Electric Rear Windows

Lee S

Lee S

Member
My car has manual rear windows as standard. How easy/difficult/expensive would it be to convert it to electric rear windows? Is all the wiring there?

Cheers,

Lee
 
There is no wiring present and you'd need 3 new door cards (the 2 rears and a new drivers one to take the 4-way master switch), plus motors and controllers (integrated), plus wiring and labour.

Excluding labour, you're looking at around £1200.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Thanks for the speedy reply Mike..

Errrr.... I think I will give it a miss then !! :eek::eek::eek:

Cheers anyway.

Lee
 
a cheaper approach would be like Sarge, but that involves some skilled cutting and dremel craft to fit a switch into the two original rear door cards and master switch to the front.

Yes, you'll still see the manual winder at the back, but it is a lot cheaper!
 
Rather than starting a new thread, I'm reviving this one...

Let's say you've got two cars, one with rear electric windows and the other without. The cars have the same interior colour, but are different on the outside.

Are the rear doors the same? Is it possible to swap the motors, controllers, doorcards, other bits and pieces, etc? I appreciate a bit of wiring might need to be installed, but otherwise is this a viable approach to retro-fitting rear electric windows?

Cheers,

Tom
 
Hi Tom, I vaguely remember reading a thread on here that someone had done just that. Taking all the pices from a A2 being broken. Its a pita of a job but with the time and skills it's possible to do.

Cheers

David
 
ULP said:
£300-500 just for electric rear windows would be a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

Where does the £300-£500 go? Is that just wiring!?

I presume both your A2s had the same interior colour, so no need for new doorcards or switches, etc?

Cheers,

Tom
 
Yes, I have not long ago done just that ...... fitted electric window lifts to the rear ....... Mike did the wiring, I did all the mechanical side of things. You need to start with a suitable source for the components, from a car being broken. The window frame, drive mechanism and glass are the same for both electric and mechanical operation. You just need the motors, switches, associated plugs, etc. I recon that the wiring is no great deal ..... you need to establish power feeds to the motors and link into the convenience unit. I would use new wiring ..... It is an absolute nightmare to try to extract every appropriate wire from the loom of a wrecked car .... I know! I think that existing door cards could be easily modified to accept the rear door switches and the larger switch module in the front drivers door. Now this figure mentioned of £300 - £500 is hard to understand .... it is certainly not the wiring .... switches/plugs would cost a bit to buy, new. ... but I don't think a breaker would charge a fortune? I have SO appreciated my electric rear windows in this recent hot weather .... I'd recommend going for a conversion every time!
 
Thanks Guys.

David, I remember you telling me that this was a project you'd undertaken. If I decide to have a go at this, expect a PM!

Cheers,

Tom
 
Look Guys, I am no mechanic ..... I'm just very practical, highly intelligent, dynamic, intuitive and optimistic in life! So believe me, it is pretty easy to do the mechanical side of this .... really! You don't need these hours in an Audi Garage or these huge labour costs .... just a few tools and the electronic Audi service manual .... although I didn't need it in the end! Just source those rear electric windows in a breakers and get going!
 
MikeMarsUK said:
In labour terms, that money would get you roughly 8-10 hours of labour from an independent, or 4-5 from Audi.
Click to expand...

That is a bit optimistic or you have very cheap garage near you! At £60/hr + VAT, that's 4-7 hours at an indy that I trust or much less from Audi at ~£120/hr (inc. vat). ULP was talking about swapping from another running car, which I contemplated while thinking of trading for an FSI (typically without rear electric windows). I came to pretty much the same conclusion on labour cost, and I value my weekends as much as Audi charges you for labour, if not more. Of course, if you happen to find the parts then it is only a single vs double install and you can make your own wires too.
 
humps said:
That is a bit optimistic or you have very cheap garage near you! .
...
Click to expand...

I was using 45 & 90 as my rule-of-thumb labour price, but I guess that's out of date. But regardless, it's pretty easy to reach 300-500 labour on a fiddly job.
 
Please, why are you thinking that this is high labour or "fiddly"? I am speaking from experience ..... it is no great shakes .... taking the glass and frame out of the door is not difficult. The frame and drive wire is the same for both mechanical and electric windows. Only the motor needs to be incorporated. As I have said, I have done the work myself and I feel that most members should be able to do this... You are still able to use the car, even if you are half-way through the job!..... I did! I found that would have been to have made my own additional wiring, instead of my struggling to extract all the appropriate wires from the doner car's loom. So, if you are still thinking that this must be high labour and a job for a garage, then please tell me what you part of this you consider to be difficult or labour intensive? ..... I will try to help!
 
I've done it! Almost...

Once again, folks, I'm reviving this thread... but this time its a little more technical.

I have just retro-fitted rear electric windows into my car. I will eventually post the details of how I did it along with lots of pictures, but I'm not quite there yet.
For the last few months, there have been two A2s in the family; my car without rear electric windows, and my sister's with rear electric windows. It's nearly time to sell my sister's A2, so I decided to embark upon a mission to swap the window mechanisms. They both have the same interior colour, so there was no issue with just swapping the door cards over. Both also have the same CCU version; version Q.

The mission is (almost) complete, in that I've done all the wiring and the rear electric windows now work perfectly in my car. I can open and close them with the remote key, etc. Hurrah!

Those who have access to ElsaWin (Current Flow Diagrams) will see that the rear doors locks are connected directly to the CCU on cars which do not have rear electric windows (and therefore no rear door control modules). On cars with rear electric windows, the rear door locks are connected to the rear door control modules and are therefore controlled over CAN Bus.

My car also currently locks and unlocks the rear doors as it should, but when I open the rear doors, the interior lights don't come on. Also, if I lock the car with the rear doors wide open, the car flashes its lights to say "yep, I'm a happy A2", when it obviously shouldn't! If I install my sister's CCU into my car, this issue is resolved. So, this suggests that my own CCU still expects to have direct contact with the rear door locks (and microswitches).

The obvious answer to the problem is simply to swap the CCUs and have the keys recoded. However, I'm puzzled. How exactly are the two CCUs different? I had always been under the impression that CCUs of a given version were all identical and that car-specific options were done by coding alone. However, there doesn't appear to be a coding option which corresponds in any way to whether a vehicle has rear electric windows or not, and therefore whether the CCU should handle the rear door locks itself or whether to communicate with them over CAN Bus via the door control modules.

I'm all ears to anyone who has the answer to this. Are the CCUs in cars with rear electric windows physically different to those without? Is there a deeper level of coding which I don't know about?

Many thanks,

Tom
 
Hi Tom,

Congratulations on getting this project (almost) complete. Can’t wait to read the how-to and see the pictures as this is something I’d like to consider if I could find the rear door cards for mine.

As for the CCU issues, if the wiring is correct I would suspect it’s a coding issue rather than a physical issue of the manual v electric CCU’s being different electronically.

Perhaps Mike can shed some light on this problem.

Anyway……very well done, and looking forward to seeing your handiwork.

Cheers

Jeff
 
hello timmus,

there is a coding take a look at this it might help you.

STG 46 (Kombiinstrument) auswählen
STG Anpassung -> Funktion 10

-> Kanal 61 (Hardware)

00000 - ohne Funkfernbedienung mit el. Fensterhebern hinten
00001 - ohne Funkfernbedienung mit mech. Fensterhebern hinten
00002 - mit Funkfernbedienung mit el. Fensterhebern hinten
00003 - mit Funkfernbedienung mit mech. Fensterhebern hinten

regards

sanders
 
Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your help. Sanders, you've got it!

Mike Skipton PM'd me about this, having also found the information in ElsaWin. I'm very new to ElsaWin and am still learning my way around. I'm surprised sometimes by the location of certain information. It's under 'Body - Self Diagnosis - Self Diagnosis for Convenience System - Adaptation'.

From ELSAwin:

Adapting hardware of convenience system central control unit -J393

The hardware for the convenience system central control unit -J393 (with part numbers 8Z0 959 433 D/ F onwards; current control unit versions, see parts catalogue) can be adapted via adaption channel:

Overview of adaption values

00000 - Without remote control, four door control units (recognisable by electric rear window lifters)
00001 - Without remote control, mech. rear window lifter
00002 - With remote control, four door control units (recognisable by electric rear window lifters)
00003 - With remote control, mech. rear window lifter

Notes:
◆ In addition to adaption via adaption channel 61 the coding must be updated to the required status.
◆ Adaption to mechanical rear window lifters is only permitted if no rear door control units are fitted.


Once again, thanks to all who helped with this one.

Tom
 
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