power windows

i don't remember if i had written down anything about my power windows, but anyway, the rear driver's side window busted up and won't wouldn't wind down. did a bit of searching and reading in vw golf-dedicated forums like vwvortex and vwwatercooled and talking to matt from camden GTI showed me that power window failures are very common in both mk3 and mk4 golfs (maybe mk5s too? but may be still too new to know). the regulators are the things that fail as the factory standard ones come in plastic, which make it prone to breaking. these are inexpensive to replace, however, if the motor plans to fail, then costs in the hundreds would settle in for another power window motor.

pedro (oh yeah, he got a golf too :) GL-spec, 94/95 model - same as mine) found some cheap power window regulators on ebay for $70 each which inc. postage. my power windows just required a new regulator cos you could still hear the clicking sounds the motor makes when you try to use the power windows.

forgot which day it was, probably thursday? anyway, decided to fix it up. took off the door trims (so fuckin easy now, after knowing what to do and having done it before) and tried to take the regulator out. had some pretty decent instructions from a website that i'll post separately here later. taking the screws out that connected the regulator onto the door frame was easy too, but removing the screws holding the clamp together that attaches on to the window was friggin hard to get to. the window was scrolled all the way up so i couldnt access the screws - and since the power windows weren't working, i couldnt pull them down either. i feddled with it for another hour, trying to yank it down, pulling on the cables and everything, until i got the idea to hook the batteries up again and tried to see if i can pull the windows down while holding the "down" button. dunno what i did while feddling with it, but it decided to work, and it worked fine! no hitches at all, and scrolled up and down at the same speed as the other ones.

so i bought a new regulator for no use... hm, will keep it until it decides to "fail" again.