I just bought this used Cabrio with every cent I had . The driver window goes up about 3" and then back down. How much is this going to cost?
You should be asking your mechanic this question. You do have a VW mechanic don’t you?
Repair prices vary by location, vehicle brand, and other variables. We can’t tell you how much it’s going to cost, but it’s a VW, so prepare yourself for a shock.
When buying a used vehicle it’s always wise to keep some money in reserve for the inevitable repair shortly after purchase. There’s always something.
You should never spend “every cent” on the car itself. Too late now.
Maybe if you told us more about your Cabrio (year, mileage, etc), someone could give you a more precise answer.
Good luck.
depends on if it’s the motor or just the window jumping track.
If it’s the former, be prepared to go into debt to fix it, if it’s the latter, an hour or so of labor should be all that it costs to fix.
First thing you will need to do is get the door itself open by removing the door panel to see what the problem is before taking it to a mechanic if you feel mechanically inclined to do the repair yourself which fixing a moving window problem is generally easy stuff. Without knowing what year your car is I can’t tell you where the screws are on your door panels but if its anything like my mk4 jetta then there are two screws at the bottom of the panel at either end in holes hidden in the panel carpeting and two more screws hidden in the pull handle requiring you to use a thin but sturdy straight edge to separate it at the seam carefully so as not to hurt your hand where you will find two or three more screws. Removing them will allow you to work the panel loose but do it slowly as there are plastic clips on the back of the panel that if handled roughly will break though they are easy to replace.
Once the panel is off you may or may not have to disconnect switches for your power windows and locks but if its a crank window you will have to remove the hand crank before you remove the panel and to do that there should be a plastic button cover of the portion of the crank handle that you pop off with a flat tip screw driver then look in to see if it needs a screw driver or an allen head wrench to remove it.
With the panel off you may or may not have to remove smaller cover patches to be able to look inside the door cavity to see if the problem is with the electric motor or crank assembly or if the window is indeed off track which will require you working it back on track and finding out why it came off in the first place which tends to be a loose or broken screw where one of the track pieces has come loose where it attaches either at the bottom of the door cavity or towards the top. If its a power motor you can find them new on ebay complete with track assemblies for under $100 on average and be able to replace it yourself with some time and patience. I did this a year ago on my 96 dodge grand caravans drivers power window after someone forced it down causing the cabling in the spool on the motor to break apart. To do that you will need a piece of wood preferably a furing strip from a hardware store to support the bottom of the window pushed fully up into the closed position so that you can take out the old track assembly with the motor and put the new one in. You will have to cut the piece of wood to length and work it into the door cavity so get someone to hold the window up in place after you push it up by hand and get the wood into the door cavity to prop the window up, its ok if there is a gap at the top of the window. This will be a similar process for a manual crank window as well.
As long as you feel confident enough to do the work yourself you wont have to go into major debt to fix small stuff like this and go into any new repair with confidence but never arrogance otherwise you’ll do something wrong and have to take it to a mechanic.