Power windows (again)

[sam c.]

I can honestly say that I've never seen a car that is such joke of electrical engineering that it will decide whether or not the windows will function on literally a case by case bases.

I parked the car a couple nights ago with no issues and came back the next morning to discover that the windows suddenly no longer function.

The left side window is in the down position and wont move. The right is up and won't respond to the switch or the movement of the top, but will drop when the door is opened.

Ideas?

I have yet to pull the driverside seat (again) to check for corrosion on the 15 amp fuse on the box under the seat. When the car suddenly started doing this a few weeks ago, that seemed to solve it. The fuse looked perfect but everything suddenly worked after removing, greasing, and reinstalling that fuse. Does anyone have any suggestions what's going on here?

As an alternative solution, has anyone bypassed the ridiculous Porsche system and just made the windows "dumb?" In other words, I'm exhausted with the windows. Exhausted thinking about them, messing with them, taking the doors apart, and even just plain wondering if they're going to work when I press the switch. Its gotten to the point that I experience a mix of pleasant surprise and relief when the windows decide to work. What I'd like to do is just run power effectively from the hot side of the battery thru the switch to the motor (via relays, fuses, etc). I wont even use Porsche's obviously possessed wiring. Uplug the stock harness and just leave it in the door and run an entirely new and simple system in its place. The window equivalent to what some have done with their tops (which was obviously designed by the same Porsche intern that did the windows).

Does anyone see any glaring issues with this?

Thanks guys,
Sam

[stephen wilson]

It sounds like you didn't fix the original issue with just the fuse cleaning. I don't think you can blame this one on Porsche, but on the PO that let the interior get soaked.

[sam c.]

Possibly. I wondered if that might be the case...

Regardless tho, pulling and cleaning the fuse def immediately seemed to fix the issue for a couple weeks. Of course the driverside window regulator took a dump in the meantime. Lol. Ridiculous.

[ccstud17]

Sam hate to hear you are back in this position....
check your rear drain to see if it is clogged, easing a wire hangar all the way thru the drain is what I had to do to fix mine. also maybe replace the fuse, like .15 cents to rule out any issue there, emery paper the fuse receptacle...

really hope it is something easy like this and you can get back into driving her!

[Gregtenerife]

My car has never even been wet (except valeting) and has similar issues, even lowering the top gives a different window response every time (one half way up, one full up, one full down etc etc. Some times the auto up/down works and some times not (both sides) I've finally put it down to a quirky ghost and smile wondering what they will do today. Good luck with a cure!

[cheetahmoon]

Hi, can I suggest you check the electrical couplings by the A pillar ( by the door hinges). When I opened mine lots of water came out. I had them rewired today and there are window functions I never knew I had!

[sam c.]

Thanks for the suggestion, Spencer. I went out and ran some wire thru the drains today just to make sure they're good to go. Everything seemed cleaned (as expected since I pulled the drains and cleaned them out a couple of months ago). I figured it couldn't hurt tho.

I've been a little busy starting a company for the last couple weeks so I haven't gotten around to pulling the seat (again) but will try to so tomorrow. I'll let the community know what I find...

CM - Thats an awesome suggestion! I hadn't heard that one before but it makes a lot of sense. I'll investigate it tomorrow and see what I find.

Thanks again for the support, guys.