Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie who recently acquired a 98 Boxster and took it to the dealership to get a new set of keys programmed (I believe that the key that came with it was an original and the remote stopped working).

After leaving the dealership and reaching my destination I opened the passenger side door and the window lowered as normal. Once I closed the door I noticed that the window did not go back into position. I opened the door again and the window lowered another couple inches.
When I use the switch to manually adjust the window it will only raise and lower in about 2" increments.

It seems like the window is failing to remember what it's closed position is.

To make a long story short:
The dealership will not take responsibility and they are unable to determine what is the cause
I was presented with a $1000 estimate in parts

Has anyone seen this before?
I have tried reseting the windows (all the way up and hold the switch; all the way down and hold the switch) and unhooking the negative on the battery without any luck.

Could this be a bad motor, regulator, microswitch, or door latch?

I really appreciate any ideas or advice so that the dealership does not take me for a ride.

Thank you!

 

Try opening the roof latch and sticking your finger into the microswitch and gently pushing it in, try the window while you are holding the microswitch in and see if it closes. Mine does what yours is doing occasionally and that usually gets it working. The microswitch is behind the big hook on the top latch.

 

Thank you for your advice Bossy Pants!

I did try your technique but the window still seems to only go up and down in increments.

All the switches I could find seem to be working (roof latch, inner door handle, outer door handle)

Do you have any other ideas I should try ?

 

I think Bossy Pants is on to something. It reads like the windows -- welll the controller/sensors that control window position/behavior -- believes the top latch switch is active and these then lower the windows 2" or so when the top is lowered.

Either the top latch switch is faulty -- a single point failure -- or both door lock/window controllers have gone bad concurrently. This seems unlikely to me.

The windows drop 2" when you open the door. What is the window behavior if you pull on either handle -- inner or outer -- just enough that the window should drop but you do not open the door and instead release the handle?

With electrical gremlins my concern is always water in the cabin. Check the cabin floor everywhere but especially under the seats for any sign of moisture or water. Check the door bottoms for dampness. Check teh body water drains under the covers on either side of the battery box and you might as well check teh one on either side of the top under each clamshell arm.

 

Thank you Macster!

I spent more time testing the roof latch, inside door handle, and exterior door handle and this is what I found:

Roof Latch (When released it to lower the roof)
driver window - lowers about 2"
passenger window - lowers about 0.75"

Roof Latch (When latch locked to secure roof)
driver window - does not change position
passenger window - drops about 2" (total of almost 2.75")


Inside Door Handle (Passenger)
When the handle is pulled slightly but not enough to release the latch the window will lower the right amount and when the handle is released it will raise back into position.
However, when the handle is pulled hard enough to release the latch and open the door, the window will lower and not raise back into position even when the door is closed.

Exterior Door Handle (Passenger)
Using the exterior door handle results in the same behavior as using the inside door handle.

If I keep opening the closing the passenger door repeatedly, the window will eventually completely lower and when I use the switch to manually raise the window it will only raise about 1.5" at a time and the automatic raise function does not work.


The cabin appears dry (as well as under the seats) and I checked all water drains for any sign of debris that could be blocking the channels. The only one that seemed semi blocked was the one at the very front beside the front hood latch (which probably was not the culprit).

Thank you once again in advance for any ideas or advice.

 

Briefly, when either door handle is pulled but not enough to open the door the window should drop a fraction of an inch. If the handle is released the window should go up.

That the window drops tells you the door handle switch is working. That the window goes up if the door is not opened tells you the door latch switch is working. At least part of it.

If you open the door the window should stay down. This is another clue the door latch switch is working.

When you close the door the window should go up again. This is yet another clue the door latch switch is working.

If you pull on either door handle and the window doesn't drop very much, trembles more than drops, this is a sign the window regulator is bad (probably worn out).

With your car the behavior of the passenger window suggests the door latch switch is acting up.

However, there are several switches/controllers in the door and my experience is even a Porsche tech is often not wiling to make a diagnosis without further investigation. This is for the customer's benefit. Some door/window hardware is rather expensive. Hundreds of dollars then there is the labor to replace. It does not go over well when after spending hundreds of dollars to have a symptom addressed upon getting the car back the customer finds the symptom still present or worse it returns after leaving the dealer's service department.

I can tell you the door lock controller, the handle and door latch switches, and the regulator can all wear out. And have in the case of my Boxster, albeit with some big miles (297K and counting). I've had the passenger side door lock controller (rather big considering its location and expensive as it is an electro-mechanical assembly) replaced, either a handle or latch (or both) switch in the passenger door replaced, at least one switch in the driver's side door replaced, and both window regulators replaced.

Oh, and more recently because of wet door bottoms the passenger side door membrane was resealed and the driver's side membrane was replaced.

I do not know the difficulty in replacing interior door hardware. All the Boxster door/window work has been done at the dealer. IIRC the labor can range from one to nearly 2 hours and parts can range from around $90 (new door membrane) to several hundred dollars (~$400?). (That door lock controller for instance is the biggie in my experience.)

 

So I just swapped out my window regulator (passenger side) for the second time. The first one (aftermarket about $88 on ebay, mfg = Hamburg-Technic ) crapped out with the wire jumping one of the pulleys. I did have the same issue described above with regards to the window movement after finishing up. Im not sure if this was the fix or not, but I it was only after I reprogrammed BOTH sides via the window rocker switches that both window behaved properly. And I did not do anything with the roof.

Additionally, I would also note that what I believe contributed to the failed regulator was that the height adjustment screw on one side had traveled (migrated) upon cycling the window only a few times (as this was passenger window and not used much for the 3 weeks) to an extreme position. I SUSPECT that many of the failures reported for these aftermarket regulators MAY be due to this, its just that people dont look closely enough to identify cause. This is pure speculation. To counter this migration, we applied blue loctite across the screws on both holder hardwares. Time will tell as I just finished this swap today.