are going out. the drivers side window skips on the way down and the passenger side slowly goes up and down. Are the motors cheap and easy to replace?

 

Why don't you do to your local autozone and find out?

 

They aren't too hard to replace. You take off the door panel, then you remove the window glass from the regulator thingy. It is held on by two screws. Once thats out, you just unbolt the regulator assembly from the door frame and take it out. Installation is the reverse of removal.
As for the price, they aren't too bad. I actually have a set of working power window assemblies that I would be willing to sell, assuming this is for a coupe. You can PM me if you are interested.

 

if thier skipping you most likly need to clean the tracks... take em out and clean the track and lubricate with lithium grease... worked great for me

 

The window/sunroof/headlight/wiper motors almost never go out from what I've seen... Usually its the mechanism that dies. I bet your tracks are dirty. Take everything apart, clean, re-grease, and re-assemble. Works for almost all of those assemblies.

 

Yeah, the motor/regulator are all part of the same assembly. There is a string of beads, for lack of a better word, the the motor moves, which runs in a track and moves the window up and down. It can get gunked up and stuff. It uses what looks like white lithium grease, but I have no idea what it actually is.

 

The power window motors almost never fail. Your problem is probably related to failing switches

 

Well, the slow one might be, but could that cause the drivers one to skip? It seems like that would be from with the gears being worn down or the tracks being gunked up.

 

Yes, your problems are most likely caused by failing switches. The leads inside the switches get corroded over time, and would need to be cleaned and have dielectric grease applied to them. Also, the wiring harness to the power window switch could be corroded as well. Make sure to check those before anything else, and see if putting a little dielectric grease on them with a Q-tip doesn't help.

Taking apart the switches should be avoided, but if you feel you're up for it make sure to do it at a table, and be careful not to lose anything.

And if all else fails, clean your tracks.

 

my driver side window skips. im pretty sure its either the tracks are slightly out of alignment or dirty or the "chain" needs better grease. When i pull up on the glass it moves fine with no skips. It sounds like a machine gun though...

 

The skipping/"machin gun" sound is neither the tracks or the "chain." The "chain" looks like a chain of pearls and the sprocket that moves them is made of plastic. Over the years the edges on the sprocket wears and rounds over causing a lack of traction when trying to raise the window. When it's going down or you're holding the glass on the way up it doesn't need as much force and will still feed it. I replaced mine with a brand new Mazda piece (can't find it at generic store) and it's only $12.

As for the slow raising...I'd go with the switches.

 

Uhh... That's exactly what I said... I didn't say it was the track causing noise. The glass gets crooked on the track and hangs up due to the chain slipping. You can watch it go up and one side will go crooked and jam. If you pull that side up it continues to rise. It's 90% the chain's problem and about 10% the track.