Zooter

I recently purchased a 1995 Del Sol from one of my neighbors. After getting the car home and starting to tear into it a bit I noticed that the car had been previously wrecked at some point. Before I get started, let me tell you a little about the car.

D16Y7 engine (a/c and power steering removed along with all components and such for each)
Greddy header to a high flow catalytic converter to 24" resonator and then nothing
full coilover suspension (thanks to ebay it looks like)
upper and lower control arms in the rear
slight weight reduction with some of the unnecessary things removed
Rest of the vehicle appears stock

So there are a couple of issues that I have come across. First, the passenger power window doesn't work. Upon removing the door panel I have found that the four wires coming out of the top of the motor have been cut and are just hanging out with the ends of each wire exposed. The wire colors are, blue, black, red/blue, and red/yellow. I have looked over the wiring schematics and thought I knew what each was (except the solid blue wire) and tried giving the motor power with no results. Could someone clarify what each of the wires coming from the power window motor are?

Second question, or issue, is that the car seems to "slump" on the entire passenger side. I raised the vehicle and the ride height is set equally all around the vehicle. Camber bolts have been used so the tires are at a -1 degree camber. When I put the car back onto the ground though, the passenger side sits, visually, way lower than the driver side. Cant seem to figure out why this is happening. Is this a common issue that Del Sol's have or is it possible that the previous wreck cause some sort of damage that would affect the entire passenger side of the vehicle. It looks like the hit something on the front passenger side but the fenders and the bumper still line up and the headlight goes in as it is supposed to. Once again, I am stumped. Any insight?

Thanks

x.l.r.8

swap the front struts over and see if its a simple fix

Former User

The passenger window uses only two of the motor wires.

Zooter

So what are the solid blue and solid black wires for? One has to be the ground for the motor to work and the other.... Well I have no clue as to the other but I assume it's not just there for show.

And it's only the passenger side that is slumped. The driver side of the vehicle sits at what I assume is the correct height. I will try swapping out the coilover with the spares that I have and see if this fixes the issue.

Former User

Take a close look at the circuit diagram. The driver window motor uses 4 wires, and the passenger motor only uses two. The extra 2 wires for the driver motor are for the automatic down function. The passenger window lacks this function. So yes, the two extra wires on the passenger motor are just for show.

x.l.r.8

Not all del sol's are left hand drive, some of them require the master switch to be on the right hand side

x.l.r.8

The reason I said swap the struts over was that way you get to compare a to b, not add in some other variable. measure the spring wire diameter and count the coils, I wonder is you have a rear on the front, but a quick swap over would confirm its the strut/spring or the car chassis

Former User

Not sure what point you're making.

x.l.r.8

On right hand drive cars the drivers side would need the addition of the blue wires. hence for there being in the loom in the first place

Former User

So the LHD and RHD wire harnesses are the same for the power windows? In that case, I don't understand the need to add the extra wires to the passenger side. I'm sure it's my lack of knowledge about how RHD and LHD Del Sols are similar and different.

mk378

They may use the same motor on both sides. The passenger door is not wired for the auto stop function, so only the two wires for the motor itself are used.

To test the motor, connect a car battery or a jump-starter pack to the two motor wires when it is disconnected from the harness-- this should make the window go up or down (reverse the polarity to make it go the other way).

White_EG1

Hey man if you ever need a del Sol window I have both the driver and passenger side.... Just pay for shipping and their yours OEM glass still in the box.

Zooter

Just wanted to give an update. Thanks for the insight and help with the wiring on the passenger power window. Works great. As far as the slump on the passenger side, the more I dug into it investigating, the more I have found as an issue. The previous owner used a myriad of bolts of different sizes, what looks as though they threw whatever they had laying around in as a temporary fix. I found that the forks on the front coil-overs were not even bolted to the actual coil-over itself. I then discovered that the upper control arms in the rear of the vehicle were way different from each other as far as how they were setup. Got them evened out and the camber seems to be in order and the ride height in the rear is relatively the same. At least from looking at it from a few feet back. As far as the front goes, there is an after market upper control on the passenger side and an oem on the driver. Not sure exactly why they sit so much differently when the car is off of the jack stands but I did notice that the control arm that is aftermarket has a camber adjustment on it where the oem does not. Im sure that once I play with it a bit, I should be able to get the ride heights the same for both sides of the car and I will also get correct bolts put into the correct spots. The control arm in the rear has a bolt that sticks probably 5 inches out the back of the control arm. It looks as though it is smooth on the part that is actually inside the bushing, which I don't know if it is supposed to be, but the other side has a no such bolt. Looks threaded all the way through on the bolt they used. Basically, I just have to do a little searching and investigating to figure out what bolts are supposed to be where they are supposed to be.
Thanks for the help though everyone.

x.l.r.8

seeing as your car shares civic suspension I would think it would be easier to put it back to OEM and even it out.

mk378

A cautionary tale about buying a car that is already modified. Sounds like it may not be safe to drive at this point.

Zooter

I did just that and switched back to the oem civic suspension and front control arms. Car sits great now and, fortunately drives pretty good. Got it up to 90 the other day before the road demanded slower speeds for a corner. Fun little car to drive. Did discover that I am going to need to replace the alternator as a mile into the trip the battery light came on and my headlights intermittently started to flash on and off. Small and easy fix though. Hopefully that should wrap up the mechanical issues and I will be able to move onto the next project. Thanks for the help everyone who offered it.

Former User

First check the alternator belt tension and whether the mounting nut and mounting bracket bolts are tight.