[200q20v] Rear window not working...

[Henry A Harper III]

On Thursday, August 24, 2000 10:02 PM, -J J- [SMTP:fussball_3 at hotmail.com] 
wrote:
> Hey all,
> The rear passenger window on my 200 isnt working. I think that the problem
> is the  sensor or whatever that tells the motor to stop.. It will
> ocassionally work if you slam the door while pressing the button, but not
> all the time. It will not work from either the driver's control or the rear
> passenger door itself. What is usually the problem in this case? Any BTDTs?
> I currently have the interior off the rear door, and will probably pull the
> window motor out tomorrow...

There is no sensor to tell the motor to stop. Push all the window switches up 
while the windows are already raised and watch the voltmeter sag as each 
regulator tries to push up its window. They aren't that smart, except the 
driver's auto-down which has a timer.

Typically the problem when windows don't work on these cars is the wiring in 
the driver's door near the hinge, which becomes brittle and develops cracks in 
insulation and breaks in wires. Pull back the bellows covering the wires in the 
hinge area and inspect for bad wires. Could be dirty switches also, but is not 
so often an actual failed regulator. Jumper the connection to the regulator and 
see if it moves both directions.

My car came with a couple of soldered-together wires in the driver's door loom 
already when I got it at 7 years old, then I did a couple butt-splices as a 
temporary (year or so) measure when another couple wires broke, and then two 
years later (last summer) I soldered new lengths of wire, replacing each of the 
~35 wires there. This year I repeated on the passenger front door after its 
window began intermittently refusing to go up, at least there are only about 18 
wires there, but the window was still reluctant so I opened up the switch on 
the driver's door and spritzed some contact enhancer inside, and the window has 
worked every test since. (knock on wood) My passenger-side wires weren't as bad 
as the driver's side since that door sees fewer cycles, there was cracked 
insulation on a couple of wires but they didn't seem to actually be broken 
through yet.

Since the door is already apart,
1) test the regulator with +12v and ground, both directions
2) use a different pair of switches - the switches must maintain contact to 
ground
3) check the driver's door wires

HTH
Henry Harper
http://www.srv.net/~hah
1991 200 quattro, 110k, pair of new sp8k's for the little car in the trunk
1988 GTI 16v, 211k, up on jackstands at James' house waiting for new shoes