Right Passenger rear window regulator noise and fail

[jw4free]

Noticed clunking noise when rolling down and up right passenger rear window for the last week and half.
Today it hesitated going up, stopped at closed and then auto opened. Tried again and closed properly. All the time clunking and gyrations. Spring storm this weekend, so window lock on, and when it dries up the door panel is coming off for an inspection of the internals.

 

[jw4free]

I do not see any other posts regarding NMS regulator failures.
However, I did receive an advertisement email from IDParts on VW regulator sales yesterday. The irony was not lost on me.

 

[jw4free]

Yep, busted. Up/ down glass holder is molded plastic piece and has two guides that travel along the vertical rail. The top guide is compromised. If I had to guess, one of my rear passenger copilots was playing the game of chicken. When placing random objects in window track, who will flinch first Passat or rider? Passat lost.

 

[jw4free]

Pictures of regulator slide mechanism:

Inside the Door guts


Upper tab broken, lower tab intact, these retain the slide along the rail.


Plastic button that pins the window inside the regulator slide mechanism.

 

[jw4free]

Replacement was straight forward. It does not seem like the regulator motor has travel limits internally, so it does not matter the window position when the motor is secured to the regulator mechanism.

The plastic window retaining pin is a 2 piece unit. I put the larger section into the window and regulator, and greased the smaller section a bit to help it slide into the larger pin. I dropped it a couple times and had to fish around for it. I wouldn't recommend losing track of it in the door bottom (or in a void in the back of the regulator slide mechanism.) I used two flat putty knifes to pinch the small pin to is final location.