Review on 🚘 Dorman Front Driver Side Power Window Motor and Regulator Assembly (Black) for Select Dodge Models - 741-649 by Hugo Caywood

I really think this Dorman power window assembly is good value for money, overall good quality and a good match to original parts, but I gave 3 stars because it has a built in defect that affects its Lifespan severely limited. If you are reading this, most likely your regulator has failed and the window has fallen in the door. This has happened to me 4 times on the driver's window. I'm pretty good at replacing them - about every 2 years on my 2003 Dakota. I can do the whole job in about 20 minutes as it's pretty easy. So the replacement is easy and the cost isn't that high, but what really annoys me is the unpredictability of when the failure will occur. It always happens at the worst possible time - you're going to work, going on a trip, hundreds of miles from home, it was just raining, etc. etc. You're stuck with no side window. Another big annoyance of mine is that these regulators always fail in the same way. The 10 cent plastic clip that holds the crimped ends of the drive cable in the window regulator plate always fails at the top where all of the travel is exerted when the window is run up and then held in the closed position. From what I've read online, most others experience this crash as well. It is my understanding that it is inexcusable that such an obvious and well-known deficiency was not addressed by Dorman. Although their beautiful video touts identifying "failure modes" and "reworking defective parts to improve design," they had almost 10 years to fix this issue and they didn't. The plastic part that fails is one of the cheapest parts of the regulator assembly, but of course the entire assembly must be replaced when it fails. Any savvy engineer could figure out how to improve this - add metal reinforcement to the plastic shackle and make it a dime, or even form cable holders out of lifting plate compaction. I suspect Dorman would end up selling you a new regulator every 2 years rather than just one. After my last regulator was replaced I decided to take a few minutes to assess the issue to see if I could. could have done anything to improve "failure mode" (I'm not an engineer). The photos attached here describe what I did to make a pair of aluminum cable clamp mounts. I hope you find this information useful and try it yourself if you want. If you can remove and replace the regulator assembly yourself, these brackets are easy to make. UPDATE - September 2018 Wow, time flies! It's been 3 years since I modified the driver's door adjuster cable clip. I had a chance to test this out the other day when I removed the door panel for a speaker repair. It has already lasted 50% longer than the other 4 I had previously replaced and I did the same rear adjuster modification on the driver's side about a year ago. The good news is that the clip looks the same as when it was new. There are no cracks, no deformation, no visible wear on the plastic. In my opinion, the failure of this clamp has not become a problem. The rest of the controller looks good too. Cables and guides are not worn and the engine runs smooth and quiet. This is a good regulator block once the clip issue is resolved and I expect it to last at least another 5 years.