Yesterday after work I got in my 90 NA started her up and went to roll down the driver's side window and she no worky. This is sad since earlier the passenger window switch on the driver's side broke and before that the passenger window switch on the passenger's side broke. Last summer the AC went out and now I have no AC, now power windows in a black RX in the summer in Texas. I'm hurting .

I've already gotten into the switches several times and they are broken, not carbon blocked. I'm not willing to pay $165 for new ones and buying used ones will probably just land me in the same situation shortly. I seem to recall a thread talking about aftermarket replacement switches but I couldn't find the thread.


Does anybody know of a place to get drop-in replacement switches? The less hassle the better. And cheaper is always better, of course.

Thanks,

-Mark

 

bump.

Nobody? Please?

 

I've never heard of such a thing and I hate to say search.. If you are electrically inclined at all (which I'm not so I'm just pretending here) you can check for continuity with a multimeter (zero ohms) and make sure the switch is actually doing what it's supposed to (zero ohms across the two wires). FSM has all the wiring diagrams you need. I had to do this a while back for the same reason and it turned out that my switch wasn't "switching". One of my friends had a broken wire where the harness goes right past the door jamb, too.

 

Thanks for the thought but my problem is that the switches are physically broken. There a post that connects the rocker (the thing you actually push and pull) to the electrical slider inside and it's the post that's broken.

-Mark

 

I know you said you didn't really want used ones, but I have a set that is in good working order. PM me if you want them.

 

The problem with any used ones is that they're likely to fail in the not so distant future too, becase thery're just as old. I got fed up with mine breaking and having to glue them back together, so I replaced them with some DPDT rocker switches (must be rated for <7.5A each if you're not planning on using relays, since it's a 15A fuse divided by 2 windows). There's a problem though, there's only 3 wires going from the driver's side to the passenger's side and to wire it up so there's no chance of shorting, you need 4 wires, so I ran another one. There's no one switch out there that operates quite like the stock passenger one, so you can't simply replicate the stock operation.

A tip: wire the switches to the stock plug (cut off of the broken switches) so you can take them out easily.

Another option, requiring more re-wiring is to put 2 switches between the seats, that way the wiring is simpler, as there's no need for two passenger side switches.

 

I have the same problum I bought a used one and no work. One thing buy new try mazdatrix[dot]com or rx7world[dot]com.

 

I have a solution!

After some searching, it appeared that the mazda MPV (year range unknown, I think mine are from a 95) has window switches that are almost identical to the ones in the 7. A friend of mine was kind enough to go to the yard an pull a set for me: cost $30 for both driver and passenger side. They weren't exact, but almost.

To the wiring.... My 7, a 90 N/A GXL, has driver's side switches wired thusly: the passenger side switch works like I'd think, you pull the switch and continuity is established between the green wire and ground; you push the switch and continuity is established between the red wire and ground. The driver's side makes no sense to me but analog wiring is a black art as far as I'm concerned. For the driver's side, the switch works by breaking continuity. So, if you connect the meter you'll find that there is continuity between the ground and the red and green wires. Pulling the switch, breaks the circuit to the red, pushing it breaks the circuit to the green. I dunno.

On the mpv switches, it was the opposite. The passenger side worked by breaking continuity and the driver's side by establishing continuity. For a simple fix, I found that if I switched the ground wires, i.e. used the passenger ground for the driver's switch, and the driver's ground for the passenger switch, their behavior changed to match that of my original switches. Of note, since these switches also carry the window motor current, they suffer from the carbon scoring also. I had to pull the switch apart and clean it before it would work correctly.

I was able to use a jewelers screwdriver to depress the locking tab and pull the connecting pins out of the mpv switch and put them in the slots on my original harness connector. I put it all back together and, after double checking the pinout and switch behavior, installed into my car. The face plate on the mpv switches is a mm or two larger than the original one but it went in with a little bit of strong suggestion.

If you try this, PLEASE make SURE that the wiring is correct. These switches carry the window motor current directly and bad things could happen if you have them wired incorrectly. Wiring colors may vary and are not exact in this post.

As another alternative, in my searches, I found that it appears (to be verified) that the switch mechanism itself in the driver's side of a 92-96 MX3 is exactly the same as the 7. You should be able to pull it out of the handle in the mx3 and connect it to the face plate of the 7 with no trouble. It even has the same connector. I'd double check the wiring just to be sure though. Unfortunately, people on ebay are asking the same arm/leg prices and for the 7 but you could expand your searches in the junk yards if you were hard up.

I hope that this helps some people as this is a major PITA for a lot of us.

-Mark

 

Bought some reworked switches from RX7 world. call Ernst at 866 230 6173 or on line at www.rx7world.com get all my parts from him. he's knowledgeable and has some good prices