Daihatsu Hi-jet Broken Window Winder Repair (Part 1)

Last Updated on February 18, 2023

I’ve only owned my Daihatsu Hi-Jet for a few days, and I bought it largely as a reaction to owning modern cars that I couldn’t fix myself, like my Honda Aerodeck. The car this Hi-Jet is replacing is my Mondeo Zetec S, going from 2.5l V6 petrol to the 993cc Hi-Jet has been quite a leap! The first saving was road tax, a years road tax for our little van is less than six months tax for the Mondeo, considerably less!

I was expecting this cute little Hi-Jet to have a few bits of mechanical character, after all it is well over ten years old! So when I tried to wind down the passenger side window for the first time and nothing happened I wasn’t all that surprised. I quick search on Google found me the Daihatsu Drivers UK website and I signed up for a free membership with no hesitation. Once I was on the forum I spotted someone else was having a problem with a broken window winder, you can see the thread HERE I read the post and set to work on my own hi-jet…

18th October 2008
I don’ t know if my hi-jet is older than the one mentioned on the forum, but I found none of the foam and waterproofing I was expecting! Mind you, simple is fine by me! After removing the door handle it was really easy to pull the door card off with my fingers and peer into the door. I’m quite impressed with the amount of space inside the door, maybe I can have some door mounted stereo speakers after all!

Next stage was to open the panel on the drivers side door and compare one to the other.

As you can see from the photos above, the window is no longer attached to the top ‘rung’ of the winder mechanism. The question is, where is the fixing bolt that is evident in the driver side winder mechanism? I fished around in the bottom of inside of the door and crammed my hand into the gap at the top of the door cavity and still couldn’t find the bolt! The window appears to be jammed in the closed position, which I suppose is better than it being open all the time, but it doesn’t half get hot in this little vans so a window that opens would be far preferable! It was worth opening the drivers door, I found out that one of the runners that guide the window down the inside of the door had rusted and buckled and was causing the window to open at a really awkward angle. I’ve pulled this dodgy runner out and chucked it. I suppose I probably ought to replace it though, in the short term I’ve warned the wife to be careful opening the window!

So the next step is figuring out how to free up the window, and then seeing if I can find one of the wee widgets that fixed the top rung of the winder to the bottom of the window, or at least something that
will do the same job.

As you can see from these photos, the window is no longer attached to the top ‘rung’ of the winder mechanism. The question is, where is the fixing bolt that is evident in the driver side winder mechanism? I fished around in the bottom of inside of the door and crammed my hand into the gap at the top of the door cavity and still couldn’t find the bolt! The window appears to be jammed in the closed position, which I suppose is better than it being open all the time, but it doesn’t half get hot in this little vans so a window that opens would be far preferable! It was worth opening the drivers door, I found out that one of the runners that guide the window down the inside of the door had rusted and buckled and was causing the window to open at a really awkward angle. I’ve pulled this dodgy runner out and chucked it. I suppose I probably ought to replace it though, in the short term I’ve warned the wife to be careful opening the window!

So the next step is figuring out how to free up the window, and then seeing if I can find one of the wee widgets that fixed the top rung of the winder to the bottom of the window, or at least something that will do the same job.