just save up your cash, and replace the old window regulator with a new one period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With this window regulator, broken teeth were not the only problem.  The root cause probably is that the point in the circle arrow position (shown in below right photo) had loosened (bowing outwards from the main body of the regulator), such that it did not hold the half circle arm close to the rest of the window regulator, allowing it to bow out some and flex and thus damage the teeth.  Kind of a slightly poor design I think.  But then again, I do not have any ideas for a better design.

The photo to the right also shows the 3 screws holding the window motor to the window regulator.  If your Range Rover's window motor is good, remove it now from the window regulator by removing those three screws.  Then you can similarly install it on the new replacement window regulator.

 

Here you can see how there is too much play in the part of the window regulator that holds the semi-circle part close to the main body of the window regulator.

 

 

 

Apply a very thin coat of grease to the new regulator at the action points, and to the inside of the gold rails.

 

 

 

 

 

Installation is reverse of removal, but you might want to use appropriately sized nuts, washers, and bolts (shown to left) instead of rivets, to make removal easier in case you ever have to do it again.  Hopefully not, knock on wood, but this is also a good solution if you do not own a rivet gun.

So attach the window regulator to the door of the Range Rover, then with a helper, lower the window glass and attach the window regulator to the rails at the bottom of the glass - do this by popping the balls into their sockets, and replacing the retaining pins.  Don't forget to hook the window motor back up to its wiring harness. 

Now test.  Run the window up and down, make sure it is going smoothly.  On mine, I skipped this step, and I now regret it.  The window bottoms out and makes a clunk noise when I roll it all the way down.  Likely, it needs an extremely slight adjustment in how I attached the screws so that it could not quite bottom out.  We are talking maybe 1/20 or 1/10 of an inch adjustment of the window regulator upwards.  But check it now, as you do not want to have to come back in later.

Replace the moisture / sound barrier foam sheeting.  You should not need new adhesive, the existing adhesive should still work fine. Then screw the speaker and amplifier back on.  Screw the door outstation back on.  Re-plug the three wiring harness leads back in.  Install the door panel back on, then the corner tweeter speaker.  Enjoy a working Range Rover P38 window again!

Note:  This article is intended to be helpful, but I take no responsibility if I am giving bad information.  Use this information at your own risk.

If you do not want to do-it-yourself, consider contacting one of the Range Rover specialty repair shops we list here at Land Rover Geeks.  I could not have done this job without some expert guidance from the excellent Land Rover mechanics at Falconworks Land Rover repair in Tucson, AZ.  Note while they gave me some guidance, I am solely responsible for any errors in the guide above.

See more Land Rover How-Tos