Looking for tips about poorly flowing windshield washer. Thought to share my experiences on fixing those side window lifters.
If you hear a crack when driving window up or down, try to stop window motor as soon as possible. If you try to move it after it's broken -like I did- you'll mess up the cable on the winch drum. Messed up cable can also be fixed but is one of those things to avoid.
-Buy that plastic thingie that is broken for all windows. Just in case.
-Remove door panel as described in that greek website.
-Cut the plastic foam with an idea that you need to tape it back again. Do not separate it from the door frame but cut it just so that you can see what you are doing. Don't forget any lamp leads inside when taping it back again..
-Remove the window lifter assembly. I tried to install the slider when assembly was in the door without much success.
-99 out of 100: Open winch back plate and check that everything is in order. If not (for example cable dropped off the drum to the axle, kinking the cable beyond recognition) observe how things should be, straighten up the cable (the straighter, the easier to install later), wind it around the drum as tightly as possible and close the cover.
-Fit the new slider, test it (Be careful not to drive slider out of the sliding bar), grease the slider and install the assembly.
-Repeat the procedure for all windows before they are broken.
I had the passenger side broken first. After fixing that, leaving the garage and playing with windows I broke driver's side window. Even the cable end popped out. Fixed that right away as I was familiar with the procedure. Again, leaving the garage, again playing with power windows. Passenger side back door window went bust. Got a bit pissed off, window is now fixed up with a few sticky felt tabs, waiting for the parts to arrive.
If the cable gets as fucked up (Kinks and curls, effectively shortening the cable) as my passenger side cable, you aren't able to install it correctly. I solved the problem by shortening the lower cable jacket by something like one centimeter.
Notifications:
-Do they have some special way or nozzle for filling up the windshield washer tank in Italy? A coin size opening with such a crap cap that will get broken off.
-Do you have any speakers under those small grilles in the doors? I guess they could have installed the speakers with the same cost they have manufactured the tooling to create a plastic placeholder for the speaker. Even with a dummy connector for the readily installed speaker cable. I've got the Bose option. (Which I like very much)
-They have used three different types of screws when installing engine bottom panel. Two different size torxes and a few phillips screws.. Add there a few patch screws added by some mechanic that has fixed the cracked panel, there are five different screw head types now.
-Possible and very idiotic place for rust: I just checked the spare wheel bowl, noticing that most of that sound proofing mat had chipped off. I got rid of that as I saw some minor rust spots under the material. Idiotic part: At the most rear end of the bowl, there is a plastic tape patch that covers a 1cm hole. I guess the idea has been to rely on either that soundproofing material or undersides rustproofing material would be tight. Guess how I fixed that? Yes. Duct tape inside, rust proofing spray underside.
-Be careful when removing xenon headlamps. Those larger torx screws are seated (I guess) in metal nuts that are molded into plastic lamp bodies. If you don't use some kind of rost-off spray you'll end up with a nut that is rotating inside the plastic lamp body. Lower screw is in such an insane place that even drilling it off is not an option. Noted this when I changed parking light bulbs. Luckily I had an endoscope to look inside the lamp so I could swap bulbs without removing the whole lamp body.
In whole, the lamp mounting style seems to me like there are really incompetent people engineering these cars.
I really would like to have a chat with people who engineer these cars. Either they are really incompetent or they aren't given enough time to do proper engineering.
Otherwise, I really like the car. Just the minor details..
Any ideas on the windshield washer? Motor sounds like there is not much happening (revs like there is not load) and nozzles squirt only a few centimeters. Rear window's nozzle works ok. I have tried to pressurize the tank to get rid of any dirt. Flows ok.
-Ilkka