Ugh.. Never ending!

[G Men 08]

I wont bore you with complaints about how I have had to replace everything that goes wrong with these cars within the first 6 months of ownership.

My 03 golf has manual, crank windows. The other day I went to roll the drivers side down, the hand crank skipped and I had no response from the window. I went the other way, and it rolled up gradually. I left it alone until I had time to look into it today.

Broken Cable. Yay!

My questions are:
1) are the jetta cables the same as the golf?
2)Do the cables differ between manual crank, and electric?
3)How hard would it be to convert my windows to electric, could I do them one at a time?


I have a few Jettas and a passat at my local pick and pull so I can potentially use those as donor cars if the swap would be somewhat straight forward... I'd be happy with just the front windows being electric.


Thanks! Sorry, I haven't had the chance to search, working funky hours and trying to fix 2 cars, 1 for sale, is leaving me with little time and no patience! haha

 

[puntmeister]

I empathise with you - window cranks, on any car, are the biggest pain when they go bad.

I think you'd end up kicking yourself for taking on this "manual to electric" project. Too much headache.

 

[Tdijarhead]

I think you'd end up kicking yourself for taking on this "manual to electric" project. Too much headache.

Agreed, I'd just fix the cable and live with the manual windows.

 

[G Men 08]

Alright, that is what I figured. Should the cables be the same though, for mkiv? I'll go look it up now, see what I find.

 

[G Men 08]

Checked ecs, they are the same. Now I just have to hope that one of them is a manual regulator!

 

[mattpetty]

That sucks. People always consider crank windows to be the ultimate in reliability and a bonus on real Max Max type rigs. Landcruisers. MB Diesels etc.

Sounds like your luck is questionable...

 

[G Men 08]

Yup. My grandpa bought a new Ford Ranger with crank widows. I busted his chops and he said the electric windows are junk! Nothing but problems. Well pops, I've owned twenty vehicles. This one being the first with crank widows. This one also being the first to have any issues with regarding the windows lol...

 

[Tdijarhead]

Have you actually pulled the window apart yet? Your cable may not be broken it may be the plastic clip that the cable clips into. In fact I'm thinking that the clip is the more likely culprit , they are plastic. Unless of course you have seen the cable and it is broken. If its just hanging in the door check the end and see if it has that little round lead end on it. If it does I would say the plastic clip broke and the cable is just hanging there. You can get new clips from a variety of sources. Get the updated metal ones, and forget the plastic.

 

[oilhammer]

Manual windows rarely break, even if in many cases like these where the basic regulator mechanism is the same. Reason is, if the glass is stuck to the weatherstrip (like in winter ice) or something of that nature, your arm can easily detect this. A motor can't.

So, in my line of work, power window regulator repair is pretty commonplace. But VOLKSWAGEN power windows are probably the worst out there, or at least as bad as it gets. Not only have they had many warranty extensions on them over the years, I've even seen brand new cars delivered on transport trucks come in with the windows dropped into the doors due to the crappy clips, and have seen many more break within weeks of delivery.

Good news is, they seem to have figured them out on the newer cars. That really was the only thing that ever broke on my '98... and after #3, I converted it to manual.

So yeah, I'd fix it and move on knowing that the likelihood of it happening again is pretty slim.

 

[dogdots]

...So, in my line of work, power window regulator repair is pretty commonplace. But VOLKSWAGEN power windows are probably the worst out there, or at least as bad as it gets...

.

Hey Brian - How about the Lincoln LS' regulators? I replaced all 4 window regulators on my wife's LS all at different times (usually the most inconvenient times BTW), the drivers front twice. Sold the car before it hit 100k miles, too

 

[oilhammer]

Chrysler minivans and some Jeep models are pretty awful, too. But I've probably replaced some on just about every make at some point and time. Many of the Honda, Toyota, and Nissans are really chintzy, and they just use little course threaded wood screws to hold stuff together, so you get really one replacement, if you are careful, then if it breaks again you throw the door away.

At least Volkswagen uses real machine type screws to hold the door mechanicals together, so you could take them apart multiple times if you had to and you can get them back together.

I love my '91 Jetta though. No power anything, and none of the 4 doors have ever been apart, ever.

 

[jessabug]

I think you'd end up kicking yourself for taking on this "manual to electric" project. Too much headache.

Yes. We looked into it for our '01. Almost did it, but its definitely a pain so we scrapped the idea. You'd need door cards from a power window car, switch all the stuff for the windows, do wiring, and the CCM is different I believe. Lots of stuff to swap and potential snags to hit. Just not worth it.

I'd like the crank windows on the mk4 more if they were a bit easier to use. The crank is just so stiff and it takes so many rotations to wind the window down/up. Our mk1, you can use your pinky to crank the windows and it takes maybe 3 or so cranks and the window is down/up. I had the manual windows in my Beetle and hubby has them in his Jetta now. They rarely fail, but I do like my power windows in my GTI now. The mk4 is too wide of a car to easily crank down the passenger window if you are the only one in the car. And forget the rear windows. Not a problem in the mk1 - you can easily get all 4 windows rolled down from the drivers seat

 

[G Men 08]

The actual cable is broken. I looked at it last night. Good news is I managed to get lucky and find a whole assembly at the local junk yard for 20 bucks. Easy enough to swap out. Probably do the lock switch while I'm at it seeing how that is faulty as well

 

[Tdijarhead]

The actual cable is broken. I looked at it last night. Good news is I managed to get lucky and find a whole assembly at the local junk yard for 20 bucks. Easy enough to swap out. Probably do the lock switch while I'm at it seeing how that is faulty as well

Good find. I wasn't sure if the cable would actually break or not, but I believe those plastic clips have been problematic, at least on my car.

 

[G Men 08]

Are you referring to the plastic clips that connect the window to the regulator? If so, both my examples are metal clips.

 

[Tdijarhead]

Are you referring to the plastic clips that connect the window to the regulator? If so, both my examples are metal clips.

I'd say someone has already replaced your clips then, I believe they are plastic from the factory, at least the ones I've seen.