Freelander 1 tailgate window lift puzzler

Greetings all!
I’ve not been posting for a while but I’m still here and still plodding along with the same old L-series diesel hippo I’ve owned from new and now on 170k plus miles. She is still pretty reliable and returning between 30-40 mpg depending on conditions.The thing is I’ve done most maintenance and repair jobs on this model and some at least twice but this time I’m a bit baffled. Let me explain.

Recently I pressed the switch to lower the tailgate glass only to be met with that familiar clunk which told me that one of the lift cables had snapped. All fairly straightforward and a fairly easy fix or so I thought. I’ve learned from experience that it’s not really worth replacing the cables, much easier to buy a complete unit less motor for around 25gbp. Anyway new unit arrived quite quickly and I got on with job of exposing the damage. Once exposed the damage was quickly assessed as a broken cable. So far so good.

Old unit stripped out. new unit fitted after a bit of head scratching and time to check operation before fitting glass. Mrs H was summoned to operate switch while I watched operation of mechanism. My spirits lifted with the operation of the mechanism only to be dashed a moment later when my call to operate the switch in the opposite direction resulted in……nothing. A familiar feeling when working on land rovers.

I then got thinking about how the motor knows when it has reached the required travel and how does it know to reverse direction? Time to visit landy zone. I searched on various related topics but there seemed no definitive explanation. I’m wondering if my window lift failure was not so much a failure of the mechanism but a symptom of a different failure. If for example the motor mechanism is controlled by the relay which clearly worked at the time, or is it the switch which most probably reverses polarity for the other direction.

Today I will set about the operation with my trusty multimeter to carry out further and better investigations. Sorry about the spiel but I’m looking for answers here and I’m hoping that some acknowledged expert in this field might give me the benefit of his or her wisdom.

Yours aye Happyhippo.

if you operated the mechanism with out the glass attached the ECU will not function as it relies on the motor loading on the up and down strokes

Recalibrate it first…
With the tailgate closed, disconnect the battery, then reconnect it. The tail window will drop down. Then switch on ignition and raise the window all the way to the top using the button in the car. Release the button - window should now be calibrated.

The glass position when closed is indicated by a hall effect sensor in the motor assembly. When it stops moving the CCU knows glass is up.

As above, recalibrate with glass in and see what happens. In have had defective sensors which can be changed or motor complete can be changed.

Thread 'Tailgate window motor components' https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/tailgate-window-motor-components.335936/

Have a read at my research and findings !

Computer says :

NO.

Do it my way.

Thank you everybody who took the trouble to respond.

As always Landy Zone members were enormously helpful and enabled me to finish the job. Looking at the various stages of solving the problems I probably knew some of the answers but didn’t realise how important some of these facts were. When you get to my age I realise that I have forgotten more than I know about the Freelander!

Anyway seeing the explanation that the window motor operates with 12 v on pins 3 & 6 one way and reverse polarity for motion in other direction, I quickly realised that I was on the right track. It was the work of a moment to reinstate the glass (more like an hour with all the faffing about!) and recalibrate the window as explained to me in this thread. Hooray, window rushes up and down with great vigour. Then by this stage I was on my own operating the switch some distance from the window when I heard a ripping noise. A quick investigation revealed that the tailgate won’t now open. Window drops 25mm to release glass from seal but lock won’t open. More head scratching and searching LandyZone to realise that this is an electrical problem with the latch and crucially the power wire is purple and blue. Fortunately I hadn’t reinstated the rear door card but had to clamber into the load space to investigate further. Rummage the wires going to the door lock, find purple/blue wire and hey presto it is loose and free. I prised the plug out of the latch mechanism and found that the wire had been pulled out of the plug by the window glass travelling up and down. Simple job to reinstate wire and spend time forensically checking that all door lock wiring including that for the window heating element is held back out of the way with zip ties drilled through metalwork of door carcass.

Finally all was working satisfactorily, I just had to make a new waterproof membrane and the jobs a good ‘un.

Thanks again to all. When you’re in a dark place it’s good to know that LandyZone can shine the light!

Happyhippo said:

Thank you everybody who took the trouble to respond.

As always Landy Zone members were enormously helpful and enabled me to finish the job. Looking at the various stages of solving the problems I probably knew some of the answers but didn’t realise how important some of these facts were. When you get to my age I realise that I have forgotten more than I know about the Freelander!

Anyway seeing the explanation that the window motor operates with 12 v on pins 3 & 6 one way and reverse polarity for motion in other direction, I quickly realised that I was on the right track. It was the work of a moment to reinstate the glass (more like an hour with all the faffing about!) and recalibrate the window as explained to me in this thread. Hooray, window rushes up and down with great vigour. Then by this stage I was on my own operating the switch some distance from the window when I heard a ripping noise. A quick investigation revealed that the tailgate won’t now open. Window drops 25mm to release glass from seal but lock won’t open. More head scratching and searching LandyZone to realise that this is an electrical problem with the latch and crucially the power wire is purple and blue. Fortunately I hadn’t reinstated the rear door card but had to clamber into the load space to investigate further. Rummage the wires going to the door lock, find purple/blue wire and hey presto it is loose and free. I prised the plug out of the latch mechanism and found that the wire had been pulled out of the plug by the window glass travelling up and down. Simple job to reinstate wire and spend time forensically checking that all door lock wiring including that for the window heating element is held back out of the way with zip ties drilled through metalwork of door carcass.

Finally all was working satisfactorily, I just had to make a new waterproof membrane and the jobs a good ‘un.

Thanks again to all. When you’re in a dark place it’s good to know that LandyZone can shine the light!

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Nice one. Well done!