Close to nervous breakdown -blood pressure 200/120!

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Please introduce me to the imbecile who designed the electric window system on the S3 Thema, so that I may subject him to a slow and painful death.

First, the pathetic white plastic thingy that "supports" the windw snapped in the cold weather, something that the Italians are obviously incabable of envisaging (cf Fulvia S1 heater).

Then the window came out of its "runners" (if it has any) I repaired the plastic thingy with a bit of aluminium and a couple of screws but this is not successful. The window refuses to go up straight. I have had the glass out and tried to refit it - useless same rubbish.

Because the window no longer works, the ashtray caught fire and melted the little bulb holder - another piece of rubbish - imagine cigarettes without heat! The Italians obviously did.

Anyone know anything about these bloody windows and how to fix them?

Thanks - you might just save my life as I am close the the end of my tether with this terrible nonsense!

Paul

[smokeme]

Never had any problems with any of the things you mention, the window should be fixed with a new part and not subjected to shoe maker repair techniques.

I've never heard of any problems with the thema windows other then electrics related.

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Not easy to find new parts in the sticks here in France.

No problem with electrics; problem concerns how window should sit in runners.

Paul

[Pol]

Had the same problem twice on 2 different windows,
The support that pushes up the window keeps breaking if you don't get the allignment of the sliders correct: the window should slide smoothly if you push it by hand. Somethimes the window gets jammed in the sliders because they are rusty underneath the rubber/felt seating, and become to narrow.

Pol

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Thanks POL, sounds ominous!

It worked perfectly until very cold weather hit it for several days when it was parked at the station. This caused the plastic thing to break.

It was later that somehow the window came away from its runners (up to then I could move it OK by hand).

Since then I seem to be unable to get the thing correct again!

Paul

[Angle Grinder]

If you want to torture the designer of your window mechanism then you'll need to contact SAAB as the S3 Thema has a SAAB 9000 design of window lift.

The best solution is to try and get your hands on a S1 or S2 Thema's window mechanism. This was a Lancia design and it never seems to break in the way that you describe. They do, however, tend to move slower than the SAAB design, but reliability is always preferable to speed.

[Neil]

Paul,
I had exactly this problem on my S3 some 3 years ago. I looked at the S2/S1 units but I couldn't see that they would fit. You will never be able to get the little plastic bit on it's own - I mended mine but it only lated about 3 months (if you can stop it breaking, you will probably find that it still opens out slightly and falls off the running wire !). Spent ages looking in scrap yards for potential substitutes (Alfa 164, Fiat Croma, SAAB 9000 etc, but could never find one) In the end I got a complete second hand window assembly from the Thema consortium in the UK for about £25, cleaned it up and lubriacted it and it worked fine. Once broken I found they were impossible to fix.

[Pol]

Angle Grinder wrote:

> reliability is always preferable to speed.

And you drive Lancia?

[P. de R. Leclercq]

Thanks Neil for your help (and everone else who replied).

My problem is that I simply seem to be nable to get the damned window back into its runners properly I do not think that there is a rust problem as it worked fine before, and even after the plastic thing broke it still ran in its runners OK

How are you and your Lancias?

Paul

[Pol]

Maybe you can release the slider at the bottom with a small bolt, then you can pull it aside and place the window between the two sliders. Then you bolt it back in place with the window between the sliders, so you get the distance between the two slider correct.
This works for a rear door window, but i'm not sure about a front door window.

Pol