Drivers side power window off guides/channel ?

[vsv8berlinawag]

Went to wind the window down from a fully closed position and it went all ugly by running v e r y slowly and only opened about 1/2" and in a crooked position. The window will not wind back up , but can be lifted up by hand as if it is not attached. What's gone wrong ?

[sircruisealotVS]

could be a couple of things...just take off the door trim and have a look. it sounds like one of the wheels (i call them wheels, they're more like bearings) has come off the arm.

[vsv8berlinawag]

Removed door trim and found that one of the pop rivets holding the window arm assembly had sheered off and the one below just hanging in there. Drilled out what was left of the rivets and replaced them with 5 x 15 mm screws with locknuts. Goes up and down like a bought one now.

[sircruisealotVS]

lol, exact same thing happened on my drivers door a while back...but both my rivets snapped at the same time and the window when flying inside the door and bent all the p/w arms...god knows why they went from bolts on earlier cars (like vn's..etc.) to rivets, they're just not strong enough.

[shaggerz]

I had a VN that had rivets when I had to replace the front drivers side window regulator. I get the impression that if it has been fixed before it would probably be bolts rather than rivets. Maybe they were all rivets from factory but so many have broken they are mostly replaced by bolts by now?

[vsv8berlinawag]

The motor must put out some torque as it also bent the arms making the alignment of the glass all skew wiff after I fixed it. One thing I learnt though is not to forget the remote mirror wiring as I did after I put most of the trim back on. Arghhh !

[dontsailbackwards]

Were they rivets from the factory? I fixed this on mine and blamed the dodgy previous owner - should I have blamed the dodgy factory ?

[shaggerz]

I think they are all rivets from factory to be honest... I have seen enough rivets to believe that now. Just seems that most people replace with bolts when they do any work on the regulator.