Well I was beginning to wonder if the m100 was really a lotus. Sure it leaks from the top a bit and the oil filter is a pain to change but it has been very reliable kind of like a volvo. But upon completing the electric window repair there is no doubt it was built by our friends at the lotus factory. It takes about 4-6 hours per window, a hand full of pop rivets, the latch parts that are designed to break , some fasteners cut to length and some silicone rubber to put it all back together.
All this to fix a design that was bound to fail. real lotus stuff.
Any way on to the fix etc.Problem: side windows stick and require "pulling up" on the rear of the window to raise them without binding. A few list members have said the motors have failed this could also contribute to motor failure by increasing the torque required to lift the windows.
Cause: there are 4 blocks that attach the window to the guide rails the rear 2 are attached to a metal plate and should not be a problem the front two are held on with 4 mm flatheads through a nylon spacer, the spacer is threaded and there are two screws in each, one through the glass and another through the block that slides in the window guides, (the lower spacer is longer than the top one so don't interchange them) The screws on my car were not loctited in and 3 of the four from both window had come undone. Even if they had been this attachment requires the nylon threads not to fail 4 MM threads in nylon seem insufficient for the torque applied to hold the window in place.
My fix: What I did was to replace the two screws with one that is longer and goes all the way through the window to the block using loctite to secure a nut to the block side of the assembly. I used the "I never want to take this apart again" strength loctite as I don't. This should be a improvement it uses the strength of the 4 mm screw to hold the assembly together instead of the threaded nylon. Hopefully it will stay together.
Procedure: If you have a shop manual it has good directions for doing this but a few things are not clear. This is just a quick outline of what needs to be removed and replaced to remove the window so you can reattach the blocks if you have the manual use it also.
remove the red inserts in the door lock knobs the manual says you will break them and I did. they have a GM part number but I haven't checked with the local GM guys to see if they are good numbers. You remove these by prying under the edges with a curved probe.
pull out the door lock knobs
remove screw beneath the door lock knobs and remove the trim insert
Carefully peel back the carpet at the bottom of the door it is glued in place so be careful if you don't want to replace it. Remove it entirely.
Remove the leather inserts under the interior door handle. This was held in by silicone rubber on my car and came out easily
remove the screw under the door release handle
Remove the trim piece under the door release handle. it tips out in the front and is held in the back by a pair of "hooks" that release as you slide it forward. This required a bit of fiddling and some careful bending of the trim piece.
remove all screws you can see on the door panel 3 in front, a bunch under the carpet, 4 around the door handle, one at the rear top corner and a few under the leather door insert. when all the screws are removed the door panel comes off with no other hidden clips etc. so if it isn't coming off yet you don't have all the screws removed.
Remove the door panel. Mine had some very lotus like fat washers glued in place around the door handle attachments to shim it to the proper fit. they may fall out when you remove the panel.
there are 2 abs "black plastic" covers held in with plastic expanding rivets. You only need to remove the front one. Push the plastic pins through the center of the rivets until the fall out into the door.
remove the panel and collect up the plastic pins you pushed through the rivets now in the bottom of the door.
Look in the bottom of the door for any nylon shoulder washers and rubber washers. these are the parts that fall out of the door if you are lucky they will be stuck in the door somewhere.
at the top of the door remove the screws holding the metal strip that holds down the rubber trim strip that sat on top of the removed door panel. Remove the metal strip.
Peel off the rubber strip it is held on with contact cement.
Drill out the pop rivets on the exposed bracket several along the top and one at the rear. I used a plate to protect the door seal when I drilled the rear rivet.
Remove the strip and the Silicone rubber at the rear of the strip this needs to be done with the window down if it isn't already.
Remove the screws from the speaker housing and remove it from the door
position the window about 1/2 way up. You will see two large cone shaped blocks attached to the bottom of the window unscrew the philips screw in the center the rear one requires removal of a soft rubber access plug in the door, Don't remove the t nuts behind the blocks they are held to the glass with a sealastic adhesive.
lower the window until you can see where the lift mechanism attaches to the glass in the center of the window. There is a plastic circlip attached to the plastic slider by a molded plastic strap. Just reach in and carefully pull down on the strap and the circlip will come off.
Lower the window further and push the window off the plastic lift pin. You may have to loosen the fasteners at the bottom of the door that hold in the lift mechanism
Remove the plastic trim piece by the mirror that covers the front window guide it is held on with hook and loop fasteners and just pulls off.
loosen the three screws holding the mirror in place one is under the door gasket. You don't need to remove it entirely just loosen it.
Remove the rubber "gasket" that is between the door and mirror
The window now should simply pull out the top of the door. The defective blocks should be trapped in the channel so don't lose them as they come out.
Get replacement 4 mm bolts that are long enough to go through the shoulder washer, window , spacer and block and some standard (not nylock) nuts
remove the existing screws one at a time the spacers are not the same length so don't mix them up. the longer ones are towards the bottom of the window.
on my windows the order of assembly was nylon shoulder washer, window glass, rubber washer, threaded nylon standoff, rectangular block and a flat washer, the new longer screw goes through all this with the head toward the shoulder washer. The new screw cannot extend beyond the block or the will interfere with the channel I had to cut mine to length as the stock lengths available were wrong. Loctite the nuts on the block end of the screw.