healey1968

Well, the title says it all. When driving around testing out my wheel bearing fix, it seems like an infamous problem happened to my window (I guess this did happened about a month ago, but I'm just getting around to fixing it). The window makes a cracking noise going up/down, won't go down when opening the door handle and has excessive play (aka you can pull it up/down with your hands on the glass).

I know it's the same problem as this guys found: renntech post. Halfway down, somebody mentions three problems:

1. Cable has stretched
2. Cable has frayed
3. [green] Plastic guide has broken

I'm trying to implement the 'bicycle brake adjuster fix' found here. Seems like a huge waste of a regulator to throw it away for some chipped plastic.

So I took it all apart today and determined that none of my green plastic guides have broken. I have a hard time believing that the metal part of the cable has stretched too (common, this isn't holding a clutch!). About halfway through the project I decided to just take the whole regulator out and figure it out on the bench. From here, it looks like the blue plastic guide and the black plastic sheathing have stretched. The cracking noise can be heard from right there on the regulator too.

Now - what are the great ideas out there on how to fix this? Additionally, what's the pin out on the motor? Can I run it on my bench to verify any fix I come up with?

pmkazz

Wow, you are a better man than me... I just replaced my with new. Best luck..

Hurdigurdiman

How expensive is a new one? You still save a bundle as you are a DIY guy. if a cable or plastic has stretched simply disconnect it, cut to length and re-attach. If thats possible. If you have time, take the other door one out and campare the good to bad one. You may be able to adapt when you see how the good one works. Good luck.

healey1968

Well, I think I've found what causes the cable to 'stretch' and make the cracking/scratching noise in these regulators. I know I'm not the first, but I've never seen somebody post follow up info, so here's a picture of what actually happened. The blue piece of plastic in the photo below is a guide for the cable *inside the spool of the regulator* (I have it all taken apart). What happens is that the blue plastic guide chafes against the spool every time it goes up/down and eventually a small piece breaks off. You can see the small piece that broke off on my bench. This does two things.

1. It adds about 1/4+ inch of play in the cable system, allowing play in the window operation.
2. The broken piece of plastic scratches against the spool during operation.

I can see how inducing extra tension in the cable system might help for a while, however that broken piece of plastic will always be in the spool. Also, the design of the [blue] plastic guide rubbing against the [green] spool during every use doesn't look too robust. I guess you could glue the blue plastic guide back together again too - but I think it's just asking for a fix 6 months down the line.

I guess I'll be trying out the non-OEM regulator from autohaus for 110 bucks. Hopefully I don't have to open this door up again.

Hurdigurdiman

Well done. Shop around the net for the replacement. Auto House Lancaster PA told me that I needed a new battery 15 months ago. A guy at Pep Boys put me wise. Not so I am still using the same battery so i would not deal with A H Lancaster PA again unless absolutley necessary. Is this what you are looking for on ebay? http://www.ebay.com/itm/2001-Porsche...item416685268c