The dat arrived, I was going to replace this window regulator myself, Brave? Foolish more like.
I hate modern cars when they go wrong, evey thing is plactic, clips, awkward and complicated, just hate them
In hindsight, should have simply taken the car to Zuffenhaus and paid £327 and droive home.
But I didn't and here are the lows (lots of them) and highs (one) of my 5 hours in the cleared garage, and the job is not yet finished.
Got the 1073 911 going and out of the garage, started first time, all gears ok etc, just as it has always been.
Rolled the Lola race car out and went to the Boxster so i could drive it into the empty space.
No.
Car was totally dead, key did nothing and I could not wake it up. Charged the battery for 6 hours 6 days ago, so that should be ok.
After a LOT of messing about managed to get both front inner arch covers off the car. Removed the drivers side and no hood release wire. Stripped the passenger side, and found this wire with no ball on the end (has someone been here before?)
Mole grips on the end of the wire, suitable swear words fully employed and the wire eventually moved a touch and with another word it pulled and the front bonnet opened.
JUST WHO thought this was a good idea at Porsche? The apprentice? Utter rubbish.
The action pulls the front carpet off the inside of the boot sides and all that, what a mess.
Put the battery on charge, but it took only 3 amps, not what I was expecting.
Disconnected the battery (to kill the air bag) and the alarm went off.... Found the alarm with the help of the entire cul-de-sac who were 'alarmed' and it carried on going. The internal battery failed after 10 'alarms' , I disconnected it to kill the din.
Reconnected the battery (for some reason) and the central locking worked! (WHY?). Still this meant I could start the car and get it into the garage. It started really well.
With the driver's door open now, the door car was removed (Google Instructors were my best friend).
Removed the screws holding the window motor and the broken mangled regulator drive wire was evident. At least I had the right replacement part.
With 60 mins now elapsed, the air bag was disconnected, the million wires in 3 clusters to the motor removed (modern electrical connectors are nice), unclipped the door latch release cable (so simple!) and removed the inner cover panel away from the door, but not right off as access to the regulator is HUGE.
I was hoping I would remember all these connections!
Removed the old regulator in 3 parts, it is a one piece assembly normally and put it to one side.
Adjusted the new unit to emulate the glass positions of the original (did not work out too well), removed the glass having marked the registration of the glass to the clamps front and rear, cleaned it all, and put the new regulator in the door.
After some frustrating time got the housing that mates to the motor onto the inner panel and screwed it all back tight, wires replaced correctly, and reconnected the air bag.
Loosed the door card in place and wires re-done and NOTHING worked. I hadn't pushed the one motor connector fully home, needed 1mm more.
Tested again, windows go up and down both sides, but the glass is not quite square to the soft top, the rear edge is only just touching the soft top, but both windows drop on opening etc. The drivers glass does not go from open to closed in one shot, so i think the memory needs setting now.
Put the rest of the door back together and tested 3 times, all ok bar the position memories.
Having had enough of this I bravely closed the front bonnet, and it opened normally on the key, the boot too, and all the locks are ok.
Drove the thing out of the garage and noted the PSM light is on the dash ! "PSM failed" I hope there is a diy re-set for this?
Tomorrow morning is a re-fitting of the wheel arched with front wheels removed, set the window memories, BUT only once the glass is right. I notice there are 4 large grommets on the door underside. 2 are to secure the bottom of the window runner guides and there are 2 more close to them.
I'm hoping that with the window down, you get access to the glass position adjusters so to fine tune the glass fit to the soft top seals. Time will tell.
In all this it is best to keep in mind that the factory would do all this very quickly so there is always a simple solution, they just keep it all a secret.
Maybe I’ll be able to glue the hinge back on, but I suspect that will only prove to be a temporary repair.
