ozziegt

2015 Macan, the front passenger window auto-up stops about halfway up. I've read that this can be due to dirty glides causing excessive current draw, triggering the safety. Does anyone know how to lubricate the window glides? Hopefully this can be done without taking off the door panels? What's the best lubricant?

ozziegt

Err am I overthinking this? Do I just need to lubricate the parts of the window frame where the window rubs up against it?

Petza914

What are you going to lubricate that with that won't leave a cloudy residue on the window glass. Honestly, it's likely the regulator inside the door that needs the lubrication or the window motor itself getting tired, but if you lower the coefficient of friction of the glass surface on the window squeegee, it might also help your cause without getting as invasive. You can do this with a treatment of Rain-X or PIAA silicone glass treatment on the side glass, and even if that doesn't do much, it will improve your view out those windows in bad weather.

CarGuyNVA

Agree with Petza, this sounds like more of a hardware problem. I can’t imagine any sort of lubrication issue that would result in the symptom you’re experiencing.

Just for closure, please let us know when you find out what the cause is.

PistolPete

Can you pull on the button and the window continues to go all the way up? If so, I think the windows need to be reset to make them learn the limits of travel. Pull the button to bring the window all the way up and hold the button for 5-10 seconds. Then try the one touch down and up again. I've had to do this on other Porsches when the battery has been disconnected and I assume the logic on the Macan would be the same.

On another car of mine I've had the window guides (vertical portion) in the frame gunk up on me after 5+ yrs of the car sitting outside. When that happens it's pretty obvious the window is catching or slowing down when trying to close. I cleaned off the track as best I could and then sprayed some silicon lube into the track valley and that solved it for me.

ozziegt

I obviously haven't been driving much recently due to the lockdown in my area but I tried messing with it some more yesterday. It does come up if I hold it down, but even when I hold it down after the halfway point there are a couple times it pauses while I'm holding the button to pull the window up. And it only starts after halfway up...the exact same point every time. I am going to play around with it more this weekend to see, but it seems like there are very specific spots which cause the issue. Which leads me to believe it's not a more generic problem like a weak motor, but rather some debris or something stuck somewhere.

PistolPete, yes I have tried "resetting" the limits by trying what you described. I believe the symptom of that is auto-up doesn't work at all, whereas the issue here is that it works but just stops halfway.

One of the main problems for me is I don't know how to take the door panel off cleanly without damaging any clips. This is my first Porsche but experience with previous cars has always been removing a door panel is going to result in broken clips and possibly rattles after you put it back on. If someone can point me to some resources on how to remove my door panel without those issues I would also appreciate it.

Someone on the Macan forum said a similar issue was resolved by getting a new switch...that seems strange to me...

Petza914

It's stopping at those points because that's where the window motor is sensing excessive load and shutting off the auto-up feature, just like it does at the top. You can make the tracks slipperier and the glass surface slipperier to try and reduce the motor load overall so it goes past those spots, or you can replace the window regulator, which you'll inevitably have to do anyway. The other tricks may just potentially delay that replacement.

ozziegt

Actually it looks pretty solid and simple: If I have time this weekend I'll take the door panel off and take a peek.

ozziegt

Hmm the regulator is pretty inexpensive. Under $100. When I get in there I will take a look but how can I tell if it's a bad regulator for sure and not something else like a bad motor?

PSEE

Here is a parts diagram - looks as though the regulator mechanism and motor (1 & 2) are sold separately...

jbx2

A little late but I'll throw this out there. How's your battery? If you haven't been driving it's bound to be weak and I've seen with my Cayman that a low batt makes the window motors a little wacky. Good luck

ozziegt

Battery is original. Still 14.5+ v while the car is running, according to the PCM though.

It could be the battery, it could be the regulators. The question is how can I eliminate one or the other without replacing unnecessary parts? The battery is 4-5 years old with 75k miles on it, so maybe that is up for replacement anyway...

Actually, I have a battery tender! I can recharge the battery overnight and see if helps. Thanks for the tip.

Petza914

You can hook up another running vehicle via jumper cables then try the window again. If it still fails, it's not the battery.

ozziegt

Just a follow up for this. I bought a new regulator but didn't have time to replace it. Looked like a bigger job than I thought. Fortunately the problem went away on it's own before I tackled the job. So I don't know what happened...maybe something got caught up in the regulator?