The Chieftain's Random Musings Thread
Дата: 20.03.2017 18:58:04
The_Chieftain: Upon closing the top last week, the windows rolled up, and an
almighty crack was heard from the right rear window. Lowering the
window seemed to work without difficulty, but raising it again was
another matter entirely. Obviously something had gone amiss with
the mechanism. Wonderful. Not having the discretionary funds
available to get it repaired, nothing for it to figure out how to
do it myself.
Taking the back apart was helped by the fact that it was a convertible. Lower the roof, and all the room to work with.
A video on youtube gave instructions for accessing the regulator system. Unfortunately, the video was part of a total disassembly of the car, and I seem to have missed the bit requiring that the back seat be removed before the side panels.
Nothing that suitable application of brute force can't fix. More on that later. The lid for the top had to be raised in the up position, to allow the seat belt 'frame' by the head restraints to be unclipped and slid out of place. Once that was done, according to the video, just undo the bolt up underneath the frame, then slide the interior panel forwards. Yeah, no. There's a fair bit of up and out as well, not mentioned. But the stuff all came out. Then the foam, unscrew the speakers, the regulator is visible. Loose winching wire. Pull off the seals by the window frame. Undo six bolts on a metal spacer, pull that up. Getting the regulator out required pulling up the glass, then punching through the foam insulation to get the bolts. Don't forget to undo the power cable.
See above for photo of broken part.
Fortunately, it seems these things break often, and BMW, Volvo and Audi all use the same part, so third-party manufacturers can buy replacements. $30 and a few days later, it shows up.
Put the new one back into place, and realise that the cables are under significant tension. However, examination of the pulleys indicates that they have a 'short' axle. Wrap the cable around that, and as the system turns, it'll 'push' the cable into the correct groove, tensioning it. Fantastic. Start putting it together again.
Plug into the power socket, lying on the back seat, just to test it. Only very partial movement. Turns out that the 'loosened' wires resulted in the wrapping around the winch/capstan getting crossed. Had to pull off the motor in order to access it and re-thread the wires. Screw motor back in. Drop motor. Screw it in properly, and hope for the best.
Testing again, and it works. Hooray. Now to reassemble. Get the regulator mounted back in, lose my ratchet socket down the side panel just after tightening the bolt. Walk across street, borrow neighbours ratchet set. Undo, pull out regulator. Retreive socket. Return ratchet set. Screw two of the three regulator mount bolts back on, search for five minutes for the third one. Walk over to neighbour, borrow ratchet set. Retrieve bolt used for sizing which had accidentally be placed into ratchet set, return ratchet set. Take best guess as to what the adjustment was for the third bolt so that the window seals correctly.
Now looks like this. Replacement part, the blue thing.
Test again. Still works.
Screw in speaker, control module, frame. Apply trim/seals. Test again. Window only half-raises.
Curse profusely. Take everything apart again, even pulling out the regulator. Seems I may have over-tightened the screw holding in the blue connector. Loosen it a bit, replace, test repeatedly. Incidentally, for some reason, with the top's lid raised for the few days for the replacement part to show up, the battery died in the car, so I had to pull the VW around to jump it.
Add parts back in, test repeatedly. Now just down to the interior panel. Now I can see all the clips (what's left of them after I pulled them out with brute force, I can see how it's supposed to go back in. And I have no clue how to do it.
After much more research, the back seat has to come out. The base is easy, lift up, pull out. Curse as I lean back too far, and snap the clip for the sun visor. The backrest is another matter entirely. I still don't know how to do it, but by undoing the two bolts at the bottom, and removing the head restraints, I got enough 'leverage' room to squeeze the interior panel back into roughly the right place. Put back the head restraints and bolt, then the base. Replace the seat cover frames. Get band-aid for the cuts received to the hand.
It won't pass Stuttgart quality control, but I seem to have repaired my window. I have now ordered replacement sun visor clips.
Taking the back apart was helped by the fact that it was a convertible. Lower the roof, and all the room to work with.
A video on youtube gave instructions for accessing the regulator system. Unfortunately, the video was part of a total disassembly of the car, and I seem to have missed the bit requiring that the back seat be removed before the side panels.
Nothing that suitable application of brute force can't fix. More on that later. The lid for the top had to be raised in the up position, to allow the seat belt 'frame' by the head restraints to be unclipped and slid out of place. Once that was done, according to the video, just undo the bolt up underneath the frame, then slide the interior panel forwards. Yeah, no. There's a fair bit of up and out as well, not mentioned. But the stuff all came out. Then the foam, unscrew the speakers, the regulator is visible. Loose winching wire. Pull off the seals by the window frame. Undo six bolts on a metal spacer, pull that up. Getting the regulator out required pulling up the glass, then punching through the foam insulation to get the bolts. Don't forget to undo the power cable.
See above for photo of broken part.
Fortunately, it seems these things break often, and BMW, Volvo and Audi all use the same part, so third-party manufacturers can buy replacements. $30 and a few days later, it shows up.
Put the new one back into place, and realise that the cables are under significant tension. However, examination of the pulleys indicates that they have a 'short' axle. Wrap the cable around that, and as the system turns, it'll 'push' the cable into the correct groove, tensioning it. Fantastic. Start putting it together again.
Plug into the power socket, lying on the back seat, just to test it. Only very partial movement. Turns out that the 'loosened' wires resulted in the wrapping around the winch/capstan getting crossed. Had to pull off the motor in order to access it and re-thread the wires. Screw motor back in. Drop motor. Screw it in properly, and hope for the best.
Testing again, and it works. Hooray. Now to reassemble. Get the regulator mounted back in, lose my ratchet socket down the side panel just after tightening the bolt. Walk across street, borrow neighbours ratchet set. Undo, pull out regulator. Retreive socket. Return ratchet set. Screw two of the three regulator mount bolts back on, search for five minutes for the third one. Walk over to neighbour, borrow ratchet set. Retrieve bolt used for sizing which had accidentally be placed into ratchet set, return ratchet set. Take best guess as to what the adjustment was for the third bolt so that the window seals correctly.
Now looks like this. Replacement part, the blue thing.
Test again. Still works.
Screw in speaker, control module, frame. Apply trim/seals. Test again. Window only half-raises.
Curse profusely. Take everything apart again, even pulling out the regulator. Seems I may have over-tightened the screw holding in the blue connector. Loosen it a bit, replace, test repeatedly. Incidentally, for some reason, with the top's lid raised for the few days for the replacement part to show up, the battery died in the car, so I had to pull the VW around to jump it.
Add parts back in, test repeatedly. Now just down to the interior panel. Now I can see all the clips (what's left of them after I pulled them out with brute force, I can see how it's supposed to go back in. And I have no clue how to do it.
After much more research, the back seat has to come out. The base is easy, lift up, pull out. Curse as I lean back too far, and snap the clip for the sun visor. The backrest is another matter entirely. I still don't know how to do it, but by undoing the two bolts at the bottom, and removing the head restraints, I got enough 'leverage' room to squeeze the interior panel back into roughly the right place. Put back the head restraints and bolt, then the base. Replace the seat cover frames. Get band-aid for the cuts received to the hand.
It won't pass Stuttgart quality control, but I seem to have repaired my window. I have now ordered replacement sun visor clips.
The Chieftain's Random Musings Thread