Repair Discovery 1 rear electric windows
There are a few common problems with discovery electric windows. The switches in the centre console don’t seem particularly reliable - I have had to change a few. The good news is all four of these electric window switches are the same so it’s easy to swap them around to prove if it’s the switch at fault. If your discovery rear electric windows won’t open from the centre console switches or from the switches on the rear door, it’s more likely you have a problem with the electric window ECU. This electronic control unit sits behind the glove box and also appears to be a common problem.
If you can use a soldering iron and a few basic tools this is definitely worth a go before you start ordering expensive replacement window ECU just to fix the rear electric windows.
I have had several emails asking if I can supply reconditioned discovery electric window lift ECUs. I often have these for sale with the dry joints soldered up and tested. Please see the land rover parts page. If you are unable to repair your own unit and I don't currently have any available I am able to have your unit repaired. Please contact me for more information.
To repair Land Rover discovery electric window lift ECU
Firstly you need to remove the glove box. This is easy enough; you remove the four bolts holding the hinges (7mm socket or spanner required for these).
Once you have removed the bolts from both hinges you can lift the glove box out. With a bit of fiddling you can get the spring loaded side bits to come out through the little cut outs without having to unscrew anything else.
Once
the glove box is out of the way you can easily locate the electric
window ECU - see picture for exact location.
This is
on a none ABS model. If yours has ABS the window lift ECU is still
in the same place but there will be an ABS ECU alongside it.
In the above picture I have already prised out the black trim from around the ECU multi plugs, this comes out easy enough with a flat head screwdriver. Once this trim is out of the way you can remove the board from the electric window control unit. The circuit board will come out with the ECU still bolted in place; there is no need to remove the bolts holding it in. This is what the top of the circuit board will look like.
Flip it over and look for dry joints (damaged solder). If in doubt, re solder any suspect ones. The one that is most commonly damaged is shown below.
2 Minutes with the soldering iron and its time to refit and test that you have rear electric windows working on your discovery! The car these pics were taken on is our 1995 300tdi Land Rover Discovery RHD; some other models may vary slightly. My rear electric windows didn’t work at all for months, this was made all the more irritating by the fact I fixed it in 20 minutes in the end. I believe there is a very similar problem with range rover classics, I don’t know if they share the same electric window ECU but I would think it’s highly likely!
I have since done loads of these ECU repairs – it really does seem to be a common problems with discovery rear electric windows.
Please note this article assumes you can use a soldering iron without burning yourself, your car or anything else for that matter. It’s not a definitive technical guide, its just a few pictures of how I solved the problem of my Land Rover Discovery rear windows not opening.