2016-07-24

Fix: Vauxhall / Opel electric window won't open

If your electric window suddenly stopped working, chances are it's not mechanical and there's an easy fix to this. 

Note: I did this on my Vauxhall Corsa, but it should apply to other Vauxhall / Opel vehicles such as the Astra or Zafira. 


Symptoms

Car window will not open with either driver's control, passenger control, or remote control (key). Fuses to the electric windows are not blown. 


The cause
:

This is purely my speculation. The window panes on these Vauxhall are controlled by vehicle's ECU. If something has caused the ECU to forget the actual "position" of the window pane, it probably goes into safe mode and not operate the window motor. 


The Fix

To fix this issue, you will need to perform an ECU reset. This is done by disconnecting the negative battery connector from the car battery for approximately 1 minute.


Impact

Resetting the ECU will: 
  1. cause the trip odometer to reset to 0. 
  2. reset the window position memory and disables auto open / shut

Remedy

After reconnecting the battery connector to the battery terminal, verify the windows are operational. To restore the auto open / shut functionality, first shut the windows completely, depress the button to Open position until window is fully open, keep holding the button until an audible "click" is heard. (approximately half a second after window is fully open). Repeat and close the window fully while holding the button in the Shut position until an audible click is heard. 

Test the windows are now back in normal operation.