Windshield Vent linear actuator repaired

[Skuza]

Figured I'd share my success with repairing mine. Last weekend it quit when fully closed or fully open. It's done this in the past and a tap would get it working again. I removed it and figured I'd take it apart to see if anything could be done. There are tiny torx screws holding the motor together. Removing those you expose the gears which had very dry grease. Another Philips screw on the side of the large cylinder removed allowed me to slide the screw mechanism (does the lifting) out of the tube. Inside is a long contact strip that basically powers the motor as its extending or retracting the piston. It's supposed to reverse itself when it reaches the end. I wiped the contacts and the strip inside the tube and re assembled. It now would extend and retract but when retracted all the way it would quit. I couldn't see why this was happening. If you didn't run it all the way down it would reverse and extend. Figuring if the glass was closed before reaching this point it would be ok. So i reinstalled it and at the point the glass was closed it was still about an inch from reaching the dead point. Success! Nothing to lose trying this. I did clean out all the old grease and relube the cylinder. It moves and sounds better too. Love it when your able to fix vs replace something!
Couple pics...

 

[brewster16]

Hey thanks for this information....I'm about to do the same. I've already confirmed 12 V power out at the vent window. Is I brought the actuator home and am hoping to breathe life back into it!

 

[jgoedd99]

Thanks for this post. I had a similar problem, if i extend (open) the vent window too far, the actuator will not close. As i understand it there are limit switches at the full open position and full closed position that stop the actuator from going any further. I assume i have "overdriven" the open limit switch because that limit switch is bad. So i took the gear end apart as you did, cleaned out the very dry grease, relubed it, spun the shaft back in (by hand) so that it was on the other side of the open limit switch and it works. I did not take the rod out of the tube as you did. So at this point I only open the window so far so that I do not go past the "bad" open limit switch. My question to you: Do you know or could you tell if the limit switches inside are serviceable?

Not to hijack , but hopefully to add to this post:

On a 1998 370 DA the cylinder is NOT a stock cylinder that i could find. I have seen posts that identified cylinders that are not the same as mine and i think would break my window if i used them (travel distances of 4" or 5" were cited). The actual operating range on my 1998 370 DA are as follows:

Closed (length between centerline of the two pin ends): 13.5"
Open (length between centerline of the two pin ends): 15.5"
By subtraction the length of movement is: 2"

Please note that the cylinder that is there can extend/retract 5" but the closed limit switch only allows it to retract to 13.5 inches long (length between centerline of the two pin ends). I could not find a cylinder that actuates 2" and has the closed length of 13.5 inches. So for now i am living with this and so long as i do not open the window fully, I can close it. If I drive it too far open, I disconnect the pin end from the window and hand turn the cylinder back in a couple turns, reconnect the pin to the window, and the switch works again. Another alternative would be to buy a 2" actuator and add some sort of extension to one end or the other to get the overall length I need.