Xantia comedy window

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Jodyone
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Xantia comedy window

Post by Jodyone »

Actually, not great comedy, in these temperatures..! My Xantia drivers' window gets confused (I guess it thinks it's trapped a finger) when closing, and opens nearly fully in response. If I clean the window top edge and top seal - a little car wax seems to help - the window closes for good. It can take a few goes though, and is getting worse.

Also, and obviously connectedly, the window never closes quite perfectly. It needs to go another few mm, and is worst (lower) on the trailing edge. I haven't been inside the door yet, though I'm expecting to have to. Are there adjustments for this in there? (my pillarless Merc has neat adjustments for X/Y/Z). Or, am I missing something simpler? I tried following the handbook to "train" the window after a battery reconnection, but it didn't make much difference.
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by CitroJim »

If the training didn't work it has to be tightness in the guides making the anti-pinch mechanism come into play. You may have to have it all in bits and clean the guide rails and glass edges fully.

Not a nice job but necessary as it may be putting a strain on the plastic clip that attaches to the drive cables and is a known weak point in a MK2.
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by Jodyone »

CitroJim wrote:If the training didn't work it has to be tightness in the guides making the anti-pinch mechanism come into play. You may have to have it all in bits and clean the guide rails and glass edges fully.

Not a nice job but necessary as it may be putting a strain on the plastic clip that attaches to the drive cables and is a known weak point in a MK2.
Thank you, Jim. I sort of suspected as much. I'll retrain it to be sure, however. I've just been reading about this infamous plastic clip. I can move the window by hand into a better position (when partially open), but it collapses at the back a few mm when I let go. This play is not so evident in the opposite door. Is that play endemic of a failing "clip", or is there anything else in the system to suspect?
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by CitroJim »

Sounds like the guide channels are mis-aligned there if one end drops when manually assisted. I'd say the guide channels were too far apart and the window is jamming because it can't run true in the guides so it tilts over and binds...

The clip fails catastrophically and the drive cables end up looking like a rat's nest :( Basically, one end snaps and then one cable pulls out of it's slot in the clip and all hell breaks loose...
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by Jodyone »

That sounds like an accurate analysis. I can't face spending half a day dismantling my door in this weather though (and probably breaking something..). I'll just not open the window for a few weeks. The toll booth operators at the Severn bridge will understand why I can't pay, I'm sure.
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by CitroJim »

Jodyone wrote: The toll booth operators at the Severn bridge will understand why I can't pay, I'm sure.
Absolutely :-D Can't you work it so you use both bridges and thus avoid the toll altogether?

I have the same problem in very frost weather getting into our works car park. One needs to wind down the window and swipe a card across a reader. I've now worked out exactly where to stop so I can open the door a little and put my arm out and swipe. It needs a bit of an acute elbow angle and it can make my arm hurt doing it but it's better that then a broken mechanism...
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by Jodyone »

CitroJim wrote:
Jodyone wrote:It needs a bit of an acute elbow angle and it can make my arm hurt doing it but it's better that then a broken mechanism...
I've had so many cars with dodgy electric windows, I've always considered that learning that acute angle required is part of learning to drive a new car.. my dad reminisces about a car he had (Fiat 2300s?) that had a winder in the glovebox for fitting into a socket in the door, when the inevitable happened.

Similarly, I always liked that the section in my old XM handbook about how to deal with a failed electric sunroof, was particularly comprehensive. If only modern car builders had a little more of that "know thineself" insight..!
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Re: Xantia comedy window

Post by evilclive »

CitroJim wrote:The clip fails catastrophically and the drive cables end up looking like a rat's nest :( Basically, one end snaps and then one cable pulls out of it's slot in the clip and all hell breaks loose...
BTDT. The biggest pain was getting the old clip out of the window and the new one in (partly because rewinding everything else was done in the comfort of my sitting room :-) ). I think I asked about it on here, or possibly read other answers, but people said to use the plastic clip which came with the replacement - no way, not even slightly. The rubber thing plus metal clip was a faff, but did at least eventually work. Oh for a design which put the tricky bits on the inside of the window, not the outside...
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