Questions and Answers

Lancer Repairs Q. I have a 1985 Dodge Lancer. For Christmas my folks are thinking of getting some repairs done for me, but we want to get an idea of the cost.

1) The car has electric windows all around, all but the drivers window will go down. When pushing button for drivers' window, you can hear it, but the window won't budge, it also slips gradually when going over bumps, and has to be forced back up by hand. The other windows go down with no problem, however they go up very slowly. Can you give me an idea of what the problem might be?

2) The fan for the heater recently went out. I changed the fuse (wasn't really needed, but bought the car used, figured it couldn't hurt) and it didn't make any difference. Then about one to two weeks after changing the fuse, I went to start the car and the heater fan was working. (Was not working until that moment) I made the mistake of turning the fan from high to medium one day, and it stopped working again, has not resumed working since then. Any idea on what can be the problem?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated-even worst-case scenarios.

Thank you.

A. As for the power windows, the slow ones can probably be speeded up by cleaning the felt window runs and applying a generous amount of spray silicone. As for the drivers window that would be hard to say without taking it apart. It could be the window regulator that's broken. If this is the case, it will run about $100.00 for the regulator and about 1.5 hours labor.

If it's the power window motor that's bad, then you're looking at about $172.00 for a motor and 1.5 hours labor.

You can possibly get a used power window motor and regulator together from a junk yard for about $75.00 however.

As for the blower motor, it could be a bad motor or a wiring problem. What you need to do is unplug the connector at the blower motor and see if it is getting power. If it is, then you have a bad motor. A new motor will run about $74.00 without A/C or with A/C $92.50. The labor will be about 1.0 to 1.5 hours, depending on the system.

If there is no power to the motor, then it is a wiring problem which will have to be traced down. Since it is a fairly simple system, I don't see it taking more than 2.0 hours at most to locate and repair the problem.

If it only works at High speed, then the problem is in the blower motor resistor which is about $9.00 and takes about .5 hours to replace.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA