door leak: type 89 coupe

[Horning, Zain A]

Hi Richard, 

There is only one door gasket on a coupe.  That is of course, unless you want to count the rubber strip across the bottom of the door.  The front of the door gasket forms a "cup" that the front edge of the door is supposed to fit into when it is closed.  Make sure it hasn't been deformed or ripped.  

You can tweak the door hinges as you suggested by loosening the hinge bolts and moving the door around.  If the hinges are bent, you can also open the door and gently jack up on the end of the door.  You might mess up the alignment of the door latch/door latch post though.

Alternatively, if you pull the interior door panel off, you can shift the position of the entire window regulator assembly.  There are six 13mm bolts that secure the regulator assembly to the door.  I'd suggest taking a paint marker and marking the position of all the bolts just in case you mess up the window alignment more than it already is.  To adjust it, loosen all the bolts and pick up on the regulator assembly and then tighten it all back down.  There are shims under the bolts on the bottom of the regulator, so make sure they don't fall out in the process.  Shut the door a few times before you put the it back together to make sure it still closes properly. 

I've noticed that on some coupes, the front of the window has a tendency to slip and fall down in the door.  The front side of the window is attached to the cable mechanism by way of a tiny clamp with a 10mm bolt going through it.  If too much stress is placed on the clamp, the cable will slip through and allow the window to drop.  I think that same engineer who designed the door handles on older Audi's must have designed the windows on a coupe as well.

Zain Horning
(who is bored and is writing instead of lurking)