[200q20v] list quiet because cars are behaving?

[hah at srv.net]

No, that's not the reason...here's my story from Wednesday.

I had been driving the Audi for a couple days because a co-worker with whom 
I am carpooling has taken a liking to it, I thought I'd humor her. And 
despite the 100+ deg afternoon temps, the A/C was actually adequate (I 
had thought annual R12 service was on the agenda until compressor 
replacement, but might be able to skip this year). But the >$30 to fill up 
vs <$20 for the VW meant I was headed back to James' house to trade cars 
after work.

Rolled down the front windows to get the hot air out. Turned on A/C - 
cooling down nicely. Roll up windows - wups, passenger front won't go up. 
It's been intermittent in the past, but would go up after a down cycle on 
the switch. Not this time, staying down despite 20+ down-up switch presses. 
Maybe it's time to replace the passenger door hinge wires, the driver's 
were done last summer (exactly a year ago). Roll down the other windows and 
play with them for the rest of the drive to James' house. It's 100 degrees 
out, did I mention? 

Get to James' house, pull around back by the shop. Both his cars are gone, 
so he's not home - at least he got his 200 out of the shop. Whip out the 
always-in-the-car 4mm allen to remove the passenger's armrest, open up the 
always-in-the-car DMM to take some readings...and its little batteries have 
expired. Hmm.

Ok, drive home 15 minutes in the GTI (ah, cool...) to get toolbox, other 
DMM, Bentley set. Grab a burrito & water bottle. Drive back to James'. 
Fiddle with meter & switch for a while, reach no conclusion. James comes 
home, says his same window quit today too, "go for the wires, it's the 
wires". But they are not a known failure item on the *passenger* door, I 
say. He was fiddling with his in the hinge area and it went up, he says. 

I pull back the accordion, and there are a couple wires with cracked 
insulation there - but not separated. Poke & prod, window still not going 
up no matter how many times I push on the switch. Jump it from the cig 
lighter and whirr, up it goes. Must be the wires. Crap.

Tear apart the rest of the door, luckily I can almost do this in my sleep 
by now. We are talking unplug all of the harness connections in the door 
and lay the window frame on the ground, only the wires from the window 
switch to the regulator are holding it to the car. Cover & motronic box 
come off inside the car. Tug on the wires both ways, still don't see any 
breaks. James has gotten out the shrinkwrap tube & big soldering iron 
already, but I have to go hunt for the solder. Almost 9 by now.

I pick one of the three window wires, solder in a replacement, and hey, the 
window goes up again! Yay, problem solved. Only 15 more wires to go, since 
I might as well get them all while I'm in there. I'm going slow, goofing 
around - like there is a ding in the door, and I notice I'm staring at the 
backside of the door skin, so I try to smooth it out from the back. Better, 
but not perfectly factory. It's 10, 11, 12.

Wires all done, window frame back on, wires all plugged back in, time for 
the functional check. Mirror moves, no obviously blowing fuses (defroster 
light still works), alarm meeps & door locks/unlocks. Except the window 
doesn't go up anymore. Crap.

Pull off the driver's door pull and beep the wires to that switch - yup, 
they both beep. Ground wires over there go to ground, yup. Both switches 
seem ok, outer contact connected. Crap. Maybe it's the switch(es)? Anybody 
had luck pulling them apart and using contact cleaner, or do they have 
little springs and ball-bearings that shoot under the workbench when 
opened? When you've got the hot soldering iron in your hand (thanks James) 
every problem is a bad wire.

Might as well put the rest of the door on, the wires are certainly replaced 
now. Struggle for a long time with the lock knob. It's 1am, getting tired. 
Get the armrest put on and the motronic box under its cover. Check the 
window again, it goes up this time. Hmm. Open and close the door a few 
times, somehow the alarm arms even though the key is in the ignition (and 
only armed when I used the key on the door before...

So it's now 2am, I open the door again of course, and the alarm goes off in 
James' back yard. Wonderful. I run around the car to get the keys from the 
ignition and use the driver's door to turn off the alarm. And hear a little 
crunch as the team-doorhandle part breaks inside, lock cylinder is 
connected to alarm but not latch, anymore. Crap. This means I get to open 
up the driver's door next, again. At least the armrest is already off.

The windows are all up and I leave the switches alone, pull around to the 
parking spot, and drive home in the 
manual-windows-and-no-stinkin-alarm-already-replaced-the-door-handle-in-5-m
inutes GTI with cold manual A/C.

I do have an Audi climate control question, but will put that in another 
post since nobody is going to be reading this all the way down here...

Feeling a little frustrated with the Audi gods,
Henry Harper
http://www.srv.net/~hah
1991 200 quattro, 110k, I'd like to have a few words with Team 
DoorWireUndHandle
1988 GTI 16v, 210k, still leaking p/s fluid but running on a good Bosch 
voltage regulator once more, also need to have a word with the rebuild shop 
that used the no-name one which lasted less than a year (replacing the 
*original* OEM v/r AFAIK)