fookin window again

[kniterider]

well hows cheesed am i..........

not long after i got my golf over 2 1/2 years ago, passenger window fell in, right at an inconvenient time, so i cam on the net, foundout its a common prob and paid a local stealership £195 of my hard earned to put another regulating panel in (this was before replacement metal clips were widely available in the uk) so thats been fine, then at another inconvenient time the drivers side clips on the regulating panel failed and then window fell into the door, fook this i thought and brought some of the metal regualting clips and new cables etc from a local vw for £33, some 40 mins later if that id got the new cables etc fitted and the window in place and all sorted... job done....no problems open and close the window at full crank and theres no worry about the plastic clips breaking ever again.

so today , 2 years and 3 months to the day later, the plastic clips fail on the complete new reg panel that vw fitted in 2003 (work/parts guarenteed for 2 years), so not only has the 16v cav sri snapped its cambelt on the wife the other night and stuffed the engine, the 1st time i let her use my mk4 since ive bunged me new wheels and coilovers on she stuffs the window when her friend opens it, now i know these are weak and i never have let the window down at full crank to avoid this prob, but my mrs is just f@ckin useless, to say weve fell out is an understatement, pissin it down with rain window open....... 'there something wrong with the window...........' gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

so the car is now in locked up garage, with window open till i can get a metal repair clip set from a vw dealers... vw are going to get some snotty emails/letters from me, im even going to try and get kit for free as i think it sucks that its broke 3 months after warranty on work run out........what makes it even worse is now down to zero fookin cars.............that work

 

Rant over

[miss_golf]

Oh dear, I had this problem with my car last week. Hope you get it sorted soon! 

[gti turbo]

bloody hell £195 quid the robbing bar stewards. I had same problem last month, so rang main dealer parts and bought a new regulator panel for £65 + vat, fitted it my self in just over an hour and its as good as gold thing was a local salvage yard wanted to charge me £80 ~+ vat for a second hand one!!!!!!!!!!!

[kniterider]

well i just bought the metal clip kit and cables for £35 have fitted and its all workin fine and dandy, took loads of pics so will do that write up what i planned to do last year this year now!!

[tricey_web]

I wonder if you can help me - apologies if at some point when reading this you think either "they've seen you coming" or you feel the uncontrollable urge to laugh at my incompetence... go ahead, laugh - but I wouldn't mind some help too :-)

I've had a similar problem, and now a new twist... I've got a 1999 Golf and apart from the plastic clips breaking at least twice each side, I now have suffered problems with the metal clips.

Less than a year ago I had the same problem (yet again I may add - why do they always break on the wet days, or when you are on holiday and miles from civilisation?) and my local garage offered the metal clips.

I got them fitted on the broken side (I'm loathe to do the work myself lest I screw something else in the door up) and then asked them to fit one on the other side as a bit of preventative maintenance, guessing I'd safe myself some labour charges at the same time. Job done - very happy, although we are still careful not to close the door with the window down.

Then this morning I wound the windows down to get a bit of air in, and the passenger side window stayed up whilst the motor went as normal. Oh dear, I think, I'll need to get that looked at. It appeared that the window was stuck in the rubber seals, but the mechanism made all of the right sounds. Driving down a hill, I breaked gently, and *kerplunk*. Down comes the window, and there goes my cool.

Because I need the car this week and I am not working near home I took it to a local VW dealer near this office, and they quoted me £240 to replace the whole thing. A bit steep. I explained I'd be disappointed if the metal clip had broken, because I'd had it replaced and been told that would fix it.

The garage took the door off, and found that what had happened was the window had simply fallen off the runners. They reckon it had fallen off some time ago, and simply re-lubricated the whole thing, re-fitted the window and it's now fine. They checked the other side on their own 'initiative' and found it to be the same (although that window was working fine this morning) and repated the same procedure. The windows are now fine, except that I'm £120 down for an hour's labour for something that, surely, can't happen?

Thinking back, on Friday I clipped a fairly high curb whilst turning in a car park at no more than 5 miles per hour (no evident damage to tyre or wheels) but it was quite a large jarring movement across the car. It might have been this that caused the windows to fall out of the runners, but I am deeply suspicious about both the 'initiative' shown by the VW service team today, and the handiwork of the local garage that fitted the clips in the first place.

Am I right to be suspicious?

Do you think I've got any right of redress against the local garage for the work? Not sure if I was given guarantees for the work or the parts.

Any help gratefully received.

Any laughter caused, gratefully donated.

David

[topher]

I think statistically, there's more chance of catching malaria from a martian space cabbage, than having BOTH windows fall off their runners from hitting a kerb.

The local garage obviously didn't bolt it all back together properly, but without photographic evidence and threats of court action I can't see you getting any money from them. One to chalk up to experience methinks.

[gti turbo]

 tricey_ web:
My drivers side window fell out of the runners sounds like the same as what happened to you. but wot I want to tell you is that it was only through usage why it came out of the runners, and re seating them is a 15 minute job, there are two metal guides on the window regulator which the window sits in and a small rubber. a small torx screw tightens and secures the window in place. this can be done by removing door card and pealing back two rubber gromits which access the metal brackets. and as for lubrication there is absolutely nothing on the mechanism that needs lubrication. sorry if thats a bit long winded but trying to write this and watch fifth gear at the same time but if you ask me garages will tell you out to get you to open your wallet.

[Bazzer]

I think statistically, there's more chance of catching malaria from a martian space cabbage, than having BOTH windows fall off their runners from hitting a kerb.

LMAO @ Topher! 

[Sugar79]

my drivers window has fell in to the door twice now and so has my passenger side, TWICE GRR.. 
just waiting for my back windows to go now 

[kniterider]

deffo sounds like they didnt tighten your 'glass clamps' up and just had the window resting in them and as your windows may have got sticky (from tree sap etc etc) when youve pulled them down the mechanism has gone down and not the glass. look in the how to guide for window regs and youll see the pics of the bits they more than likely forgot to tighten...