Can anyone tell me which wires to use to test to see if the rear window motor is working. I can't figure it out from the Haynes manual. Thank you
Hello, Phil, I'm not surprised about the paynes diagram, I couldn't follow it either, and I think I understand the system, having installed it from scratch in a couple of cars. I even told them that. Each window motor has a controlling circuit board attached. It switches the motor using a relay included on the pcb. Main power is supplied by the thick Red-yellow wire, but an ignition '15' supply is also needed for 'normal' switch controlled/one-touch operation. This wire is Black, with yellow or white trace, from fuse 14, via a Black adaptor block. A substantial Brown earth wire is also needed. With the ignition On, the switch controls a single input to the circuit board, from pin 5 of the switch. Pressing Down pulls the input to earth, while pressing Up raises it to 12v. Once the ignition's turned off, the boards remain active for a few minutes, unless a door is open(ed). But with a rear door, there's also a safety-cut-out, in the dash-mounted switch. Unless this is 'in', making a series connection through the dash switch, the rear window control boards are partially disabled, and won't respond to the door (local, as I call them) switches, only the remote dash ones. If the dash switch isn't connected, the rear motors won't respond at all (well, only to the separate key inputs, which also operate the central locking, and close a sunroof). The safety switch earths a pin of each motor board to enable the local switches. The wires are Brown with (I think) black trace Simply to check if a motor works at all, put the key in an external handle and hold it to 'unlock' - both/all windows should lower. Holding the key to 'lock' should close them, without the anti-pinch safety feature. Rear doors are noted for wiring breaks at the body pillar. Lift off the rubber boot to check, the heavier main power and earth wires seem more prone
Dougie, Thanks for all this, very useful. However, everything is now out of the car so I would like to check it on the bench, as it were.
Well done on getting the winding gear out intact, many people can't. Rubjonny has the vw diagrams as a pdf, I'd forgotten that. I've an old thread about 'Powering winding gear in a detached door' which gives de**ils about operating the gear with a battery, the door wiring and light jumper leads. The rear door gear and passenger door gear seem to be electrically similar, so if the rear wiring's broken the front l/h door wiring could be used for 'loose' testing, but take care not to let the glass mounting run off the rail. Without using existing wiring, the crucial wires are main power, ignition and earth, as above, the switch input and the enabling earth connection. Going by what I can find at the moment, at the 15-pin connector on the motor/pcb; Main power (30), Red-yellow, Pin 15 Earth, Brown, Pin 1 Ignition (15), Black-yellow, Pin 7 The local switch input, Pin 3 Its enabling earth connection, Pin 6 The remote (dash) switch input, Pin 11 For these two switches, 12v Up/0v Down 'Lock/close' input (raises the window when switched to 12v), Pin 8 'Unlock/open' input, lowers window when switched to 12v, Pin 14 Other incidental leads are a shut-off wire, which kills motor activity if a door's open(ed) during the time-out period after switching the ignition Off, and an output provided to signal a sunroof control pcb once the windows are closed (not for convertibles, as I've found) Update - feeling brave, I've linked to that old thread, and it's actually worked.
