Grinding or juddering: glass in the channel
When a tempered window shatters, fragments fall into the run channels — the felt-lined tracks the glass slides in. If they are not cleared, the new pane grinds against them every time it moves, and it scratches.
This is the most common cause and it is entirely preventable by vacuuming the channels properly before fitting. It is also the reason a "quick" door glass job is a warning sign.
Going up crooked: clamp position
The glass is held by clamps at the bottom of the regulator. If they are not set square, the pane rises at an angle and binds against the seal at the top.
Correctable, but it needs the door card off again.
Nothing happens: motor, switch or relearn
Some vehicles need the window to be "re-learned" after the battery is disconnected or the glass replaced — usually holding the switch up for several seconds after it reaches the top so the auto-up limit resets.
If it is not that, the regulator or motor may have been damaged during the break-in itself. That is a pre-existing fault rather than a new one, and you should have been told about it before the work started.
Water inside the door: vapour barrier
Behind every door card is a plastic vapour barrier sealed to the frame. It has to be resealed after the card comes off. If it is not, water that normally drains inside the door reaches the cabin instead and soaks the carpet.
Symptom: damp footwell after rain, with the glass itself sealing fine.
Need this done rather than explained? There is no shop to drive to. We come to wherever your car already is — your driveway, your workplace car park, an apartment lot, or the side of the road it stopped on — anywhere in greater Sacramento, with no call-out fee and no mileage charge. Give us the year, make and model and you will have a firm price before the call ends.