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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we show you how to remove and reinstall the window regulator on this 2004 Dodge Stratus, same as any '01 to '06. The regulator in this vehicle is actually working fine, but we remove it, show you our new one, and reinstall the original. The tools you'll need for this project include a small flat blade screwdriver, Phillips screwdriver, putty knife or door panel clip tool, 10mm socket, ratchet, and socket extensions.
Use a small flat blade screwdriver, and down in the pull cup pry up the little trap door. There's a Phillips screw in there and then behind your door handle there's another Phillips screw in there. Then there are three Phillips screws: one there, there, there, and then one on the back edge here. Okay, just going to fast-forward as I use a Phillips screwdriver and remove six screws in all. This triangle up here can just pull out. What you need is a putty knife to get down in behind the door panel here, slide it down, and pull it up. Then start to pull the pins and then the door panel comes up.
Right here is your lock harness so press on the little button and disconnect it. On your latch rod there's a clip, just going to reach in behind with my finger and pull that clip off and the rod comes up and off. Then lastly, down here is your window harness. There's a button right in the middle. You've really got to push that button and then work the harness out and your door panel is off.
Once your door panel is off you want to check these aqua clip pins here because there could be pins stuck inside them. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the pins out, and then reinstall them on the inside of your door panel. Even though I'm speeding through this as far as the video speed, you want to slowly and carefully take your water shield off. It is a little difficult, although once you start getting it off it comes easily. But avoid tearing it, as it does provide a good measure of sound barrier as well as a moisture barrier from your door panel. As you can see, my window is all the way up.
What I'm going to do is loosen a bunch of 10mm nuts: one here, here, these four over here, one in there, there, there, and there. Even though I said loosen in the last clip, I'm actually going to remove almost all those nuts and bolts. I'm going to remove them except for the very last one so I can easily slide my window regulator around. Now you can pull the window down. With the window down at that height you can see right through here there is a 10mm nut to loosen and then right through here is a 10mm nut to loosen. Loosen those up, hold on to your window, slide the track forward and take it off. Be careful as you're reaching in here, and then pull your window up. Now you can slide your track back and pull your window out.
You can see back in here your window motor is connected. There's a little orange tab, push that back through, and pull it out from the other side. There's a tab to disconnect that and pull your regulator off. Here's my old regulator, new regulator from 1A Auto, and you can see everything about this regulator is exactly the same. Same motor, same plug, it all mounts the same. My original one is in fine shape, so I am going to just reinstall it. I just wanted to show you. The only thing you would want to do is swap over a bolt here so it hangs up easy, and then reinstall. One thing that I do that I don't show is with the original regulator I took it out in the up position just so you could see that it can be done that way, but what you want to do or what I did is I lowered it down some by reconnecting the harness and the switch.
The new regulator from 1A Auto. If you install one of those it will come already down in the correct position; squeeze it together like that, put it into the door where my plug is, and it plugs on there. If you want to put the little red tab back in you can. Feed the regulator in. Get that bolt hung up right there. In the interest of time and not boring you here, what I'm doing here is I'm going to put the regulator into place and start all the nuts and bolts that hold it. I'll start all of them first, get them in place, and then go around and tighten them up.
When you tighten them you want to get them nice and firm, but they don't have to be incredibly tight or anything. Here, I'm just hooking up the window switch again so I can move the regulator into place. Now you want to slide your window carefully back down and watch it into place as nuts and studs on the window come in contact with the track. You can see here use a little flashlight just to see what's going on in there, the window winds up in the track, and slide the track back onto the loose mounting studs. Here you can see I've gotten the track on there and now I can tighten up those 10mm nuts. Now carefully put that water shield back in place. Here I've put my door panel back on, and I'm testing the door to make sure it works.
To put your door panel back on first reconnect your power window switch make sure it clicks. Bring it close and reconnect your power door locks. Take this rod, put it into the hole, slip the clip around, and clip it on. Make sure your lock goes through. There is a large locating tab that goes into a big hole. Once you've gotten that then make sure your pins go in. Make sure all the pins go in correctly. Now it's just a matter of replacing all of the Phillips screws. We'll speed up as we replace all those screws. There was one down in the door cup, behind the door panel, three at the bottom, and then one at the back.
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