Hi all

 

Driving along today with the windows fully down, and when I went to put the driver's window up, it went up about 2/3, made a noise, and went all the way back down again. Tried this a few times, same thing each time.

Then I tried inching it up bit by bit, and eventually, something went bang. I heard a noise like glass shards trickling inside the door, and now the window would go up, but stops about an inch from fully closed and won't go any higher.

 

I originally thought I'd broken the glass inside the door, just at the bottom so it couldn't go up all the way any more, but thinking about it, wouldn't the glass shatter completely if that was the case? As it hasn't, I guess I've maybe broken the regulator instead? One of the connections anyway, so now it jams before the top. Maybe the noise like glass trickling inside the door was actually bits of plastic?

 

Is there a common cause of this problem? And where can I get a new window regulator if that is the likely culprit?

 

Rather not open or close the window to investigate further in case it gives up completely...

 

Thank you.

 

It sounds likely that it was plastic you heard

 

I haven't had this happen on my Octavia, but my previous Audi has the notoriously **** VAG window regulators and I ended up replacing all four eventually. Basically the steel wire would gradually fray over time and eventually snap.

 

Depending on where the cable has snapped it may be possible to fully close the window or it may not be. If it's getting jammed before fully closing then it's likely the snapped and frayed end of the regulator cable is getting jammed in one of the pulleys. This happened to me on the Audi and my short term fix (until I could replace the regulator) was to remove the door card, pull the motor out, manually push the window all the way to the top, then put the motor back in and disconnect the plug. The motor holds the window in the closed position and with the plug disconnected you can't accidentally open it.

 

The side windows are tempered glass and are designed to completely shatter if broken so I would think it's unlikely to have broken inside the door if the rest is still intact.

Edited 17 June, 20205 yr by slow_nick

Thanks Nick, that's helpful. Looking on eBay there are various replacement / repair kits for the window regulators, though I've not yet found one for my 2011 car.

 

Does removing the door card break a moisture seal which then has to be replaced?

removing the door card is fairly easy no seals that I remember however to get to the regulator you'll need to drill out the rivets  in the inner door panel then once repaired replace the rivets.

had this go on mine recently local vag specialist sorted it for (complete replacement ) for around 200 i think, the cheapest I could find full OEM replacement part was 160 

 

if you take the card off there's 2 plastic black plugs inline with the wires so you can check if ones bust.

 

Thanks.

 

Parts on eBay seem to be about £10 or £15, just for the clips and cables, so I'm hoping I don't need the whole regulator to be replaced. Will need garage help if there's riveting to be done anyway!

Took it to the garage in the end, non main dealer. £230! They did have to replace the whole regulator, which apparently is a right pain. Mechanic wasn't keen to see it back again!

sounds about right - glad you got it sorted

More than I was hoping, but sounds like just replacing the steel wire wouldn't have done the trick. Might have a look myself next time before taking to the garage... If it hadn't been raining so much...

£230 is about right for a garage I guess!

 

It was actually a very easy job on my Audi. Brand new regulator on eBay was about £20. I'm not sure how different the Octavia will be but I can't imagine it will be too dissimilar:

 

The door card is secured with only 2 screws, the time consuming part is disconnecting all of the electrical plugs, and there are quite a few

I think it was 3 torx bolts to remove the window motor

The window regulator is riveted to the door frame, which is attached to the door panel by 4 big torx bolts. Once you undo these the whole frame, regulator and window simply lift out

Drilling out the rivets is fairly easy with a decent drill and proper drill bits for metal

The window is attached to the regulator by two plastic clips with screws through them, very easy to swap over to a new regulator

I riveted the new regulator back onto the door frame, although some people choose to use nut and bolt instead. I had a hard time finding rivets big enough because the ones required are HUGE. Putting in a rivnut and using a small bolt and washer is probably a better idea which I will bear in mind for the future

Reassembly is the most difficult part, for a start when you put the door frame back on the door panel you have to line it up correctly or the door will not shut correctly, or the door seal will not be effective. Takes a bit of fine tuning to  get this right

Putting the window motor back in can be a bit of a fiddle as you have to line up the splines on the motor with the new regulator

Make sure to connect all the electrical plugs, you don't wanna find out when you've put it all back together that the window switch or mirror adjustment isn't working!

Connecting the door handle mechanism and getting the door lock pin in the correct position was the most difficult part as you have to do both of these while the door card is half fitted, although the Octavia doesn't have lock pins so one less thing to worry about

 

Finally once everything is done make sure you go through the procedure for the car to learn the limits of the window travel so the one touch up/down works. Total time for job was about 2 hours the first time I did it, and about 30 minutes each time after that.

 

No better feeling of seeing the window opening and closing smoothly especially if you've driven with an inoperative window for 9 months like I did when my driver's one failed a few years ago!

Edited 19 June, 20205 yr by slow_nick