I know many have had the driver side window fail to go down when the top is retracted, but mine worked well for almost five years. What I don't understand is the fact it works like it is supposed to if the door is not fully shut. Does this mean that the little drag from the top gasket is causing the window it to stop lowering, or is there something electrical that has to do with the door being shut?

Obviously my 2000 is out of warranty.. will the extended warranty cover this? If I have to fix it myself is there a thread covering it and approximate cost?

 

If the motor is so wimpy that it can't overcome the gasket friction I'd be surprised if it has the oomph to drive the window up. So I'm thinking it's something other than additional friction.

To rule that out you can try to simulate some drag by leaving the door open and holding the window glass with your hand.

The traditional fix is to replace the window motor assembly. What fails is the tach output on the motor that tells the driver's window switch that the motor is still running and it's OK to continue to supply power. When the tach signals stop, the switch electronics knows the window is at the limit of travel and it shuts off the power.

I don't know specifically what fails in the tach circuit. It might be electronic or possibly mechanical. If it's mechanical, it could be that the slight alignment change when the door is closed causes the tach mechanism to bind or stop or whatever.

 

Mine has failed again for the 4th time. I will have to see if friction matters with mine. I never thought to test it with the door open.

And by all means this should be covered by the extended warranty. I don't think Honda can claim you have been racing that window in the black market window races.

 

"Friction" may be enough to make the open or close limiter sense something wrong and activate. To test if friction is too much for the motor, just work the window manually when it doesn't work the other way. I'll bet it'll work manually.
I would think that an extended warranty would cover this, but I don't have one, so I can't say for sure. If you have to cover this yourself, you should consider getting the "AutoLok" module. It'll fix it and give you auto UP as well. I've got this on my driver's door and I love it. I'm almost inclined to put one on the passenger side too. It's about 40 bucks.