U0226: Lost Communication With Door Window Motor E
What to do
The car drives normally. The affected glass is probably a rear quarter window, a powered rear screen or a sliding-door window rather than an ordinary door window.
If your car is a convertible or a coupé with frameless doors, this matters more than it sounds. On those vehicles the glass drops slightly whenever a door is opened, and drops fully when the roof is operated. A motor that has lost track of its position can leave the glass where it fouls the seal or catches the frame, so it is worth having the initialisation procedure done properly rather than just winding the window up.
And on a convertible, this can stop the roof working entirely — the roof will not begin its sequence until every window confirms it is clear. If your roof has also stopped operating, the two are likely the same fault rather than two.
What this code means
The fifth door window motor has stopped being heard from. See U0222 for the family's framing.
Beyond four, a window motor is usually not a door window at all, and identifying what it actually operates is the first step. The candidates are a rear quarter window on a coupé or estate, a powered rear screen, a sliding-door window on a van or MPV, or a partition window on a specialist body.
Quarter windows on convertibles and coupés are worth calling out because they are coupled to other systems. On a convertible, the quarter glass usually drops automatically whenever the roof is operated, and on frameless-door coupés every window drops a few millimetres as the door is opened and rises again as it shuts, so the glass can clear the seal. A motor in that arrangement that has lost its position memory can leave the glass in the wrong place at the wrong moment — fouling the seal, or worse, catching the door frame.
That makes re-initialisation more than a convenience fix on these vehicles, and it is worth insisting the procedure is carried out properly rather than the window simply being wound up and left.
The consequence is also broader here: on a convertible, a quarter window that cannot report itself may prevent the roof operating at all, since the roof sequence will not begin until every glass is confirmed clear — which is the U0206 interlock reasoning applied from the other end.
Likely causes
Start here
- Battery disconnected or module reprogrammed · easy
- Broken wire in the door harness boot · moderate
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
Less common
- Damaged wiring harness · moderate
- Water ingress into the module connector · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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