Front power windows dont one-touch down

Howdy again everyone, just to reiterate I bought the car this past weekend and found another issue.

The front power windows do not manually go down. The one touch down works on both, and both ups work. If I hold it at manual down sometimes it will roll down about an inch and stop after a few seconds.

Is there anything that normally corrodes on this or anything I can check?

I had to take my master (drivers door) switch apart and clean everything up a while ago. Windows started acting flakey (similar to yours). I didn't take pics or do a write-up on it but it takes a little finesse. Little small parts can fall out and get lost if you're not careful. Other than that, about a 1/2 hr. job and all works perfectly now. Pepsi syndrome??

pepsi syndrome?

ill go check my switch right now, not sure how it comes out but if its like any of my other cars it just pops out right?

Nope... better go to VWVortex and look for 'door card removal'. It spells out how to get the switch out. Pepsi Syndrome is an old SNL skit parady of the movie China Syndrome where someone spills a Pepsi on the nuclear reactor control panel and, well...

PS> I'm dating myself.. (not literally)

there is a trick to it... when you put your hand on it to close the door, where you fingers are, that piece pulls off (towards the door) then the switch bezel just pulls up.

btw, I replaced mine because 'auto' down would work, but not manual down. A switch is cheap on ebay. (gotta love the chinese)

edit, I even went and took a quick picture for you

Hahah no need, right after I posted that i went out and got it all apart in a few minutes.
Thanks for the effort.

As far as pepsi haha, yeah I guess it could be that or "when pet hair attacks". Like I said I just got the car this weekend so no idea.

Completely rewrite... I guess i need to take apart the little screws to get this thing apart huh... hmmm

EDIT: what a pain in the butt this is... one clip off, one clip slips back on... left right left right.... bah!

EDIT2: ah crap, hidden screw under the sticker... crap... ok, so now where do all these little plastic pieces go

EDIT3: what, nothing to clean... bah... ok im done.

Absolutely something to clean... on the base of each silicone 'hat' is a carbon pad. It contacts the circuit board traces that reside just below them when it's all assembled. Using denatured alcohol and q-tip, clean both the pads on the silicone part and the contact traces on the circuit board. The little pieces I was talking about are the little push rods that go inside each silicone recess. Sounds like you had some trouble with it. Sorry guy... like I said, it requires a little finesse.

haha no trouble at all, they just exploded all over the floor... but ive had enough time working with remotes and controllers enough to figure that out pretty quick.

Actually, i just did the disable DRL mod while i was out there and then for some reason i tried the windows... all 4 ways work as intended now... i scared away the gremlin i guess?

now, i hope the 32 mpg issue is as easy

I must have read it wrong. But for the others that did to. If you remove your battery you need to once hooked back up press and hold the window switch down for 10 seconds and then up for 10 seconds to get the limits back for the pinch protection to one press auto up and or down.

Whats pinch protection?

It's so you don't pinch your pet or offspring's head off in the window. If it senses too much resistance when closing it will immediately reverse and re-open all the way. To do so, you have to register the 'fully closed' position w/the controller.

Interesting, so basically just hold it for 10 seconds each way? I didnt quite understand what you said.

Crap, now that the windows work the cruise just randomly stopped... the light comes on the dash but doesnt set. grrr..... stupid gremlins

You hold the switch down like you are trying to lower the window even when the window is down for 10 seconds. Then you hold the switch to raise the window and continue for 10 seconds. You have to do this on the drivers side window controls only and they are only for the front two windows. Can't help you much with the cruise if it totally stopped. The recalled cars have had some issues where the car will slow up some like the cruise isn't keeping up but it isn't totally cut out and then the car will suddenly catch back up. Also I remember reading about taking the switch apart and putting dielectric grease in there. My brother had to do something like that and it has been working for around 40K miles since.

Hmm ok, I didnt know cars had that for the windows.

As far as the cruise, I opened a separate thread for that. It turns on, but never sets the speed. So, I have to investigate that. Funny thing about my windows though, once I fixed the front windows I tried my back windows... they would go down but not up hehe.

I cleaned the whole board with some alcohol and now all 4 windows work... funny car

mistermog said:

<snip> ...I cleaned the whole board with some alcohol and now all 4 windows work... funny car

Click to expand...

Now we're talking... I'm thinking I remember reading about a similar problem to yours. IIRC, it involved making sure all your switches (brake and clutch) work properly. If one of them doesn't or is flakey/intermittent, your cruise won't work because it doesn't know when to disengage. Sounds like a little session w/someone owning VagCOM might be a good idea for you. Being a new car (to you) an initial scan of the car checking for issues would be a good idea. Just a guess on the switches and not sure why cruise worked for you initially.

Yep, just to find someone with it in my area... you know i was looking at interface cables on ebay for 6 bucks, wonder if that would work with vagcom?

MY drives's side window switch acts up every Summer and each time I disassemble, clean, check the resistors; but no permanent solution yet. This is the manual mode only. Edit: I just went out and tried coalminer 16's suggestion and it seems to be working after three manual ups and downs. Wish I had known this sooner.

Here's an update, my driver's side window switch does not function in the manual mode. Guess I'll have to pull apart the switch for the fourth time.

try q-tiping alcohol over the whole board, not just the contacts. I had some weird goo on mine that cleaning it off made the whole thing work better.