Rear windows not working

Hey y’all I have a 2006 sr5 double cab. I’ve noticed since I got my windshield tinted that my rear windows stopped going down. The switches at the doors don’t do anything but at the drivers door when you press down or pull up you can hear each one click like it’s trying to engage. Also my passenger front won’t go down or up at the door but I can control it from the drivers side. And the lockout isn’t on so I’m not sure what the deal is. I think maybe water got behind the dash when I got the tint and may have caused it. Oh and the big back window goes up and down just fine. I pulled all the fuses under the steering wheel except the big square ones and I don’t have any blown fuses. I’m kinda stumped

 

And the little square window-lockout button on the driver's side control isn't pushed in?

 

No. That’s the first thing I checked lol

 

Had to ask - not everyone does!

Water getting behind the dash isn't going to do much, and water evaporates, so any fleeting issue should evap out. At the shop I used to work at, we'd always put customer pickups at end of day and stop tinting at 2pm, leave the car sitting in the sun with windows up all afternoon to coax water to steam out of anything it got into and help set the film.

If I were to take a wild guess, assuming you got the side windows done, along with the windshield head strip (since it's illegal in a lot of states to tint the full windshield)? If so, I'd assume water got into the driver side control and either shorted something out, or is actively shorting something.

The symptoms sound like the driver's side control is borked to me, and is shorted at the lockout. If you have access to a junkyard where you can grab a replacement cheap, I'd try swapping yours out. Don't worry about the color of the cover, you can swap your old, original trim piece onto the control.

If you have a compressor, you could also attempt blowing out your controls, or pop them off and clean them out.

I bet there's probably a way to test motor functions by bridging pins, but I really dunno.

 

I did pull the driver side door panel apart to see if there were any exposed wires but they all looked fine to me. I did actually get the full windshield done. My windows were done like two years ago. Very illegal but looks good and it’s easier on the eyes during the day

 

I think you may misunderstand what I'm saying. If you got any side windows done, the shop should've been smart about it and laid a towel over the controls so no water gets into the actual control mechanism. I knew guys who really didn't care about it, and it was always the same dudes whose cars would come back with complaints about controls not working. It was few and far between, but it happened. Those controls aren't waterproof. They can take in water from the topside.

 

It was just the windshield. Side windows were done two years ago. So the only thing getting wet was the dash

 

Interesting.

Well, there's no way you burned up multiple motors. The fact it's impacting some motors and not others suggests an electrical or control problem, i.e. you have a fuse blown, water got into the master (driver) control and is buggering up the others b/c they're all ultimately connected, or water got into the driver kick panel where the driver door connects, or maybe water from windshield work got into the back of the fuse box although it's highly unlikely.

If it were me, I'd check all the fuses and whatnot.

Next, I'd be hunting a junkyard and paying the $20-40 most would charge for a driver window control to test that b/c I have more money than time right now and it would be my highest suspect.

If that failed, I'd probably be popping out the fuse box (interior) and looking at the back/front of it for clear signs of water intrusion. It may or may not be as obvious as this guy's, but that's essentially what I'm getting at.

 

I see. I’ll have to pull more fuses. That guys fuse box isn’t pretty Preciate your input

 

Why is that, lots of add-a-circuit taps?

If so, you may want to double-check they don't have those installed backwards. common mistake that can overload circuits.

 

So what was there fix? My drivers side control is working my side and front pax side. Main driver control isn’t working the back windows. Also the back windows controller on respected door isn’t working. I’ve checked all fuses. No dice.

 

Bad motor? On the one door that's not working at least.

I'd also be curious if you are one of the poor souls who got a dealer-installed alarm (KARR, SECURIKEY+) or an aftermarket alarm which could totally be causing this.

Just b/c you never had a fob for it, or didn't know it was installed, doesn't mean it's not there. Brain would be under driver's side of dash or behind the driver's kick panel, normally.

 

I wouldn’t know what the alarm looks like or what I’d be looking for…the big rear window doesn’t work either. I do get a weird automatic lock and unlocking of the doors when I start the truck. All this started when I had a place install a new stereo head. Electrical gremlins are the Bain of my existence!

 

Uh ... that's suspicious as hell. If the problem started immediately after you had an aftermarket stereo installed, I think you need to investigate that point, clearly it was the trigger. Did you bother to take it back to them and complain all this started after? Have you had the dash out to see what they did during install, maybe they were f'n stupid and cut the OEM harnesses but got the wires wrong, or didn't terminate the wiring correctly? Maybe you have a ground or short somewhere? Did your truck originally have an amp? Did they bypass that amp by cutting wires, or did they use an amp bypass harness, or did they use an adapter unit?

About the alarm, it's not hard to spot an alarm under the dash. Look for a black box, usually 3"x5" or smaller, with lots of colorful wires going into it. A lot of times installers will zip-tie it to the steering column or something else under the dash, or zip-tie its harness to another nearby harness. Sometimes they'll drill to the firewall depending on the install. Sometimes they shove it behind the plastic kick panel cover on the driver's side. I worked at a shop the pushed Avital and Clifford systems in FL in my earlier years, I've seen some pretty hacky shit.

 

Hello all. I have a 2003 sequoia with the exact same issue. I will keep y’all informed on what the fix is. I know for a fact we are NOT getting power to the fuses. Both rear passenger windows fuses have no power on either side even though they sound like they are actuating from the driver side controls. But if you jump a wire to the output side of the fuse both windows work for me. I’ll look at diagrams for wiring but it seems like the main driver control acts as the “relay”. My rear roll down window also does not work at the switch. I believe my issue stemmed from the rear window being stuck half way down (they used 4” long plate screws WTF) and fried some wires that were wrapped together in the harness somewhere. I’ll dive deep

 

You are correct, driver is the master control.

Sometimes there's a dummy element: Someone accidentally tapped the lockout button that prevents other non-driver windows from rolling down, and all you need to do is press the lockout button again to unlock the windows.

Sometimes corrosion/stale connection is at play, and simply unplugging/reseating the driver side master control (which DOES NOT require taking the door panel off!) resolves the issue, just to refresh the contacts on the connector.

The above two have helped a lot of members to resolve this issue with limited-to-no effort.

However, sometimes an aftermarket or dealer-installed alarm is at play (this may be true even if you're still using an OEM fob!): If anyone has ever installed an aftermarket alarm on your vehicle, it's almost guaranteed they hacked a single relay or pair of relays into the door so the alarm can control window up/down & lock/unlock functions from the key fob. In which case, if you're not using that alarm, you may want to pull the butcher-y style T-taps most alarm installers use. It's also possible the expansion module and/or port on the alarm is somehow shorted, aftermarket alarm lifespan is 10-15 years if you're lucky. And if you're not using the alarm at all, you may want to figure out the brand, and pay a professional to uninstall it completely.