I suspect most FC owners have struggled with the window switches failing, in my case, electrics were fine but the plastic was already well perished when I bought the car 13 years ago. After several makeshift repairs, the plastic has now completely crumbled into unrecoverable pieces. Replacement switches are readily available for the FD, but it's not so easy to source FC parts these days.

You can see here where I've had to put some screws down through the top of the rockers to engage the switch below.


I went and purchased an aftermarket eBay switch for an FD. For the price it's not too bad. The top plate isn't that great and the wiring gauge is lighter. It does however have relays on the board.


The FC top plate fits fine on the FD switch. It looks better than the eBay one.

The factory Mazda on/off switch for the FC disconnects the 12v to the passenger side switch, however the factory Mazda on/off switch for the FD disconnects the GND. Hence, there is one less wire in the connector. FC diagram on the left, FD on the right.

The aftermarket switch, weirdly, does neither. It disables the power to the circuit board, leaving both driver's door switches inoperable, but leaves the passenger switch functioning. eBay parts Anyhow, no big deal, I never need to turn it off. To make it work, on the drivers side wiring harness in the door, make a connection between the BL(black/blue) and BR(black/red) wires so the passenger side gets its 12v supply. The auto down feature of the aftermarket switch is a timer, not motor stall current detection like the factory switch, so it should still work if you have done the window relay mod (can't verify this, as I have not needed to do the relay mod on my car).


Hope this helps someone,
Cheers.

 

Nice job! Thanks for the write-up.

 

It turns out that the aftermarket switch does do stall current detection for the auto down function, but only when the engine is running. That little bit of extra voltage must drive the stall current past the trigger threshold. As stated above, I can't vouch for its behaviour if you have relays relieving the switch of the motor current.

 

This is interesting, thanks for being the guinea pig!

 

Thanks for posting! What model FC came with auto windows? My 87 TII is just up down no auto.

 

None of the FCs came with the auto down windows from the factory.

 

I think he's referencing the original switch in the image, showing the right hand window having auto down. Looks to be a RHD, I would be interested to know the details.

 

Ahh, I see it now. That must have been a feature only on home market FCs then, we didn't get the auto feature in the USA.

 

Yes it's RHD, I'm in Australia . It's also a JDM import series 5 (1990) but I suspect the Aus delivered ones had it also. The aftermarket switch is for a LHD FD, I can't remember now if I needed to rearrange the pins on the connector to get the correct window to move with the correct switch for RHD configuration, I suspect I did. Not sure about Series 4 vs Series 5 wiring, but I can't imagine why it would change between those two.

Cheers.

 

I bought my fd switch from garage alpha and i rewired the circuit board to work like the fc switch, master switch still works when window lock is enable and passenger side shuts off.

circled is the 2 pin for window lock switch, unsolder and pull out the mechanical switch and drill 2 hole to isolate from the circuit board. on the mechanical switch solder 2 new wire, 1 wire you tee into power (B/R) and the other you need to terminate where (B/L) is into the connector since fd connector doesnt have the pin for it, i glued the mechanical switch back onto the circut board.



tee both pin to ground wire

now i have both auto down and window lock like factory fc switch

the s4 and s5 switch top plate are different and the s4 cant be swap over to fd switch but the fd switch still fit in the slot

 

Nice job on the switch rewire. I don't have a need to disable the passenger side door switch any more, my kids are old enough to know not to play with windows now
Good to know it works for S4 too.

Mine is still working fine, no issues yet with the after-market switch. My passenger side (left) window is very slow to move up, I suspect it's an issue with the window channels being worn or needing some adjustment. Might look at adding relays in the door to bolster the voltage to the motor on that side

 

i needed it to work cuz when i drive my mom around, she like to hold onto the door and rest her arm on top of the switch without knowing and when i give ride along when im on the track since there is no oh **** handle lol
my passenger window move up slow, i greased up the tracks and its good to go.

 

Bump: Installing this switch was the best thing i did to my car in 2021.

 

I just bought a Switch Doctor driver master switch for an FD off Amazon and installed it on 91 FC (Canadian car). I was going to do what was suggested above to rewire the panel/harness, but figured I’d test it as is and it works perfectly. Even the “Auto” functions for both windows. Didn’t have to rewire anything. Here’s the link for reference:

https://a.co/d/6J3H585

 

 

Hi,

Sounds like you have other wiring issues or the motor is struggling? My changes only account for the difference in wiring between the FC and FD, so I doubt it will fix your issue.

Cheers.