Maybe you drive a 2007-2012 Lexus ES350 and maybe your window just popped out of its track, or started rattling, and you aren’t sure what’s really going on in there.
Diagnosing this problem is actually really simple!
There is a small plastic clip that is glued to the bottom of the window. This plastic clip breaks, and the dealer doesn’t sell the clip. You have to buy the whole window for about $400!
This happened to my father-in-law’s car and we went through the same thing. That’s why I started making these parts.
So how can you tell if your plastic clips are broken?
Step 1: Remove the door panel.
Just follow the steps in the document below, stopping at step 3.9.
II-1000 Window Clip Replacement Rev 002
Note: You DO need to remove the speaker in step 3.8 but you DO NOT need to separate the door handle and cables from the door panel in step 3.7 (but you can if you want to). For the purposes of diagnosis you can just move the door panel aside.
Step 2: Peel back the plastic and/or remove the speaker. You will want to look at both the front and rear clips to judge their condition.
Step 3: Reconnect the switch panel to the wiring plug so you can drop the window down (or lift it up). You need to be able to move the window so you can see the window clips.
Step 4: Once the window is about halfway up/down you should clearly see both of the clips. The clips in my father-in-law’s car are blue plastic but yours may be a different color. Either way, what you see should look something like this:
The clip that is pictured is not broken but take a good look at yours. It will be VERY obvious if one is broken. If you grab the window or the metal arm and just wiggle it back and forth a bit, you will notice that it is loose and that the adhesive joint at the clip is not solid, or that the plastic is clearly cracked.
Remember, there are two plastic clips…one at the front of the window and one at the back (the one in the picture). The front clip is the one that breaks in the vast majority of cases, but the rear may break as well, if the front has broken first and placed additional stress on it.
So go ahead and don’t be afraid to get in there and take a look at it yourself. You’ll save yourself the cost of having a shop do it, then, you’ll know you can fix it yourself too.
If you got in there and found out that your clip is broken, Click here to purchase the complete repair kit.
If you have questions or need assistance, send an email right to my personal phone: rich@bluemooseengineering.com
Blue Moose Engineering 