Ghost944

my windows operate without the key in the ignition, but the door jamb switch isnt sticking

KuHL 951

That's not right unless it's when you just turn the motor off before you open the door

944Fest (aka Dan P)

That was my belief too, but obviously there are some folks with claims otherwise. Best of luck with it!

KuHL 951

Must be that special 'short in door' option I didn't get on mine. Really, if you can operate the windows with the key out after opening the door something is wrong and you should at the very least check the ignition switch or the wire where it transitions between the body and door. It's not hard or complicated to make the windows work with the key out but it isn't a desireable condition to aim for. You might have charged the battery but you still need to determine where and how much your dark current drain is with everything turned off.

josephsc

There was a thread awhile back in which someone described a battery drain caused by the door switch. Something about a faulty door switch that engaged a relay that slowly (but surely) drained the battery over a long period.

alordofchaos

Joe, you posted this a while back:

"A faulty door switch is known to drain the battery over a few days. I was having an occastional drain problem on my S2, so I checked the switches and it was fine. It turns out, the ground point for that switch is the screw itself (the switch screws directly onto the body). That particular screw is exposed to the elements and unprotected. It was so badly corroded over the years, that the switch wasn't grounded any more. Replaced one screw -- away goes the drain problem."

I was searching a few days ago on this problem because I also have a battery drain problem and my door switches seem to be OK (at least the black "plunger" part is moving freely - haven't actually pulled and tested yet)

streckfu's

If your windows move with door open after removing the key, there is a problem.

bearone

is that in a tech manual anyplace or just something being passed on?

there's too many folks who have posted here, not just this thread, that the windows go up/down with the key off-removed/door open, with me at the top of the list.

i know you're saying,"somethings wrong with the door switch".

i choose to not have the interior light come on, kind of a james bond thingy and keep the switch in the center.

one way turns the light on when the door is opened and the other keeps the light on.

can you point me to where this is in black and white.

xsboost90

yeah your windows should operate with the key out after running the car, until you open the door, then it de-activates the window switch. If the windows still work after you open the door, then the switch is not deactivatiing the windows so something is wrong with them...even if they are not sticking...

KuHL 951

For 85.5+ cars maybe you should open your owners manual to page 12 "Power Windows". Windows on the early cars will not operate without a key at all unless you want to argue that one also.

Is that black and white enough for you? Many aftermarket alarm systems will override this function so who knows.

VWaddict

I just tested this on my car, the findings are relevant I think:

On my car, the 'chime' sounds whe I open the door with the headlights on, so it sees the door open. -HOWEVER... the dome light doesn't come on unless I jiggle the door jamb switch.

The power windows continue to work with the key removed and the door open UNTIL the dome light has come on. -On those occasions when the dome light comes on as soon as I open the door, the windows cease to operate from that moment.

i have come back to the car having not driven it for a couple of days and the windows will wind down with no key in the ignition. Jiggling the door switch until the dome light comes on ends the windows functioning.

This tells me that there's more than one pole in the door switch. One operates the chime sense (and probably the alarm) while the other operates the dome light and tells the power windows that they are no longer needed. (and possibly shuts down a few other functions.

the next step for me is to put a fluke meter in series with the battery and read how the current is affected by the dome light coming on, and then what it goes down to after the dome light goes back off. -I bet there's a reduction in drain, since the car sends more stuff to sleep.

Oh yes, mine is an '89 951 if that's relevant.

Keith

bearone

yes indeed, thank you.

87951

xsboost90

that makes sense because ghost's car never did have a working dome light when i sold it, it would come on if you manually turned it on but in the correct position it would not come on when you open the door.

VWaddict

I may have found the fix.

I just dug out my service manual and looked up the schematic. The two door switches were shown as being different, so I took them out of my car and -yes- they agree with the schematic. The driver's-side switch is a DPST short-to-ground type, the passenger side is a SPST short-to-ground type.

They're very simple devices, so I first confirmed my earlier tests that the power-window-enable IS killed by the pole of the switch that turns on the dome light. -Even if the dome light is turned off, the same pole being switched to ground as is used to turn the dome lights on (when the dome light switch is in the "door-activated" position) is "sniffed" by the main electronic control module and is used -from what I can tell not just for the power windows, but to put the entire "central electrical" module to sleep.

It appears that there's a 'central electrical' module in the vehicle which controls several features of the car's electrical system, and it appears to be activated when you turn the key in the ignition switch. It appears to remain active AFTER you remove the key, assuming that you might want do do a few things -of which opening or closing windows is presumably one- until it sees tyou get out of the car. -When it 'sees' the dome light switch go on (irrespective of whether the dome light is switched to "door activated" or not) , it takes that as a sign that it's no longer needed, and shuts itself off.

A cool feature probably, but the drawback is that if your door pin-switch dies or even gets particularly dirty- it stays active after you leave the car, draining the battery much faster than normal.

I took the pinswitches out and saw how simple they were. They're both basically comprised of a bent metal bracket with a single mounting screw-hole in the front, and a hole through which the sprung plastic pin slides. When the door is open, the pin slides forward until the metal contact (to which the wire is connected) touches the bent metal bracket. There's a sort of a "spike" fashioned into it, which makes for a single point of contact. The driver's side has two wire contacts and therefore two 'spikes' which are mounted on a slightly 'loose' plastic piece on the end of the plastic pin. Don't worry about the "looseness", it's deiberately there, to make sure that if one 'spike' wears down more than the other, both will still make good contact with the bracket base.

I took the switches from the car, used a little bit of abrasive paper on the contact points, squirted a small amount of WD-40 for good measure, and refitted the switches. -Now the dome light works reliably on both doors, and the windows shut off as soon as either door is opened.

-One small detail: the driver's side has two connections and the 'floating' plastic part at the end. -If the wires are tight or twisted up inside the door jamb, it may interfere with the 'seating' of the floating end. All you need to do to test it when you re-attach the switch is push the pin plunger a few times and see if the dome light turns on & off reliably. -that tests the contact which turns the dome light on & off. To test the OTHER pole, put the key in the ignition and turn it to the right until you hear the chime (with the door open). push the pin plunger in & out a few times and check that the chime starts & stops when it should, to satisfy yourself that that pole is also making good reliable contact

Awesome!

I took some pictures of the switches, if anyone needs clarification, let me know.

Ghost944, please try this and let me know if it fixes your problem, -it took me all of ten minutes to do, and requires no special tools.

If either switch is broken, they have VW/Audi logos stamped all over them, I'm sure that I can find out replacement part numbers, though I have a hard time imagining one breaking...

Keith

944Fest (aka Dan P)

Well done, Keith. This is the type of post I like. You worked on a known problem, diagnosed and studied schematics, and came up with a understandable description and solution, and shared it with the huddle masses.

Bravo. Rennlist needs more folks like you!

PS..Fine choice in cars!