Hey guys,

I have a 1996 Honda Accord EX for starters.

A few months ago, all of my power windows as well as my sunroof quit working. It was cold at the time so I didn't bother with it because I didn't feel like rolling my windows down.

Well, it's warm again and I'm trying to solve the issue. I'm wondering if anyone knows what color the hot-wire is into the power window switch. I have the harnesses disconnected all the way back to the door, and the door pulled off the car trying to figure this out. I've looked, as many have suggested, at my wiring that goes in the door channel that over time can be crushed/broken, and nothing seems amiss. I have power to the power mirrors and know which wires/harnesses are part of the power window system, but dont know which wire is hot into the switch.

I've checked under hood and dash fuses and all seem to be okay. I have power all the way to my fuse block under the dash, so it has to be somewhere between there and the switch.

Any help will be greatly appreciated guys. I'm trying to figure this crap out so I can move on to the fun stuff like figuring out where I'm leaking oil from!

Thanks,
Zac

 

Download 94 shop manual from the spooner link posted in the Online Manuals thread in the DIY section. On page 23-268, it shows all of the pins, and what you can test to verify what is wrong.

23-255 is for the sunroof.

It could be as simple as a blown fuse. You will have to work your way through the tests.

 

Thanks man, appreciate the quick response. I'll see what I can figure out.

 

Done some toying with it and I'm borderline stumped.

I've found what I believe should be the main hot wire to the switch itself. It's a Green/White wire. I've spliced in a hot wire to it, which makes my driver side window work, but none of the others, including the sun roof. And yes, the window lock switch is off.

Anyway, I've traced the wire back up under the dash but it goes into a huge bundle that I don't think I can trace it through. About to try and splice my hot wire to each window's hot wire to see if each individual window will work.

Any ideas out there?

 

Quick update,

Narrowed it down to abuot a 1.5 ft. section of wire that I can't get to to where something must be wrong. Talk about frustrating. I have continuity from the switch all the way back to where it goes under the dash, and have continuity on the other side all the way to the fuse box.

Is the power window relay just the little 10A fuse under the dash or is it one of the black boxes? I've got the fuse box damn near out trying to find all the green/white wires and test for continuity but got nothin so far.

 

That green/white wire is protected by the #28 fuse (20 amp) that is in the under the hood fuse box. It feeds both the sunroof and the power windows. I would test that fuse.

If it has continuity between the switch and the fuse box, then the wire is ok?

See page 23-32 for the fuse location. You can switch the power window relay with the radiator fan relay to see if that fixes your problem.

 

Thanks for the responses PA, I've called it quits for the evening but gunna check it out tomorrow.

I've been getting confused because it seems like the manuals use the words "fuse" and "relay" interchangably. Is this right? I know where all the fuses in the line is, but not sure what the "relays" are. I'll check my owners manual for the #28 fuse like you mentioned and see what I can find.

I think the wire is fine. I was getting continuity from the under hood fuse box to the under dash fuse box, and from the door jam out to the switch. I crawled under as best I could and theres only about 8" of wire that could possibly be bad that I can't get to, and nothing looks as if there was a short, so I think it must be a relay or bad connection somewhere.

I'll try switching the two relays here in a bit. I hadn't thought of that.

Thanks again for the help!

 

That manual that I told you to download is the shop manual. It has repair/diagnostic procedures that a mechanic would use to repair your car. Make sure you go to the Online Manuals thread and not the Owner's manuals thread.

A fuse and relay are not the same thing. They both protect electrical components, but in a much different way.

A fuse is a piece of metal connecting two wires. The fuse will burn up if too much current flows through it. This stops electricity flow to protect the car's wiring and electrical components.

A relay is a switch (like a light switch). A relay uses low current circuit (window switch) to turn on a high current switch (window motor).

To use the light switch analogy, the "low current" switch is your finger pushing on the plastic ****, and the high current switch is the two pieces of metal that touch to turn on a light.

Low current prevents switches you use in the car from quickly wearing out.

 

I guess what I'd like to know is, where are all the fuses/relays located that pertain to the window/sunroof system, lol.

I know of the fuse under the hood and the fuse in the driver side kick panel, and i know what the relay looks like, but is it the one in the kick panel fuse box or one of the two in the under-hood fuse box? in which case is it the one towards the front of the car or towards the rear? Lol. Sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to fix this car up a bit so I can sell it and buy a newer accord!

Thanks,
Zac

 

I'm over at my parents because my dad has all the tools; I don't have a bittorrent program to download that shop manual because my dad has his computer on lock down from that stuff. But i did pull up the "1996 wire diagrams by mitchell" and it has helped clear quite a few things up.