at wit's end - windows don't work

[Henry A Harper III]

According to Bentley wiring diagrams (at least for my US 91 200q) the
[broken] power wire running through the driver's door hinge is red with
blue stripe. Brown wire is almost *always* ground. I have now replaced all
my car's wires in both the driver and passenger front door hinge areas,
except for Bose wires of course, along with trunk hinge wires when reverse
lights stopped lighting, as well as having to pry open a window switch to
spray in contact enhancer when pass. wire replacement didn't quite make
window work reliably. Study of said wiring diagrams will show that the
non-driver's window current paths still go through driver's door switches,
so *both* switches in circuit have to be good for the window to work. My
car has a double-wide and tall "relay" that runs the windows and sunroof
incorporating the auto-down timeout feature for driver's window (separate
power wire) and window operation until door opening after key out. Yours
may be different, it sounds like...the control unit/relay might be bad, but
I would make *sure* that the wiring is intact and switches really work -
they may show continuity to a meter but won't pass enough current to start
the window winder.

HTH, PS ditch the Haynes ;)
Henry Harper
http://www.henry-harper.com hah at alumni.rice.edu
1991 200 quattro, 118k
1988 GTI 16v, 236k

On Tuesday, May 20, 2003 9:17 AM, Livolsi, Stephane
[SMTP:Stephane.Livolsi at investorsgroup.com] wrote:
> I'm at the end of my rope, goodbye cruel world.......
>
> patient is 1986 5ktq
>
> Last fall the power windows stopped working.  Sure enough, some wires
were
> broken where they pass through the door.  Fixed the broken ones and had
> power windows again.
>
> A couple weeks later, they stopped working again (not from any of the
> switches), and also the sunroof would not work at all - DMM check
confirms
> no power, but a check of the wiring shows none broken.
>
> I need some help confirming some things:
>
> According to Haynes wiring diagrams, the wire that supplies power to the
> switches in the driver's door is brown.  Is this correct?
> If it is, that is probably my problem, because not only do I NOT have 12
v,
> it is actually grounded.  I (gulp) cut the wire at the door (it was
terribly
> frayed anyway and would need fixing) and checked for ground.  It is
grounded
> on the supply side (going under the dash).
> Any ideas where this could have gone wrong?
>
> My aux relay panel has 2 slots for window relays - 1 labeled 'power
window
> regulator (wind down)', and the other is labeled 'control unit for power
> windows and sunroof', but there is nothing, not even a relay receptacle
in
> the slot for #2.  But, I had windows and sunroof working before.
>
> The first relay has a 10 amp fuse in it and it is good.  With the
ignition
> off, and the relay out, I can hear the relay click on when I push it in.
 Is
> this normal, or should it be off until a window button is pressed?
>
> Hoping someone has some insight.....
>
> Stephane
>
>