Okay so hear me out here. I have an 86 GXL which came with power windows. Since I've owned the car I swapped those for GTUs doors from a rotted out parts car. Crank windows are getting superbly annoying especially at 80 on the highway and wanting to open/close them.

How often do power windows have to be worked on? I don't care about the weight as I cruise not race, but I am more concerned with swapping the doors and then finding out that they need to be serviced 10 times a year lol

Just looking for opinions. I have all the parts I need to do the swap and wiring is already there, but my car is getting resprayed this year and if there is any time in the world to do it it's now.

Feel free to share thoughts.

The biggest set back of the power window systems on these cars if the window switches, they always crap out.

Look up the window relay mod, and make sure your window switches are in good shape. If you have the motors laying around, regrease them while they are out, they will work like butter then, and you shouldn't have to worry about anything either after the relay mod and greasing

I have the doors off so it would be easy enough to pull the tracks quick and grease, I will definitely look at the mod. Thank you!

The one drawback is if your battery dies then your windows won't work.

But the good thing is that you can roll the passenger side down to yell at Hotties!

The regualtors don't really weigh all that much compard to crank windows so really it comes down to choice.
I "had" an s4 with crank windows(my baby..parting it) but the S5 has power windows.I kind of like the power windows.It actually gives me a speaker placement now on the doors.

Yeah i wont be yelling at hotties, but i would love to be able to open the window without having to reach for my life.

Also, is there opportunity in non-power doors to mount the regulator? I would love to just do this because then I don't have to convince my dad to do more bodywork haha

doors are the same manual and power window.

i dont remember how many fc's ive had, (10?), i usually end up pulling the power window regulators to clean and regrease them, once, and then thats it. ive replaced 3 window switches, and two were because the car didn't have any.

and that is it!

the dashboard is less reliable.

So I could pull regulators from a power and bolt them right into a non-power door?

THAT IS FANTASTIC! that takes away 3/4 of the work haha


ALSO off topic but is there anyway to get rid of the textured paint on the bottom of the door/fender. UBER ANNOYING TO KEEP CLEAN!

Sure, down to bare metal, just like any other paint.
You may dislike cleaning it (I've never noticed it myself) but it is pretty effective at protecting the lower body panels.

Yeah mine just collects everything. So after a week it's like white almost with dust and I have to clean it again >:(

Hmmm..

you haven't painted the car yet...

So paint it "dust color" greyish/white!..(chuckle!)..then ya won't notice that stuff on yer doors!

and ya,you can exchange power to manual windows on the doors as they have the holes already to do so.
You'll just need the appropriate door cards and thick handles,.(spongy ones)

Got all of that stuff from 7 parts cars!

get them all going and you have one for every day of the week!

That would be something else! But another question here, pardon my ignorance. But I feel like I read here once that GTUs came with aluminum doors? Anyone know how true/false this is?

I have figured out all:

-Keeping my GTUs doors
-Installing window regs (freshly cleaned and greased)
- DEI 451m module in passenger door for window switch
- DEI 350T or equivalent in the drivers door so I can control windows up/down with my alarm fob.

I believe that is completely false.
Pretty sure the only alloy used in the FC body was the hood (some of them).

When I swapped chassis three years ago (really, that long?) I went from power everything to full manual.
I did miss the follow lock and power windows but only for a while and hardly notice the lack at all any more.

BTW, have you checked to see if the wiring is actually in place for the power stuff?
Prior to the swap I had always heard the harnesses were all the same but my GTU has no provision for power windows/locks. I just had the door panels off last week and there are no unused plugs anywhere.

Also, perhaps you could do me a favor.
Seems that I recall on my old (power) chassis that the upper section of the door panel was made of stamped/formed metal while the ones I have now are formed fiberboard.
Can you confirm this?

I haven't seen any metal panels. My 86 Gxl panels were fiberboard as well as the 87 parts car and the GTUs.

But I didn't think so because I feel like I remember my dad doing some repairs on the door like the bottom had started to rust, but couldn't remember if it was this car or not.

Thanks for all the help guys!

the GTUs has the same steel doors as every other FC. only aluminum piece is the hood, which was standard on the GTUs, and convertible, and US market turbo. the JDM market cars, all turbo, only got the aluminum hood on the GT-X model, the GT-R and GT-limited's were steel.

anyways, the parts catalog lists 1 part number for the S5 door, they didn't have a separate one for power windows or not (it isn't a 50's cadillac).

Clokker is correct, that the manual window S5 cars do not have the wiring in the harness for the power windows, which is unusual for Mazda. usually Mazda has that wiring in the car harness, and you'd need to swap door harnesses, but for whatever reason the S5 isn't like that.

every FC door panel i recall seeing has a plastic upper bit, and its usually that tan stuff which is like crumbly cheddar

Yeah I have the wiring harness from another car :)!

the power windows on these cars are too much of a pain in the ass. they go up slow, the tracks get dirty, the switches go bad. I preferred the manual windows of my 88 GTU because they always worked.

The self-diagnostic of my "Because, Streetcar!" philosophy is to reflect back on recent driving and remember if anything stands out.
Something does, it's wrong.

The whole point was to get as transparent/unobtrusive as possible, stuff should just work without conscious effort or thinking.
That's why I was so fond of the column stalk control swap I tried (and abandoned later for cosmetic reasons)...everything felt so much more positive and natural than the wonky FC switchgear, which even now, 7 years later, still seems odd to me.

Point being, since the swap to manual I've never been inconvenienced to the point I made a mental note to do something about the windows.
The few times I've had the doorpanels off and toyed with the idea of converting, I was never motivated enough to do it and when I recently realized the wiring wasn't even there, that was the final "nope" moment.

Of course, being an Old I'm probably more accustomed to hardship and inconvenience than you digital pussies.

Yeah I originally loved crank, but like I said at 80 on the highway it's not always a good idea to be leaning across the car to open/close.

I will be doing the conversion and if I don't like it well hey I can always go back :)

Thanks to all who gave opinions and assistance!

If there is anything else anyone wants to discuss I'm always open to fun times.haha

Strictly speaking, that would never be a good idea.

Kinda begs the question though...how often are you on the highway doing eighty?

the highway in my town is a straight shot and cops don't patrol. It's actually the typical speed for the southernmost part of rt140.

even my mom cruises at 75:80 lol

Also, perhaps you could do me a favor.
Seems that I recall on my old (power) chassis that the upper section of the door panel was made of stamped/formed metal while the ones I have now are formed fiberboard.
Can you confirm this?


every FC door panel i recall seeing has a plastic upper bit, and its usually that tan stuff which is like crumbly cheddar

When I converted my TII to base model manual windows most of the weight savings (I have a thread documenting the weight) was from the lighter base manual door interior panels.

The S4 TII electric window interior panel was a plastic upper structure with foam and vinyl over it and a shag carpet bottom with a plastic cubby.

The S5 base manual window interior was a cardboard upper structure with foam and vinyl over it and a cloth bottom with no plastic cubby (the window crank goes there).

I was sure that on my old S5 power door panels, that upper section with the door handle and vent was stamped metal and the rest was fiberboard.

Guess I was wrong.

On my S4 power window interior door panel there was definitely a metal reinforcing component that ran up the door pull handle section and screws into the actual door sheetmetal.

The S5 manual window interior door panel did not have this reinforcement and so the door pull handle feels flimsy- especially when hot.