How to Replace Rear Window Regulator 2000-07 Toyota Highlander

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Let's remove the grab handle pocket. Take our plastic prying tool. You can get these from 1AAuto.com. You go underneath gently and then kind of push it in, and catch the metal tab. Push it in, and then up, and it should pull right out. Might need to do the same thing on this side. But sometimes it will pop right up. There's two metal tabs there, it comes right out. Remove the Phillips head screw that's in here, using a Phillips head screwdriver. Take that right out.

Open up this little cover here to get the screw that's behind it using a small flat bladed screwdriver. Just pop it open. Phillips head screw in here, like that. Pop this cover off, so you can actually go up here with the plastic prying tool and pry it up. And it's going to pry off the bottom the same way. Then it's going to pull out this way, unhook. Probably have to open up this lever, unhooking it from there too.

Door trim is clipped into the metal part of the door, so we're going to need to get in here and pull it from the clips. You can't get your fingers underneath here. Use a plastic prying tool. Can wedge the plastic prying tool in between the plastic and the metal, kind of find your way in here. Slide it down. I like to start at the bottom.

Use a plastic prying tool, a bigger one. Find your way underneath like that and then just pry out. Go along the edge, and then once you can get your hands in there, then you can start to pull out the rest of the clips. What's going to happen, it's going to lift up like this and the top of the door clips over the metal part. We'll lift it straight up.

Then you need to unplug, this is the power window switch, so you're going to have to reach under here. Unlock, it's on this side. Push it in and pull it out. Remove the inside door handle.

There's a single 10 millimeter bolt here. Use our 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet to remove this bolt. Touch that self-tapping bolt. Put that aside. Push this back. It will unhook from the door panel. Has these two hooks here. Now we can unclip.

This is the lock cable. The white one and the door pull handle is the green one. We'll start with the lock one. Put your finger and thumb like that, just pop it straight up and then unhook it. For the green one, do the same thing. Pop it up, and then unhook it and take the handle out.

To remove the vapor barrier, it's stuck on with this butyl tape here. It's sort of this black gluey substance that's forever sticky, so you can peel it and then take a razor blade so you don't tear the plastic. You can cut the black butyl tape and then pull the plastic away. This stuff is so sticky that if you're careful, you can reuse this vapor barrier without a problem.

You can stick it right back to this stuff. Just go along the whole edge and do this. Just need to unplug the speaker. Push in the lock and pull it out. We'll feed it through the opening in the tape. Feed it through the opening in the vapor barrier and then continue peeling it. Down to the end. Doing my best to peel it off without totally destroying it. If it rips or tears a little, it’s not really a big deal. It will restick to this stuff. Just carefully put this aside somewhere where you can reuse it.

I just turned the ignition on, I'm going to put the window up slightly so we can remove it. I'm just going to plug the window switch back in and then I'll unplug it. And I'll shut the ignition off. I need to loosen this run channel for the window. Going to peel the stripping back and just gently pull out. There's a Phillips head screw in here. I'm going to remove that. Put that aside.

Remove this 10 millimeter bolt here using 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet. Careful to not drop this bolt. Remove this bolt down here, it's 10 millimeters. Wrench handle will become loose. Use our plastic prying tool to pry this rubber out. Pull this down. Now we've got the run channel as loose. Get it loose from the quarter glass here. Pull the run channel out.

As I lift it up and out, I'm feeding it off of the run channel rubber. Run channel aside. Can lift the glass up and kind of tilt it up. Going to pull it out of the other run channel. At the same time you have to sort of sliding it off of this down here at the same time lifting it and tilting it up, and then guiding it out of the door panel. There's our window glass.

Unplug the window motor by pushing the lock. Pull the connector out. It's four bolts that are 10 millimeter. Use a 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet. Start with these three here and loosen this one last. This one we can just loosen. We don't have to remove it because of the window motor and regulator is now hanging in the door, so you reach in and lift it up and off and slide that out. And then just maneuver it out of the door opening here.

Reinstall the window regulator. If you had replaced this window regulator make sure you install the 10 millimeter bolt here in this top corner because when you install it into the door, feed it through the opening here. It allows you to hang it in place. Going to put this grommet in for the connector into the opening, and then we're going to hang the window regulator in place. It lets you hang it there so you can install the other bolts and not try to hold it. Might have to push it in but it's at least held in place. Just tighten these up until they're snug. Just make sure all four are tight.

Plug the connector back in. It will click when it locks in place. The rear window is not bolted to the regulator. There's a single green square all the way down here. It's actually kind of hard to see. It's right behind here. It spins, which is good because as you put the glass down into the door, so you're going in like this and then it's catching the square and then it sits like this. Then we'll reinstall the run channel on this side afterwards.

Going to carefully put the glass back in. It does have a curve to it but the opening in the door is pretty big. This here is going to go onto the square. The glass is on the regulator. It's still loose so be careful. I'm actually going to push it up. I'm going to push it into this run channel here, just like that. Just going to wipe some of the dirt out of the run channel here while I have it out. Our run channel, this is the top and it kind of curves with the door, so that actually sits inside of there and is what this edge of the window rides up and down in. This rubber run channel pushes into it, so I'm going to get this started. It fits pretty loosely so it can slide, which it's going to have to get it situated in here.

I'll spray some glass cleaner on it. This'll help the glass slide in the run channel. Then kind of have to lift this up. You might have to unpeel it up top so you can get high enough to guide it down over the glass. Push this in, top. I just maneuvered around and got the window into the channel. This needs to go down more and then pushed up into place. Push this rubber up into place. Can use your plastic trim tools to push the rubber in. This guide needs to go up like that. Going to reinstall the small Phillips head screw top. Just go until it's just tight and then stop. Push the door gasket back into place. Reinstall this bolt here. Reinstall the lower one. Might have to go in with your one hand and move this over so it lines up. Get it started and tighten it up.

Plug the window back in and try it before we button this all back up. Lift it up, and we'll put it down. That's good. We know it works. Now I can unplug this and finish putting the door back together.

To reuse your vapor barrier, you can see that these two holes match up with these two holes here, and then these two holes here match up with these here. Don't worry about it if it's a little torn up. You can still use it. We're going to guide these wires through this opening so we can get to them afterwards. These will go on the outside of it. I'm going to start it right here. I'll stick it right back in to that butyl tape and just push it right in all the way around. Should restick, this stuff is super sticky. Those go on this side just like that. Goes on much easier than taking it off.

We'll reconnect the door handle. This white cable will go on the top to these grooves that match these grooves over here. We'll just hook this up. This is for the door lock. Then push it in place. The one for the pull handle. Get that part and you push it through and it hooks in, and then push the green into there to lock it so it won't come out. Get this lined up. These two hooks here are going to hook into the panel just like that.

Reinstall that self-tapping 10 millimeter screw. Get it lined up just until it gets tight. There's our door handle. If one of your door clips stays stuck in the door you take your clip puller tool and just put it in here, pop it out. We'll push that back in the door panel and reuse it. These clips sit in here just like this, so just find the one that's missing, put it back in place, and just slide it in.

Then we can reinstall the door panel. Plug in our window switch. Just goes up from the bottom. It's a key that only goes in one way. The lock is kind of facing the outside. It goes in. It will click when it locks in place. We'll lift up our door panel. The top is curved. It's going to hang on the door panel just like that. We'll start it up top. This doesn't matter if the window's up or down for this. Make sure it sits all the way down because that should go over the pull handle freely. Get it lined up, start to push it back in on the clips. Then reinstall the Phillips head screw.

Reinstall this trim cover. It does have a hook here, so you have to lift out this handle and slide it in and then kind of hook it, and then it's got these tabs on both top and bottom that will push in and over the plastic. Reinstall the screw. There we go. Push the door back in. Reinstall the little pull handle, there's an arrow points outwards, so when you flip it this way the arrow will be pointing this way. Just push it right back into place. Now just use some glass cleaner and clean the windows.

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