Last night we got home, parked the car and went to sleep. Next morning I went to work on my bicycle, as usual - and my wife called me on the cellular, panick in her voice...

She told me she went down to drive to work, and found the car with the driverside window wide open, seat drenched in rain water from last nights storm.

I'm positive the window was closed when we left the car, the doors were locked, and in the morning there were no signs of breaking in!

Some friends at work thought maybe lightning caused the (electrically controlled) window to open...

Checking up on the Danish weather service homepage, I found out that lightning struck several times in our immediate area.

My question is: Did anybody else experience / hear of something similar, or have other theories on what happened?

Should I / can I request Skoda to check up on the electrical installations, on such weird grounds?

I'm very worried about such a thing happening again, both due to damage caused by rain, and the risk of thieves seing their chance to steal a car from an idiot leaving the window wide open... :(

Best regards,

S

Conspiracy theory number one: The thunder made the car vibrate with such great effort the sensor in the car thought a hand was stuck in between the window and rolled it down to prevent an injury.

Why would only 1 window open of its own action? Sounds to me like you should accept the inevitable.....you left the window open. Just be greatful nothing was taken.

Andy

Conspiracy theory number two: You keep the keys on your bedside table, and due to the thunder they vibrated of the table, into the bed. Due to a restless night you managed to unlock the car by rolling over the remote. At the same time your next door neighbour passes by and hears it unlocking, he then proceeds to wind down the window (I know, its a bit far fetched ) and when you roll back over the remote you lock the car again.

Hehe... liked the conspiracies!!!

I knew you'd think I just forgot closing the window, but fact is that it never was open at any point due to the weather. That's 100% certain!

Well, guess conspiracy #2 is closest to the truth, so far... although I'd have had to roll out of the bedroom and 1/3 up the wall, ignoring the pain from the nail the keys are hanging on. And since the windows are controlled electrically, the neighbour must have been able to somehow turn the ignition key I, at the same time, was laying on... in order to use the window control button.

Seriously, the lightning theory or just an honest faulty circuit, seems at least as probable (not much said).

Here in Denmark, Citroen C3 was the car of the year 2002 - and they had to call back quite a few, due to them catching fire for some obscure reason... pretty bad defect, I'd say! A lot of funny conspiracy theories could be spun on that account as well

Darn... from your reactions, I can see my Skoda dealer listening to my story - trying to restrain himself from bursting into laughter.

Keep them theories coming...

the truth is out there...........

But why would the proximity of lightning cause just one window to open? Wouldn't it be more likely to trigger the unlocking of the car, the alarm (if fitted) or even fry the various chips in the ECU etc? That said, some members (me included) have had problems with one touch closing of the driver's door window not operating correctly.

This is a fairly common feature(fault ?)on all Audi TT's -- they mysterously open 1 or both windows,sometimes by 1 to 2 inch's - sometimes all they way.

Where 1 window has dropped all the way down - this usually relates to window motor fault(on the TT's the control unit forms part of the motor,which I believe is same on Skoda).

Where windows drop by couple of inch's - this is usually caused by inadvertant application of comfort system by pressure on remote keyfob.

**Edit -- above should say where "BOTH" windows drop a couple of inch's or more - but equal

Both above can also be caused by strong electrical interferance.,

I would defo get your dealer to check it out -- they may find something -- best to check,and get the fault on record - just in case.

Skodaw, thanks for your answer - I was hoping for something along those lines...

:mw:

I will follow your advice and at least get the incident on record.

Best regards,

/S

This is a fairly common feature(fault ?)on all Audi TT's -- they mysterously open 1 or both windows,sometimes by 1 to 2 inch's - sometimes all they way.

So one morning you can just find your car advertising everything without you even knowing?

Could this be the lightning / etc causing the lock to think the key was turned and left in the "open" position, thereby causing the window to go down - This theory is however offset by the fact that both windows would have gone down.... :confused:

Another Theory:

On my first Audi A4 (98 model) it used to be easy to catch the electric window switch panel on the driver's door armrest as you opened the door to get out. As the windows worked without the key in the ignition and were also very quiet, you could easily open the passenger side window without knowing it.

another theory..

had similar conv with wife last dec 23rd re locking the car.

on 24th awoke to find the thieves had returned with there magic box of gadgets and removed 3k of stereo... police said mine was 5th bm/merc to be done.. ...so much for rolling codes....

I have an alientech window controller, its a fun game to look out of the house to see *all* my windows open, and then hunt the child thats sat in the corner merrily pressing buttons on the remote........

Originally posted by Fabpreza in this post

Another Theory:

On my first Audi A4 (98 model) it used to be easy to catch the electric window switch panel on the driver's door armrest as you opened the door to get out. As the windows worked without the key in the ignition and were also very quiet, you could easily open the passenger side window without knowing it.

This is also very common on the current A4/TT etal -- first thing we do when looking at these faults - is code out the convienience system -- which 99.9% of owner's didn't know they had anyway

Originally posted by Quinten in this post

So one morning you can just find your car advertising everything without you even knowing?

Err...that would be a big fat YES

Can also happen if both door's shut within 3 seconds of each other -- and that according to Audi - is not a fault :eek:

LOL!

What's the logic behind that?

Originally posted by Quinten in this post

LOL!

What's the logic behind that?

There isn't any.... but it's a characteristic caused by the software in the control unit(i.e duff program)

Originally posted by skodaw in this post

There isn't any.... but it's a characteristic caused by the software in the control unit(i.e duff program)

Definition #6, I think

Yeah Definately.....although Audi are trying to "Remove that feature!" -- but without success - we are on about thr 4th or 5th version of the software,but whilst there are improvements to the possibilty of both windows dropping when the doors are closed together -- they don't seem to be able to rectify the one drop syndrome.....

Excellent link Mike, one for the office

i am so glad i have got human powered windows then

Originally posted by fabia in this post

i am so glad i have got human powered windows then

But even they have their disadvantages - eg when young children wind them down at speed on the motorway in the middle of winter when it is raining...

Although the information qouted below is outdated and steps were made to replace the faulty relays, it is too related for comfort to the experience I had. I think I've found the cause, although it's strange only one window opened!

Quote:

* Recalls

Faulty relay can result in electric windows opening about one minute after doors are locked with the key. These relays are in the process of being replaced under a low priority recall...

Link: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/index.php?url=/carbycar/index.htm

(Select a manufacturer - Skoda / Select Model - Fabia (2000 on))

Guess I'll stick around for at least a minute after locking the doors, until Skoda Service takes care of the problem... :(

Going off at a tangent....

My Citroen Xantia had a little "crank handle" thingie in the electric sunroof console, to close the sunroof manually in an emergency (e.g. if the electrics failed while it was raining).

I don't remember seeing anything similar on the Octavia. Is there some other way of closing the sunroof manually?