Fixing your Honda Civic manual window isn’t a very difficult job, but can be an important one. Having your window come off track or become stuck is an extremely annoying thing, and one we’ll show you guys how to remedy today. Today we’ll be taking apart the manual window in a 1996 Honda Civic Hatchback, and showing you guys How To Fix Honda Civic Manual Windows.
Tools you will need to perform this job
- Needle nose pliers
- Phillips and Standard screwdriver
- Silicon Spray
- 10mm wrench
The problems that occur from your Honda Civic window coming off track can be numerous from the window track or regulator problems. We’ll show you first how to take the door apart to access the window and regulator bolts and braces. This is stage 1 of how to fix Honda Civic Manual windows.
To begin make sure that you have a clear open space and all the tools needed, as with all of our writeups, this is merely a guide to show you what needs to be done. If you are uncomfortable working on your vehicle, please take your car to an experienced mechanic.
Removing your Door Panel
First open the door handle to expose the main screw that holds your door handle trim in place.
Remove this screw and take off the door handle guide and trim, set these pieces to the side.
Now turn your attention to the door handle, there’s one screw that holds the door handle trim to the door bracket.
Remove this screw and set these pieces to the side for reinstallation later.
Next up is your speaker cover pull towards the back of the vehicle and up, to remove the speaker cover and expose the speaker.
Remove the 3 screws that hold the speaker into the door bracket, and unplug your front speaker assembly.
After you remove the speaker and unplug your connection, move onto the door panel itself.
Now remove the 3 screws that hold the speaker door panel in place, make sure you have a safe place for all these screws.
Now with these screws undone, it’s time to remove your manual window crank. If you are on this page and you have power windows, this step can be skipped.
Turn the manual window crank around until you see the bare part of the retaining clip, pull this clip out to remove the window crank. You are now halfway done with our how to fix Honda Civic manual windows guide.
With your window crank removed, you can now grab the lower portion of your door panel and pull away gently to pull away the door clips. These plastic clips are fragile and can break if you are not careful, so make sure to be extra gentle when tugging.
Now with the door panel removed, take a look at the door for any loose or straggler plastic clips that help pin the door panel in place. Pull these plastic clips out and place them back in the door panel.
Lift up on the panel and you should now be looking at your bare door that is protected by a sheet of plastic, carefully remove or peel back the plastic to expose the inner workings of your door.
Circled are 3 of the 4 possible adjustment points for your window track and guides, with the rear guide 10mm shown. Normally when a window comes off track, it’s usually a lubrication issue which we’ll tackle next.
Lubricating your door guides and window regulator.
If your Honda Civic window is coming off track, chances are your guides have dried up and the window is binding when you are rolling the window up.
Pulling the plastic cover back from the door will allow you to spray a thin film of silicone spray onto the door guides to help your window slide up and down.
Loosen the 10mm bolts that hold the guides in place and let the guides loose as you crank your window up and down. Adjusting your guides to help your window stay in the track and go up smoothly should be relatively easy and straightforward.
After you loosen the front guide and rear guide, it’s time to spray a gentle coat of silicon spray into the channel of the guide to help your window slide up and down.
If problems persist, you may have an issue with your roller brackets of your manual window regulator. First lubricate the roller in the guide, so that the wheels do not bind or seize in the guide.
Make sure to lubricate your rollers in the rear bracket as well as the front, and now try to roll your window up and down. If your window is STILL sticking in place, it’s time to take apart the window regulator itself.
Undo the 2 10mm bolts that hold the window to your regulator in place, and gently slide the window up and out of the door panel. Next undo the 4 10mm bolts that secure the regulator to the door, and gently turn the regulator to the left and slide it out of your door.
Make sure to pull the regulator and braces out without denting or damaging the outside of your door.
With your regulator now removed you should now be able to see what the issue is if your window is still sticking or coming off track. Our particular car happened to have a bent regulator arm, and also some damage to the center pin of the window regulator.
If you suspect that your manual regulator is damaged, remove the spring loaded clip to inspect the regulator itself.
As you can see here the manual window regulator has some serious damage to the pivot joint which is causing excess play in the window track. This excess movement causes our window to bind when rolling up or down, so we’ll be replacing the window regulator to take care of our issue.
Congratulations! You have now completed our How To Fix Honda Civic Manual Windows, and repaired your Honda Civic window.
Have any questions or comments regarding our how to? Leave us a message below!
When doing the replacement with a new regulator the window keeps jumping track about half way up. How do you correct that issue?
Hi Heather, there can be lots of reasons for this..
1. Check your guides to make sure they are going up at the same time. If the 10mm nuts are off center, it will cause the window to go up and bind.
2. Check the outside of your window and watch the moldings when raising your window. Over time this molding can become flattened or warped causing your window to jump off track.
Check these two points and let us know how it looks and we can help you further! Thanks for commenting!
Wow, so glad you said before even thinking about doing this: have an experienced mechanic do this!
At the same time, I really appreciate seeing all the “gory” details of what it all looks like.
Even though I won’t be trying to fix my windows I now know what the parts look like, especially ones that might need to be replaced.
I have a 1990 Honda Civic Wagon that’s hardly worth a thing but it does run and so it seems as though it will be worth doing.
Thanks for the tutorial, Ruby
Hi Ruby, Thank you for reading and commenting!
My civic’s drivers side window works fine except that as I am driving it slips down/opens a bit…it won’t stay all the way rolled up. Do you think the silicone spray would help this? Or would I need a new regulator? .. thank you…
Hi Connor, thanks for reading.
Sounds like you need to open up the door and just tighten the support bar. Not to mention you can also adjust the window by loosening the main 10mm nuts and push up on the window regulator assembly. This is in a manual window Civic right? Thanks for commenting!
THe window on my civic goes up and down fine, however slips down about a half inch while driving. Do you think this would require a new regulator or just some new silicon spray?
Thanks!
Connor
Hi Connor! thanks for commenting!
You either have a slipping track on your electronic regulator ( we assume its power windows ) or the holes in your door have been damaged, causing the window to slip down. Open up your door and check the panels sir!
I’m not a car guy at all…just wanting to know if it’s possible to exchange just the little metal shaft that the handle actually sits on? The person I got it from was using grip pliers and notches at the end of that piece of metal are no more.
Hi Dom, if your Honda Civic has manual windows, then yes it’s very easy to replace this piece. You can typically find it for 40 dollars at a Honda parts store, or used at a junkyard for around 20.
Thanks for commenting!
My problem is that the glass has become dislodged from the plastic clips that sit at the top rail of the regulator. I’ve tried multiple things to get them to stick firmly. Super glue, epoxy, silicone, etc….nothing is working!!!!
I noted in these pictures, there is a black glue/tar holding the glass into the clip.
What do I ask for? How do I get it? It’s a nightmare without this essential part of the fix for me.
Hi Cullen. that’s a huge bummer and one we know a lot about unfortunately. Once the glass has broken away from the plastic clips you aren’t going to be able to restore it back to original or factory form without some huge modifications and really rolling the dice.. last thing you want to happen is your adhesive to give up on a hot day or over some bumps at speed. Best to pick up a replacement sheet of glass from a junkyard Civic.
Nice.