[Dr.Vikas]

Thanks for the thread.

Having fully motivated and with all the confidence, yesterday I gave a try on the Power Window Switch of my Fabia, which was not operating properly since few weeks.

First I removed away the Switch on Driver's side & without dissecting anymore, just soaked it with Petrol.
Then operated both the switches repeatedly for a while. Finally, used Air blower to get it dried & also to remove moisture..
Kept it for an hour or two as it is & then fixed the switch back in its place.

That's all, it's working fine since then.

Thanks once again,

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Dr.Vikas

First I removed away the Switch on Driver's side & without dissecting anymore, just soaked it with Petrol.
Then operated both the switches repeatedly for a while. Finally, used Air blower to get it dried & also to remove moisture..

I'm rather disturbed by the reports of using petrol as a cleanser.

It is too poisonous, too dangerous, and, as a solvent. probably over-powerful for the purposes mentioned.

When you say "air blower," do you mean an electric blower? When any electrical equipment is switched on or off there is likely to be a spark. There may or may not be, but the possibility is high enough for there to be certification for equipment (even battery-powered torches*) for use in the possible presence of flammable gasses. Now check out the flash point of petrol vapour.

Trying to focus my memory back fifty or sixty years, I think that my father used to use petrol to do stuff like remove tar stains. If he were alive today, he would go online and order tar remove from Amazon!

But there may be occasions where the use of a tiny amount of petrol may be justified. Same is true of diesel. I think I've known biker friends to use kerosene to remove caked grease/dirt mixtures from bike parts. The most powerful super-solvent I have ever used was something called methyl ethyl ketone. I kept some in an instant-coffee jar once, and the next day it was all gone: the vapour had dissolved the plastic jar top.

So, here I go, waffling on about solvents. Short version: don't use the powerful/dangerous ones unless you really have to.


*I have one. I bought it not because it doesn't let gas in, but because it also keeps water out. It was not so easy, thirty years ago, to get a torch that could stand a dunking and a soaking.

[Dr.Vikas]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'm rather disturbed by the reports of using petrol as a cleanser.

It is too poisonous, too dangerous, and, as a solvent. probably over-powerful for the purposes mentioned.

When you say "air blower," do you mean an electric blower? When any electrical equipment is switched on or off there is likely to be a spark. There may or may not be, but the possibility is high enough for there to be certification for equipment (even battery-powered torches*) for use in the possible presence of flammable gasses. Now check out the flash point of petrol vapour.

Thanks for the concern raised by you, Thad E Gianthom..

In fact, I used Petrol only because it's readily available & is known for its good solvent property.
Also it gets evaporated much quicker.

The quantity used for the purpose was not so much that it could have created any hazard, I guess.

And regarding the air blower I used, it was the one we usually find at the petrol bunks with long flexible pipe. So never thought any kind of risk in using it..

By the way, the window switch has been working seamlessly till then.

Thanks again,

[haria]

Originally Posted by racsaxen

The complete thing took only around 20 minutes right from opening to reassembling and the buttons are working fine now.

Great Job, racsaxen! Not only have you saved the amount (which is not small by any means) but by you penning this DIY, I hope at least to some extent more people will be willing to try out alternative things before deciding to scrap/change the part as will be recommended by the service advisor.

Originally Posted by condor

Nice !

The A.S.S would not have done this. Mostly likely They would have just replaced it, and thrown away the old part.

Absolutely. I don't know about other cars, but TATA A.S.S are really crazy when it comes to this. I had a problem with USB not being detected in my Vista. I took it to concorde motors, (near diary circle) - After couple of hours, The executive told me that there was an issue and I have to replace the entire system - approx. cost about Rs.12K.

I demurred mentioning that I will get it done some other time. One weekend, when I had time, I thought I will open the deck and check what is there in the innards. I found that the cable connecting the USB port (on the unit) to the motherboard had frayed and one of the wires had parted. Used a spare micro USB cable lying around in my house, connected it and hey presto, USB is working fine and dandy! I was super thrilled!

But am really frustrated about the way the service advisor recommended to change the whole unit. I doubt whether they would have even opened it and checked. If they had done, it was so obvious - that the cable was cut!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Dr.Vikas

Thanks for the concern raised by you, Thad E Gianthom..

In fact, I used Petrol only because it's readily available & is known for its good solvent property. ...

Thank you, Dr.Vikas. I'm sure you stayed safe. I'm just concerned that people with less experience will regard petrol as an easy-go-to cleaner.

A petrol v IPA contest would be interesting. I have no idea of the result! I first bought IPA to make the simple IPA+water+drop-of-washing-up-liquid recipe recommended for cleaning vinyl records. Then I suspected that this is what they sell us to clean spectacles. I no longer play LPs, but there is always a bottle of the mixture to hand and a bottle of the stuff itself not far away. In fact, there is five-litre can, left over from post-Chennai-flood sterilising!

Probably you have pro experience, and know more about the stuff than I do... but I heartily recommend it, just as I recommend specialist electrical cleaners, preferably costing less than DeOxit. But my DeOxit has paid for itself just in curing rogue mouse double-clicks. But the key to that was discovering that the microswitches can be taken apart: maybe any cleaning of the contacts would have done the job

[Dr.Vikas]

One thing I should accept, I don't have any kind of first hand experience about such experiments. I usually leave the job to my elder brother.
But this time, it was this thread that encouraged me to take a chance & it did work fantastically..

Secondly, I was at our bunk, hence if I were at my clinic I might have gone for Denatured Spirit

[ameet_pv]

Thanks for the DIY. IPA is the safest option. Would like to know if one can seal possible crevices to shut out dust. What can be used safely.

[NH7]

Bumping up and old thread, but hoping my report will save someone anxiety and money should the same happen.
Vehicle- BMW E46, but generic issue.
Problem- Rear power window inoperable, pane dropping when pushed/ inching down on rough roads.
Troubleshooting- Operated from central console and local switch, motor audible, but no pane movement.
Tell tale signs- above normal speed of motor( no load??), Mechanical ' kat- pat' noises.
Diagnosis- mechanical failure of component, TBC.
Plan of action;
1. Disconnect electricals.
2. Latch glass pane in the up position with improvised 'S' hooks. These would fit under the rubber beading and look normal, atleast overnight/ till problem gets solved.
3. Search YouTube/ bimmer forums. There's bound to be some good info on this model.
4. Remove mechanical components and proceed as per findings.

All went well, as planned, till the removal of the window regulator assembly. This required torx Bit T27, while I only had T20, thankfully they were non critical fasteners, and some Allen key that I had ground/ modified some time in the distant past came in handy. Not the ideal way to work, but nevertheless.

Thankfully the fault was immediately obvious. Now, for the benefit of other first timers like myself, the window regulator dimensions and shape can be compared to a coat hanger( visualise, people!!) The motor gear fits into the 'hook' area of the hanger. The inclined sides are runner cable, the bottom corners of the triangle have simple pulleys, and the base of the triangle is a track. A slider is fixed along the runner wire and moves along the track. The whole ' coat hanger' like assembly is mounted vertically. The bottom of the window glass is fixed to this slider. As the slider moves, so does the glass. Simple mechanism, AND MOST PARTS CAN BE FIXED WITH FEVIKWIK, MSEAL, CABLE TIES, wire splicing etc.

In my case, I found one of the pulleys broken. ' Engineering plastic' I believe. Attributed to age, general wear, brittleness and my son's fidgeting with the switch.

Anyway, the pulley itself was not available as a spare, and one has to buy the whole mechanism costing about 4k with lead time of 3-6 weeks. This was relegated to plan B.

Plan A was to find a suitable donor plastic/ aluminium wheel and modify to size. Thought of using a suitable throttle rocker from a nearby Hyundai parts supplier.(??, The thingy used to rev the engine from the engine bay??). Then realised that I'm going to need a lathe anyway, so why not make new?? The local workshop had a suitable Teflon round, and it took less than 20 minutes and 200 bucks to turn a new one- better than OEM! Took about an hour to assemble, clean, spray with WD40 and grease the wires, test and box up. Works like a charm. No problem whatsoever, touch wood! Added benefit for me was my 5 year old son/helper. He now knows kinda knows how it works, what tools are for what, and why he shouldn't toggle switches out of boredom! Successful few hours for me. Now for that celebratory JD!