Window not coming down upon entering - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Viper5 · 07-18-2010, 06:44 AM

I have a 2000 Boxster S convertible and I just noticed that on my passenger side, the window doesn't drop enough to have clearance for the top. When I start to pull the handle, I can hear the motor and the window does move a little, but not as much as it should because when I try to open it, it gets caught by the top. Is this a common problem with an easy solution? I'm gonna go out later to try and mess with it to see if it's just a temporary thing, but I just thought I'd ask about that. Thanks in advance.

sb01box · 07-18-2010, 08:46 AM

Viper5,
there's been high thread traffic regards to the door lock mechanism and window operation.
Reported corrective action listed in this form spans from replacement of the lock mechanism, the switch on the outer door, bad spring in the mechanism, bad solder joint inside the door mechanism (my car) and worn window regulator.
my 2 cent, I suspect you are experiencing a worn window regulator - my car is doing the same now even after the re-learning process.
they say that the outer sleeve gets compressed, thus inducing a larger dead band where the motor does turn but percentage of the motor motion is taken up by the deadband (slop) and so the window does not lower enough.
normal window operation, i.e. full up, full down operator control motion is not affected.
You may want to perform quick testing outlined in the link below. & let us know of your findings. I may be plowing down the same path very soon.

good luck.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/Boxster_Tech/77-BODY-Window_Regulator/77-BODY-Window_Regulator.htm

http://www.ppbb.com/phorum/read.php?19,1565400,1565407

Viper5 · 07-18-2010, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the info. Will try to get to it later.

97 Boxster · 07-18-2010, 10:19 AM

Just to chime in, my door was not locking and the window was not dropping on my Drivers side as well. It also would not drop to close the door. This was such a pain in the butt.

Yesterday I took out the Door Lock Mechanism and cleaned the connections and checked all the visible parts I could. My Bentley manual showed the Door lock mechanism and when I removed mine and compared the two I noticed that my spring on my door lock (page 57-8 in the Bentley Manual) was not connected to the spring hook.

I hooked this up and lubricated what I felt necessary and reassembled and it now works like a charm.

No lock button on dash crap like before and window drops as it should.

Hope this helps.

Dave S. · 07-18-2010, 04:54 PM

My passenger door was doing the same thing. If I pushed down on the window when the door was open it would drop the normal distance so you could close it without the window hanging up on the convertible top.
I found that with the window rolled 1/2 way down I could pull it up and down and make it move about 3/4 of an inch.
The cable system on the window regulator seemed to be stretched out, so I was able to at least temporarily fix mine by taking some of the slack out of the cable. Since there are no cable adjusters, I made one from a zip tie wire ties. See the pictures below. This fix allows the window to drop enough to clear the top and I'm going to look at adding a bicycle brake line adjuster to the system so that I can dial it in better.
Thank god the door panel comes off very easily, with only about 4 screws and some clips holding it on.

Instructions to remove the door panel can be found here:
http://www.bombaydigital.com/boxster/projects/window/

deliriousga · 07-19-2010, 06:38 AM

I had the same problem recently on the driver's side. It was the regulator so I replaced it using the Bentley manual. It took about 1 1/2-2 hours and wasn't bad.

If you do it, check with your fingers and make sure the forward part of the glass is actually down in the clamp that's on the regulator. Otherwise you will waste another hour or so like I did trying to figure out why the darn thing wouldn't raise and lower properly. I thought it was in, but when I stuck my finger over there it was sitting on top of the clamp.

Good luck!

Yoadrian · 07-19-2010, 07:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deliriousga

I had the same problem recently on the driver's side. It was the regulator so I replaced it using the Bentley manual. It took about 1 1/2-2 hours and wasn't bad.

If you do it, check with your fingers and make sure the forward part of the glass is actually down in the clamp that's on the regulator. Otherwise you will waste another hour or so like I did trying to figure out why the darn thing wouldn't raise and lower properly. I thought it was in, but when I stuck my finger over there it was sitting on top of the clamp.

Good luck!

Hi. I believe my passenger side regulator has bitten the dust. The window has had a really tough time going up for the past two weeks and it would start to drop down after getting halfway up, even while I was holding the button down to raise the window. Last night, I had to actually manually pull up on the window to get it all the way up.

How difficult would you rate the do it yourself job of repalcing the regulator with the assistance of a Bentley manual? I know this is somewhat subjective, but to give you an idea, I am not very mechanically inclined...

Stealership wants $670 for the job. LOL

Viper5 · 07-24-2010, 04:04 PM

I had a chance to go out and mess with the car today. I got up to removing the panel and that film with the glue, but then I realized I have no idea what I am doing. I don't mean the instructions part but rather why I'm even removing my door. There is nothing blatantly broken. I did notice though upon further inspection before removing anything that it looks like the window moves more on the back side than the front. So it kinda comes up at an angle. The driver side (the one thats working) brings the window up and down evenly.

I just don't understand how the system works and I already disconnected the battery because I don't want the airbag to go off, yet in the other instructions it says to test stuff but how can you do that with the battery disconnected?

I'm also confused because other people who have replied to this thread are saying that they did this and that, yet they don't have the same issue as me.

My window operation works from inside the vehicle, it is just when I pull on the door handle (inside and out) on my passenger side that the window doesn't work right by not going down slightly like it is supposed to. When I open the door and push down on the window it will go down a little and when I close the door after I push it down it will go up all the way, but the problem is it won't go down that small distance.

Knowing all this, I am thinking it is the regulator, but even if it was is there a way to test it? What other options do I have to test before biting the bullet and buying some new/used part?

From what I have dealt with in the past when in comes to fixing/replacing things, this seems like it's something that can be fixed without replacing it. I say this because I can still hear the car trying to push down and it moving slighlty instead of just being completely dead. I almost want to say that something is jammed but what I have no idea. If I have to buy a part then so be it, but if there is a way to fix this then I would like to do it. Like I said before, I don't know how the system works so I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. Hopefully, somebody who has the same problem as me can give me more insight since there seems to be a lot of components to this system with many variations of the window not working.

Viper5 · 07-24-2010, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave S.

My passenger door was doing the same thing. If I pushed down on the window when the door was open it would drop the normal distance so you could close it without the window hanging up on the convertible top.
I found that with the window rolled 1/2 way down I could pull it up and down and make it move about 3/4 of an inch.
The cable system on the window regulator seemed to be stretched out, so I was able to at least temporarily fix mine by taking some of the slack out of the cable. Since there are no cable adjusters, I made one from a zip tie wire ties. See the pictures below. This fix allows the window to drop enough to clear the top and I'm going to look at adding a bicycle brake line adjuster to the system so that I can dial it in better.
Thank god the door panel comes off very easily, with only about 4 screws and some clips holding it on.

Instructions to remove the door panel can be found here:
http://www.bombaydigital.com/boxster/projects/window/

I don't know what you mean when you say it looked stretched out. And that 1/2 way rolled down statement didn't make sense to me. Were you having the same problem as me or a variation? I don't understand your original problem.

Viper5 · 07-24-2010, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deliriousga

I had the same problem recently on the driver's side. It was the regulator so I replaced it using the Bentley manual. It took about 1 1/2-2 hours and wasn't bad.

If you do it, check with your fingers and make sure the forward part of the glass is actually down in the clamp that's on the regulator. Otherwise you will waste another hour or so like I did trying to figure out why the darn thing wouldn't raise and lower properly. I thought it was in, but when I stuck my finger over there it was sitting on top of the clamp.

Good luck!

Can you please describe the exact problem you were having? There seems to be many variations of the "window not working" category. Also, how much did that part cost you?

Dave S. · 07-24-2010, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper5

I don't know what you mean when you say it looked stretched out. And that 1/2 way rolled down statement didn't make sense to me. Were you having the same problem as me or a variation? I don't understand your original problem.

I had the exact same symptoms as you have. The window worked just fine, but would not drop enought to clear the top when you opened the door.
In my case it turned out that the cable system in the window regulator had stretched out. If I opend the door, I could manually push the window down about 1/2 inch by pushing down on the glass. When I closed the door the window would go back up as normal.
I disconnected the battery when removing the inner door panel, then reconnected it to watch the mechanism work. I found that with the window rolled 1/2 way down, I could pull up on the glass and make the window move up and downabout 1/2 inch by just pulling up on the glass itself. This is very different from my driver's door, where the window stays where it is.
I found that the cable had stretched out, so I needed to take up some of the slack. It's not perfect, but it now drops enough to clear the top by adding the spacers to the cable sleeves as shown on my pictures.
Hopes that helps.
Dave S.

Viper5 · 07-24-2010, 04:49 PM

I don't recall if my drivers side door is able to move by grabbing on the window itself, but your problem is exactly like mine as far as the passenger side. I am able to move it about 1/2 inch up or down on the problematic window before I started removing everything. I am going to try and tighten the line using zipties like you did when I get some daylight tomorrow. You put them in two different locations. Is there a reason for this? How did you know how many to put on? I'm not sure how adding the zipties tightens up the slack, but I'll have to take a look at what is going on tomorrow now that I have a much better idea of what to look for. Hopefully, mine has been stretched out too and can be fixed.

Bellster · 07-24-2010, 07:54 PM

Do it once and do it right buy window regulator and replace all the info on here with great pic....

Dave S. · 07-24-2010, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper5

I don't recall if my drivers side door is able to move by grabbing on the window itself, but your problem is exactly like mine as far as the passenger side. I am able to move it about 1/2 inch up or down on the problematic window before I started removing everything. I am going to try and tighten the line using zipties like you did when I get some daylight tomorrow. You put them in two different locations. Is there a reason for this? How did you know how many to put on? I'm not sure how adding the zipties tightens up the slack, but I'll have to take a look at what is going on tomorrow now that I have a much better idea of what to look for. Hopefully, mine has been stretched out too and can be fixed.

It's the same as tightening up the brake cable on your bike, except that there is no adjuster. By spacing the outer sheath of the cable back, it tightens the cable. The only reason I did it in 2 spots was to take up more of the slack. It's still a little loose, but at least it now drops enough to open and close the door.

I agree that you could just buy a new regulator for about $140 and fix it until that one stretches out too, or you can spend 5 cents worth of zip ties, you can fix it for a while and see how long it lasts. At least you have learned that taking the door inner skin off is an easy task and since you don't have to disassemble or remove the regulator it's a really easy fix, so no big deal if you have to go back into it later with a more permanent fix.
After adding the zip ties and reconnecting the battery after re-assembling the door panel to the door, I ran the windows up and down so they could re-learn where they are and the auto up down feature was reset.
I'm going to leave mine as is until it stops working just to see how long it lasts. I think I'm going to order some bicycle brake cable adjusters and see if I can adapt one to work as an adjuster for the window regulator.

Viper5 · 07-25-2010, 05:46 AM

My wire is also a bit loose so I put some ties on there and tested it out. It was definitely working. So I put everything back together and at first it was still working but the window would come maybe twice as far as it normally does and would still come up correctly, but then it stopped doing that. I'll just take it apart again and see what I can do.

Upon further inspection, it's almost as if the window is stuck when the top is up. When I am just testing the window when it's not shut using a screwdriver or something where the switch is, the window does seem to go up and down the normal distance. As soon as I shut the door with the top up, it doesn't have the same range of motion. When the top is down, it works again. I think this is why I thought it was working at first (because the door wasn't shut)

Viper5 · 07-25-2010, 11:43 AM

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

I went to a local bike shop to try and get one of those brake adjustors, but they didn't have what I wanted. I'm not sure how exactly Dave was going to hook it up that way. So then I went to autozone to see if they had anything that could grab the wire and pull it together closer. Nothing. I decided to go back home and take it apart again and see if there was anything further I could do. I noticed that the wire was still a bit looser than I had wanted, so in order to tighten it further, I had to take that spring piece out of the socket on the topside to fit another ziptie in. It seemed like it had a decent tightness to it so I put it back together with the sacrifice of having that piece not go in the slot it was designed to and it works perfectly for now. Like it was new and mimics the drivers side.

Thank you so much everyone for your help!

sb01box · 07-25-2010, 12:02 PM

my 01 just underwent door lock repair and now it seems that the small drop down of the window is acting up. just like this thread.
Is the root problem the outer sleeving loosing it's strength and making the cable system sloppy? if so, by taking the slop out of the system by only pulling on the inner cable and placing a spacer without addressing the outer sleeve a very short term solution? more permanent fix would be to make sure that the outer sleeve does not further degrade (collapse)?

thanks in advance

Viper5 · 07-25-2010, 12:49 PM

I believe the root problem is that over time, the cable will stretch, thus the regulator does not pull the same distance as it should even though it is doing the same amount of rotation. By placing zipties or other spacer applications in spots which pull the cable, you can tighten the cable up and thus the distance is the same as it was originally.

sb01box · 07-25-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viper5

I believe the root problem is that over time, the cable will stretch, thus the regulator does not pull the same distance as it should even though it is doing the same amount of rotation. By placing zipties or other spacer applications in spots which pull the cable, you can tighten the cable up and thus the distance is the same as it was originally.

I have not taken my unit apart. for those that have, is there any "wear" on the sleeving?

Viper5 · 07-25-2010, 07:37 PM

I'm not sure what you mean by "wear on the sleeving," but I don't see any wear on any parts I was working on. If you are having the same problem as I was and Dave was in regards to the window not fully coming down for the top clearance but all other functions working properly, then you probably just need to tighten it the wire.