The factory grease around the cables gets hard and waxy. Use the windows much longer and you'll snap the cables and strip the plastic capstans around which they wind, so I would stop using the windows now until you can get them seen to. If this happens (window just stops, but the motor still goes)), get hold of the manual winder kit from Mazda (£25 per side. They'll claim it won't fit, but it will). Ka Yu also do a repair kit which is expensive at £40 per side, and which seems to be the same thing (though custom made cables seem to be better made than factory cables.

The cables used to lower/raise the glass are wrapped around a plastic capstan, on a moulded thread. The cable usually snaps inside this housing. The driver naturally hits the window button a few times (instinctually), and the plastic threads are flayed by the broken cable. Everyone I know who has had this has been lucky, and able to rescore a new thread using a craft knife; others might not be so lucky. This bit is not order-able from Mazda.

In the short term, some spray nylon lubricant (like Holts) on the window rubbers will alleviate things a bit and take the strain off the cables until you can get to work on them.

On my 92, the door trim is held on by 3 screws on the armrest, and screw securing the door latch pull trim and various trim pop-offs.
Take off the seaker cover.
The backing material on the main trim panel is just hard board; rather than just madly yank the trim off, work your way around the pop-offs, and then lifting the trim away.
The plastic weather shield must be retained, or be prepared to fit a replacement of some sort (stops the door trim from getting soggy).
Some might be clever enough to cut a slit in it and work through that. I wasn't, and ripped the entire sheeting off, thus coming face to face with the sticky black stuff from hell (you'll know when you see it; those of you with long hair; wear a shower cap).
Its fairly obvious how the window lift mechanism disconnects from the glass, though is helpful to know by having the window in the halfway position allows certain bolts/screws to line up nicely with access holes in the door panel.
The glass can be left in; if chocked, it will stay in the up position ok, but for safety's sake, I removed it by lifting it out (you need to remove the top bump stops from the door, plus loosening the bolt that secures the base of the quarter light helps a bit in wiggling it out/back in.
The entire motor and central runner mechanism (the other 2 stay in; you can lubricate these if you want) can now come out.
A certain amount of manouvring the mechanism inside the door carcass is needed to remove/install, and usually involves grazed knuckles.
There is a cover secured by 2 screws that covers the capstan (but the cables feed into. Its fairly safe to remove this; nothing under tension is going to fly out at you. If you are careful, you can remove the capstan and inspect the cables wrapped around. I guess if the cable looks in anyway damaged, replace it. You might be lucky in just repacking the housing with grease (silicone grease, but lithium grease seems to work ok as well), and cleaning down/greasing the cables (parts of them might appear quite rusted).

If you do replace the cables with the manual versions, you'll need to adjust the tension on the cables again (the plastic threaded bits on the capstan housing). The windows should raise and lower quite fast; I've seen plenty of '5s/Roadsters with slow windows, and also a Roadster with correctly reinstalled cables with very quick windows.

Also, if you are having problems with one window, its likely the other will be needing attention within a year, so check that out. In my case, the cables bust before the manual winder cable fix became apparent, and I just forked out for the Moss power window kit (£200 Moss, versus £170 per side from Mazda), which hooks up nicely to the factory wiring (retaining the Japanese one-touch drivers side facility). It was expensive, but a lot cheaper than replacing both units with Mazda parts.

After 3 years, the windows still zip up and down (the Moss kit uses Bosch motors, which should last well). However, the original capstan on mine was so chewed up, the manual kit may have ben useless. On reinstalling the glass, check the bump stops are correctly adjusted. The glass should stop just in line with the top of the quarter light.

There is a thin strip of rubber at the top of the quarterlight which is easily torn if the glass is raised to high (without bumpstops, the glass will continue rising). I still find it incredible that Mazda don't supply replacement cables, considering the frequency they break at, and that the cables themselves are very simple. (4/00)

The part number I gave out the other day is specifically for the LEFT side window, although that only matters if you're replacing the runners. Otherwise, just take the cables off and use them. NA0159560J

We discovered a few faults with the enthusiasts' manual's instructions, but got the whole job done in much less time than we'd thought. (5/00)

I just rang my local Mazda parts dept and was quoted 31 ish each side for manual window regulators and 44+58 for the electric (presumably drivers side breaks more often so it's worth an extra 14 for Mazda).

Question is for those that have done it, how easy a job is it to remove the cables from the manual regulator, fit them to the original electric regulator and then make any adjustments to get it all to work. Is it nice and easy? Or is it going to take me all afternoon? I'm trying to weigh up the price difference to how long it's going to take seeings I have to do both sides! Come to think of it, if I have a new electric regulator, how long is it going to take to swap over. It looks a bit fiddly. Is it documented in a workshop manual? The guy at Mazda said it was a 2 man job - one to undo it, the other to catch all the springs that fly out.

Incidently, the drivers side motor sounds like it is on the way out (probably as the previous owner did nothing about the stiff windows) - does anyone know anywhere that sells them nice and cheap?? (6/00)

What parts are they quoting for the electric window assembly. Sounds considerably cheaper than what most of us were quoted (ie. buy entire assembly only for £170 per side.....).

The manual install is fairly easy; you need to readjust the cables, so the window raises smoothly. Its a slightly different design from the original (seems better made). A possible complication is the state of the capstan around which the cables are wrapped; if the cable has broken inside the housing by the motor, the flayed ends mights have stripped the soft moulded plastic thread. Most people I know were lucky enough to salvage this part by rescoring the plastic with a stanley knife. This part is not available from Mazda as far as I know, but then they might go and make us look like fools anyhow.. I would remove this part before geting the cables, and decide whether you can fix it or not. (6/00)

FYI everyone with dodgy windows....

I just had a long chat with a friendly parts man at Mazda.

Apparently, most likely due to customer demand, the electric window components have been split up. You can either buy the complete mechanism for approx 162 per side or individual components. It's not all good news, you can't just buy cables but you can get regulators and motors separately - here's the details:

So, as the manual regulators are approx 31 - I think it's probably not worth the effort of removing the originals, stripping out the cables and replacing with new cables stripped out of a new manual regulator. You can if you want, but my thoughts are for the extra ten quid or so, you could be zooming around in the sunshine with the roof down for a couple of hours more!! (6/00)

If you have them then they are pretty obvious. Just find where the speaker wires emerge into the door and the central locking, electric mirror and window wires come out in the same place.

If you just remove the armrest and then centre console, you should be able to trace the window wires. Behind/under the centre console mine have a plug into a socket affair that allows the window lift box to be connected so the alarm shuts the windows.

If you don't have the wires into the doors use this trick.

Pull the speaker wires as far through the rubber tube as they will go. Tape the new wires or a bit of string to the speaker wire where it's loose and then use the speaker wire back through the other way. There's enough slack to use the existing wire to get a new one through the tube. Trying to thread a wire through the tube is doomed. And it you remove the tube getting it back on is a sod of a job. Trust me on this! (1/01)

You could posibly get away with soft soldering the nipples on but I have tried this before on the throttle cable on my Lotus and the end pulled off. I'm probably speaking to an expert (certainly hope so after reading what the other chaos subscribers seem to be interested in) so I'm sure you know that the nipples have a countersink and you splay the cable out before soldering. Soft soldering may be better because it won't draw the temper in the bowden cable.

Can't overstress the importance of getting the inner and outer cables to exactly the correct length - especially if you have electric windows - get them too slack and they will chew up the grooves in the drive capstan. You will find the outers are spring loaded - this isn't to take up the slack it's to provide a cushion when the window is fully up or fully down. This is especially important with electric systems which don't have limit switches - they rely on the driver / passenger taking their finger off the switch at more or less the right time. That's probably why the windows have a 30A fuse. Try the window with the door panel off and you will see the springs compress at the fully open and fully closed positions. I built mine up with equal lengths of cable on the clockwise and anti clockwise sides of the capstan with the window slider in the mid position and both springs unsder slight tension. I then marked the position of the nipples that fit to the slider with masking tapeand after partially dismantled soldered the nipples on. After trying to see how it worked I had to unsolder the ends and move them down about 1/4 inch.

It would be great to see them work with soft solder - may owners would have the equipment to do this (gas hob in the kitchen when no ones around!) I know the cables do snap and chaos subscribers have asked for suggestions on how to repair them - I believe they are quite expensive - mine literally cost pence. If you do try with soft solder take some very accurate measurement. (4/01)

I made up the 'kits' to convert my Monza to electric windows by replacing the manual winding mechanisms with Bosch motors from a Golf. All that's really required is to make up a set of new cables - but you need to be reasobable practical to do it. I used switches from a Granada - they are oval in shape and very 'MX5'

Check to see just what wiring you have installed in your car. In my 1997 car the window wiring terminated with a socket just by the gear leaver and I had to make up a short loom to take the wiring to the switch position. In my case I used a plug from a Mazda saloon, from the scrap yard, and connected it to the socket to fit the Granada switches. Also the wiring to the doors stopped under the dash near the door pillars - again with sockets. The scrap Mazda yielded suitable plugs once again. If yours is like mine pull the rubber conduit, which fits between the door and pillar, off the plastic collars at each end and you will find the speaker wires are taped to a small flap inside the conduit. Snip this away and you will be able to feed your wires through - but not with a plug attached - you will have to solder this on later. There are normally two wires going to each motor - the switch reverses the polarity for up and down.

I did very little dismantling. I removed the bolt from the window slider and simply lifted it out. I was then able to remove the mechanism through one of the holes in the inner door frame.

By far the worst job is cleaning the sealant which Mazda use to secure the polytene sheet behind the door panels off your arms. (5/01)