I'm about 1 step away from calling 911 to get some help on this.
I have an '03 Pathfinder and all of a sudden when I removed the key and opened the door to climb out the drivers and passenger side windows all of a sudden went down. I've since spent a good couple hours playing around with the key in the ignition, key out, door open, door closed, and pretty much everything in between to keep the windows from going down. Nothing has worked so far short of disconnecting the battery and hope that fixes it or resets it. Anything to keep the windows from going down. I've run out of options pretty much at this point with a couple hours sitting in it trying to get the windows to stay up when I'd get out. I've cussed at it, swore at it, yelled at it and that didn't work either.
So now I'm on the computer looking online for an answer. Is this just a Nissan window thing like I've read? This is a dilemma for a dozen reasons I don't need to explain. Right now it's in my driveway with the windows down and it's supposed to rain tomorrow and I need to get to the bottom of this. I've tried just about all the solutions I've watched or read online except for removing the door panel (which I sure don't want to do since I've never had luck getting the door panel to fit correctly when I've done that in other vehicles) and removing the battery. How do I fix this and keep it from happening again so the windows won't all of a sudden go down in the middle of a rainy night? I'm either going to have to call 911 or just throw a stick of dynamite in it and just run. I'll disconnect the battery first and see if that does anything to fix the problem. Thx for any suggestions/ideas.

Kind of sounds like the window reset problem like I had, except it would roll up, then down partway. As it turned out just when in the auto up mode, not in the halfway hold it until you get where you want to mode. Here are a couple of suggestions,

post6238527.html

post5052547.html

Been outside since I initially posted trying everything to keep my windows from going down, to no avail. Just came back in and jumped online just to see IF anyone answered my dilemma. Sadly no. Looking like my windows will have to stay down overnight at this point and I'm going to have to hope nothing gets stolen or no critters jump inside. I guess I'll have to start drinking heavily.

Thx for your reply. I clicked your link and as soon as I saw it was the ole door panel trick I was hoping that wasn't it. I've never had good luck getting any door panel to fit right in any vehicle I've removed the door panel on. Oh boy. Thanks for your response.

You don't have to remove the entire door panel, just the switch controls. You don't even need tools. Just pull the switch controls panel off the door and you will see the reset button on the window motor. Nissan even put a hole in the plastic sheet covering the inner door workings so that it is accessible. I did my '02 Pathfinder this way last year. (AFK 2 minutes) To be sure I am not mistaken, I just now accessed it again on my '02 to be certain. In 5 minutes you'll be back to normal. Just follow the procedure steps here. https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... 003/bt.pdf

Seems like I had to pull the door panel on mine, but it wasn't too bad. Just make sure you have all the screws out first, they aren't all obvious.

Thank you for the reply MikeW. I went and walked my fob about 50 ft away, walked back to my Pathfinder, fired it up and rolled the windows up. Shut it off, waited a minute then opened the door and held my breath...and the windows went down again. I see I had someone else, mdmellott, reply back and I'll click his link and try out his suggestion in the morning. It's dark out here now, found out my flashlight batteries have seen better days so will have to wait til morning when I can see what I'm doing and reply back here then with my feedback.

For now I have some cardboard

Thx for the replies guys!

Thx for your response. I clicked the link in your post, but, what am I looking for? It shows the factory service manual, what in particular am I looking for on there that'll show me the procedure you suggested? I don't see anything on there that jumps out at me that explains how to keep my windows from going down automatically on my Pathfinder.? The only links to click on are in the right column, recent news articles and it looks like various forums.

mdmellott wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 02, 2020 5:43 pm

You don't have to remove the entire door panel, just the switch controls. You don't even need tools. Just pull the switch controls panel off the door and you will see the reset button on the window motor. Nissan even put a hole in the plastic sheet covering the inner door workings so that it is accessible. I did my '02 Pathfinder this way last year. (AFK 2 minutes) To be sure I am not mistaken, I just now accessed it again on my '02 to be certain. In 5 minutes you'll be back to normal. Just follow the procedure steps here. https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... 003/bt.pdf

On the first page of this Body and Trim section, click on Front Door Limit Switch Reset or just scroll to page 20. The simple instructions are as follows: (copied from service manual)
1. Close the door window completely.
2. Press the reset switch and open the door window completely.
3. Release the reset switch. After making sure the reset switch has returned to the original position, close the door window completely.
4. The limit switch is now reset.
CAUTION:
Be sure to manually open or close the door window. (Do not use the automatic open-close procedures.)

The reset button is more like a tiny rubber nub. It doesn't click or push in like you might think a button would. Just press on it quite firmly and continuously before you manually open the window in step 2. You won't be able to see the entire mechanism shown in the picture in the manual but the button is completely exposed and accessible to push on with your finger. You can close the window now but do not use the automatic close function. Only press the window open/close switch half way down to manually close it but do so just until the window is barely closed. If you continue to manually close it till the window is pressed too tight into the top of the window channel the system will falsely "detect" an interference and open back up several inches. This is actually a safety feature that helps prevent dog's heads, hanging out the window, from getting choked (for example) if you were to try and automatically roll up the window. Once you have it reset and the window works automatically again, you can test the safety feature by automatically rolling up the window but block it from rolling up all the way by putting a rolled up magazine or newspaper in the way. The window should stop when it encounters the interference and then open back up several inches. Worn out roller guides or a window guide track that has lost all of its lubricating grease can also cause the window motor to struggle when rolling up the window and make it falsely detect an interference. This is often how these motors get out of sync and need to be reset. However, if that is what is happening, you will have to remove the entire door panel in order to apply some lithium or silicone grease to the roller guide track.

Thanks for the thorough explanation mdmellott! I've re-read your post several times trying to visualize the process before I try to tackle it this AM. I'm guessing I need to download the entire manual to understand where the reset switch even is, correct? Because, looking at the inside of my door it sure doesn't jump out at me anywhere. It'd be nice if it was neon glow-in-the-dark so I wouldn't need to wear glasses trying to locate where it is. I'll keep you posted, THANK YOU MUCH for the detailed post. I just need to find step 1, the reset button and I think I'll be able to proceed from there. Hopefully.

One thing I just remembered that I forgot to mention...I don't know if it's relevant or not. I had put a phone charger in the cigarette lighter and that seems to be the start of when my windows would all of a sudden go down when I shut my vehicle off a couple days ago. I don't know if it triggered something, shorted out something, or what, but up until I did that I didn't have any problem with the windows. Since then I can't keep the windows to stay up once I shut off the key. Just wanted to throw that out there in case it is relevant somehow.

Alright, I got the power window housing off and think I located the reset button inside some plastic on the door panel itself. Had to come in and print out your instructions. This is where I'm confused though:

"CAUTION:
Be sure to manually open or close the door window. (Do not use the automatic open-close procedures.)"

Huh? Don't use the automatic button to open/close the windows? The windows were already all the way down overnight covered by cardboard. How in the world do I manually close/open the window when it's buried all the way down? Do I start my vehicle to try to pull it up by hand inch by inch most of the way up? Sorry for all the stupid questions but I know from experience when it comes to doing something on my own on my vehicles, especially electrical, I might as well as be Mr Magoo.
Before I press that reset button, do I need to have the window up beforehand, or it doesn't matter, I just need to press the reset button with the window halfway down and it should be good? I'm not a mechanical engineer so if anyone can F this up it would be me by short circuiting something and really screwing myself. I'm trying to connect the dots as best as I understand what I'm reading. Helen Keller would probably be able to do this more accurately than I can w/out the fear of misunderstanding the steps described.

I printed out the steps in your post and I'm going back outside to hopefully pull this off w/out causing a catastrophic electrical nightmare by doing something out of sequence or having the windows up when they should be down, the door closed when it should be open etc. If you smell smoke wherever you are it's probably me screwing it up.

Thank you again. Hopefully next time I report in here in a couple hours I'll have good news to report or I'm going to punt. Rain is forecast for the next 3 days.

Nope it didn't work. I've screwed around with this long enough. I've probably got 4+ hours in this mess the past couple of days. I'm on lockdown anyways. However, I've tried pushing in that rubber reset button (what a half-a** set up that is) using a screwdriver following the steps and tried it with the door closed, the door open, the key on, the key off, both windows up, both windows down, one window up and the other down and vice versa. as soon as I remove the key both windows go down again. I've pushed the unlock button on the fob down for 5 sec thinking just maybe, maybe, it would trip something. All I hear is a clicking but it doesn't stop the window situation. So, at this point I'm just going to have to park the Pathfinder out back, shove some cardboard in the open windows and try to cover them with plastic and hope it doesn't get soaked inside. Can't go anywhere with it and park it when the windows go down so until this virus hysteria is gone I'm kinda screwed driving it til mechanic shops reopen sometime this summer. I'll keep looking online in my spare time trying to find something, someone, anyone, who knows anything about how to fix this damn problem. Other than this the vehicle runs just fine but there is clearly something electrical going on preventing the windows staying up. Thanks for your help though but I'm going to keep hunting for a miracle needle in a haystack solution.

By manually roll the up it means to use the first step of the window switch, not the auto up feature which is the second. You might not even know you have it, but just push on the button hard enough so the window starts moving, not to where the switch stops. If none of that works, I'd figure out what fuse and pull the fuse when it's up.

When mine stopped working right it was a random event, nothing had changed, I hadn't done anything recently, just one day if I tried the full up position on the switch, it would go up, then halfway down. Only happened to one on mine though.

There is a gremlin messing with you if the windows are opening after you turn off and pull out the ignition key. The automatic versus manual operation of the windows is a difference or how you press on or lift up on the window control switch. Pressing it down all the way or lifting it up all the way triggers the window motor to open or close all the way automatically. Pressing the switch half way down or lifting it half way up moves the window manually until you release the switch. Normally to reset the limit switch, on both windows apparently, would be to start with the ignition in the On (not running) position, manually roll up the window, firmly press and hold the reset button, manually roll down the window, release the reset button, manually roll up the window. You should now be able to turn off the ignition and pull out the key and the window should stay up. Another Nissan reset procedure they have for other vehicles, not the '03 Pathfinder, is to press the control switch all the way down and hold it down for about 10 seconds after the window has fully opened and then lift the switch all the way up and hold it up for about 10 seconds after the window has fully closed. That procedure did not work on my '02 Pathfinder but maybe Nissan did something different on your '03. I doubt it but it's worth a try since it only takes a few seconds to test out. As for the phone charger you swapped in to replace the cigarette lighter, it's conceivable something with that charger may be causing the issue. The window safety feature that detects an interference or obstruction with the window rolling up functions by detecting an increased amperage load on the window motor that occurs when the motor is trying to roll up but cannot because it is blocked. If, when the ignition is turned off thereby cutting power to the charger, the charger may be dumping a stored electrical charge into the positive power lead causing just enough power surge in the line to trigger the safety feature into detecting an unexpected amperage load, opening the window. These chargers should have a diode in there circuit to prevent this electrical charge dumping but maybe you got a lemon. Since the charger installation was the beginning of your woes, disconnect the charger and see if that's the issue or not.

Do you have the key fob? One of the functions is when you hold down the unlock button, all the windows will roll down. Maybe it's jammed and causing the issue.

born2lse wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:08 pm

Do you have the key fob? One of the functions is when you hold down the unlock button, all the windows will roll down. Maybe it's jammed and causing the issue.

Brilliant! I never knew that was a thing. I just tried it and it works but only the front windows on mine came down about 6 inches. Take the battery out of the key fob and see if that's the culprit making your windows open up.

Thanks for the responses. I didn't try the 10 sec method you posted, I did maybe 5 sec. The phone charger I plugged in the cigarette lighter is just a simple plug in and after all this started happening I reverse engineered why this all of a sudden started happening and removed the cord from the cigarette lighter, which didn't change anything. I have the windows covered in plastic now and rain is forecast laster this morning. I had one guy in a different forum tell me to take the fob (my owners manual says it's good for 33 ft) and take it out of range, which I did, and try to start the vehicle, roll the windows up, shut it off and if the windows go down, which they did, it could be a bad fob. I called a Nissan dealership y'day 2 hours away that was open and it went into the service mgr vm and he never called me back. I called an open Chevy dealer and the guy I spoke to in the shop never heard of such a thing and wasn't any help. So, at this point I've had to punt and just parked it. I've gone through every scenario frontwards and backwards from various suggestions and feedback I've received and nothing so far has worked to keep the windows from going down. It's really frustrating that with everything I've read and watched the past 3 days that nothing has worked at all. I'll probably burn out the window motor as many attempts as I've made trying everything thrown my way so far only for the windows to go down every single time. Even if I leave the key in the ignition with the windows up, after a minute or two they automatically go down again. At this point I'm out of patience and optimism that there is a viable solution without having to rip out the window motor, re-wire the damn thing and cross my fingers that'll even work. And I don't want to go down that road.

Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions but EVERYTHING I've tried so far has been a big goose egg the past 3 days and countless hours banging my head against the steering wheel.

I can lock and unlock my Pathfinder with my remote at least 150 feet away without even having line of sight to the vehicle. If you want to rule out the remote, take the battery out so that it cannot possibly transmit a signal. The delayed, seeming spontaneous, opening of both front windows definitely has nothing to do with resetting the door limit switches. Sorry we went down that rabbit hole. All the details you have now described align perfectly with what born2lse suggested about the key fob remote. Take the battery out of it.

Thanks for the suggestion. Holding down the unlock button on the fob doesn't make the windows go down as born2lse mentioned. The fob I have doesn't have any mini-screws to remove any battery out of it. It's really no bigger than a box of stick matches. Maybe it pulls apart? It looks like it's one piece. I sure don't want to damage it by trying to rip it open if it's not supposed to be. We have incoming rain on and off the next 3 days starting tonight so I'd really like to get these windows to co-operate. What if I removed the window fuse once I got the windows up I wonder? If it'd only affect the front windows and didn't affect the rear windows I'd do that but I figured if I removed the window fuse it'd affect all the windows so I haven't done that. I'm supposed to go to work this afternoon but if I can't get the windows to stay up when I turn off the Pathfinder, then I'll either have to leave it running for hours (that'd be stupid), or not go into work until I get this resolved. And the Nissan dealerships anywhere close to me are closed up because of the pandemic so that's not currently an option. So, I'm dealing with a pandemic and a conundrum to try to get an upper hand.

The fob comes apart easy enough. It's has a two piece clam shell body that snaps together. On the back of the fob you can read "use CR2025 battery". To open it up, press the edge of a sharp knife into the seam, at a corner of the fob, where the two halves of the body come together. The knife edge will only go in a few millimeters at which point you can then pry the two halves apart. It may only open up a tiny amount and then seem stuck. Don't force it. Do the same thing at another corner to open it up a tiny amount more around the perimeter of the fob. It will open up as it is meant to. Have confidence. No worries. Good luck.

Alright, the latest... today I started the Pathfinder, rolled up the windows then had my wife take the fob around the block about a 1/4 mile. I shut off the vehicle and held my breath. Opened the door and down went the windows. &%^*%#!! So, covered the windows back up with the plastic and cardboard and walked away. After cussing first.
Taking apart the fob to just see if I can. I see where it reads CR2025 in fine print as you stated mdmellott. The fob works fine locking/unlocking and setting the alarm just fine so I'm not sure how it affects the windows going down every time I shut off the engine. There's just a lock - an unlock - and a red emergency button. 3 buttons on the fob. I'm not sure how these 3 unrelated buttons to the windows have any relation to the windows? When I get the fob opened up, by removing the CR2025 battery and replacing it with a new one, how does that affect the windows going down by replacing the battery in the fob? Or am I totally missing the point? I have nothing to lose, of course, since NOTHING I've tried so far has worked over days of process of elimination and suggestions. But, I'm just wondering how the battery in the fob has anything to do with the windows when it's working just as normal as usual for the door locks and alarm? Storms this evening into tomorrow here so I won't be getting all worked up wrestling with these windows til there's a break in the action.

THANKS

I believe the power windows are tied into the "Smart Entry Control Unit" so that might be your issue.
A new one is around $400 from the dealer but you can get a used one on ebay for around $50 or you can try
a local auto salvage yard.

Gremlins! Taking the battery out of the remote so that it cannot transmit is all I was suggesting. Moving it a quarter mile away from the vehicle like you did accomplished the same thing, which was was nothing I'm sorry to hear. 04pathse may have the answer as posted above. I'm out of ideas.

Check this thread, similar issue was traced to water shorting the motor that controls the auto down function.

https://www.nissanclub.com/threads/fron ... ar.297514/

Thx for hanging in there mdmellott and offering your suggestions the past week of this ordeal.

born2lse: I read that link. There's no way my fob got wet. My keys are on my desk in the house and in my pocket when not in the house so getting it wet wasn't really what happened in my instance. I don't know if plugging in my phone charger into the cigarette lighter tripped something but that seems to be the only trigger I can think of after trying dozens of different suggestions and solutions. None of them have worked to keep the windows from going down.

04pathse: That's the first I've heard or read anything about your idea. How do I know if that's what the problem actually is b4 I putz around a salvage yard and spending $50 only to find out it wasn't the cause? Is there any test I could do beforehand to eliminate whether or not that's a possibility before I slog around the muddy salvage yard looking for a needle in a haystack for hours?
I practically never unlock the drivers door manually by sticking the key in the door and unlocking/locking it as someone mentioned in that thread. My fob works fine automatically locking/unlocking the doors so I'm sure how the fob correlates to the windows going down automatically. There has to be someone else that has had this problem with the Nissan Pathfinder windows but every search I've tried hasn't really brought up anything remotely to what I'm experiencing. This forum thread has been the best feedback I've read so far with regards to what might be causing this issue. I've tried calling a Nissan dealership but the guy in the shop doesn't return my calls and I've now gotten more detailed in my vm's hoping he might know what's causing it but he still hasn't returned my vm's. So, at this point I'm about fit to be tied with this bs that has gone on much longer than I ever anticipated. I'm unable to drive the Pathfinder anywhere right now, even to the park for a walk we're allowed to do being on lockdown, but the windows go down leaving me feeling vulnerable when it's parked. I'm at my wits end with this right now, I'm starting to think I'm the only one in the entire world with an '03 Nissan Pathfinder that has this problem with the driver and passenger windows going down no matter what I've tried and has been suggested I try the past 5 days.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and feedback. After everything I've tried, I'm still at square one though trying to figure out how to keep the damn windows to stay up.

1inamillion wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:48 am

How do I know if that's what the problem actually is b4 I putz around a salvage yard and spending $50 only to find out it wasn't the cause? Is there any test I could do beforehand to eliminate whether or not that's a possibility before I slog around the muddy salvage yard looking for a needle in a haystack for hours?

Well you won't have to slog around a muddy salvage yard if you buy one from the link I gave to the ebay unit.

The listing says the seller accepts returns up to 30 days so you can return it for a refund if it turns out the Smart Control Unit was not the issue.

I know you are frustrated but I suggest trying to lose the attitude we are trying to help you.

Here is the link again
https://www.ebay.com/itm/02-03-04-Nissa ... Sw7rReD5R0

1inamil: The issue was water getting into the motor in the door of the car. Not the key fob.

I spoke to a 17 yr Nissan master mechanic on the phone. The Smart Control Unit is NOT the issue. I'll post when I know WTF the real problem is. The master mechanic told me since the dealership is closed til further notice I can't bring it in for him to assess after explaining to him all the reverse engineering I've done up to this point and nothing has solved the problem. Until then, I'll keep searching for answers and hope there's some rock I turn over that has the answer and the results I'm looking for.

Did you find a solution to the problem?

My QX4 is doing this. It’s off and on, getting to be super annoying.

My current solution is to roll up the windows, then pull the power window fuse and lock the car. Then when I return, I’ll put the fuse back in so the windows work when I drive.

any ideas please.