# DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches



## StormChaser (Jan 3, 2000)

First off you'll have to remove the switches from the car. This is easy enough, just press on the center of the switch and it'll pop down through the panel. Rear door switches are removed buy pulling them out. Here it is out of the car.








Once you have the switches out, insert a small flat blade screwdriver between the rocker switch and the outer housing, around the middle of the switch are the tabs that hold it in. Pry the rocker out of the housing. Be careful to keep the switch upright.








Once the rocker is out, you'll see two flat pieces of some kind of fiber/plastic material. This is what the rocker pushes down on to make the contacts move.








This next part is a little more "tricky", on my first switch I ripped the plastic housing a little. So take your time.
It's easier if you use two or more little screwdrivers. Starting on one side, insert a screwdriver into one of the tabs along the base of the housing. Then put another screwdriver into the other tab on the same side. Now pry the housing up a little, just so the one side clears the tabs. Repeat on the other side.








Once all four tabs have released the side of the housing, slide the housing up and out of the way.








Now you'll have access to the contacts that need to be cleaned. As you can see in my photo, the contacts need some cleaning.
There are two ways you can do this. One is to pry off the little flat contact in the middle of the upper and lower contacts (the contact that moves up and down) This is done by popping off the side opposite the contact points. Then it'll just fall out.
A small warning though, once these little pieces of metal are out, it's pretty tough to get them back in. I had to bend part of the metal to fit it back on. The switch still works, it just doesn't have any resistance or and "clicking" sound when using it. This turns the switch into a smooth, quiet switch, that just barely touching the switch will activate the windows. But myself I prefer to have some resistance to the switches (a la OEM), I didn't like the "touch sensitive" feel of the switch.
The second way, and faster/easier way, is to just sand down the contacts while leaving them in place. Make sure to sand down ALL the metal contacts and both sides. The way I did this was to wrap a small strip of sand paper around a small flat tip screwdriver and used the screwdriver like a little sanding block.








Once all the contacts are clean and shiny again, put everything back together. Starting with the outer housing, just slide it back down, then put the two little square flat pieces back into the guides and slide into place. Then just pop the rocker back on and you're done.
Only one window worked when I got the car and after cleaning the switches they all work perfectly.
One final note. One of the members said he replaced all the bulbs in the switches with LED's. But all of my switches already have LED's in them. Even a spare switch I grabbed from a junk yard has LED's in them. (the switch in the photos are from a junk yard.) So I don't know if the LED's were a model/year thing, or just Canadian ones had them, I don't know. Strange.
*A BIG thanks to Dallas for this information!* Worked GREAT on my car. Drivers window now moves up & down faster and smoother than it ever has in the past 3 years of owning my CGT... http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif 




_Modified by duandcc at 12:30 AM 5/13/2005_


----------



## NotQuatt (Nov 11, 2004)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (duandcc)*

Once you pushed the switch through the door panel, how did you get it out of the door? Take the panel off?
A friend of mine pushed my window switch through the door panel and I thought he broke it so I brought it to Audi. But they said it was not broken, just fell through.
Just wondering for future reference


----------



## StormChaser (Jan 3, 2000)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (NotQuatt)*

In my case, the seitches are in the center console, not on the doors. But, yes, you'd just remove the inner door panels...


----------



## [email protected] (Apr 9, 2004)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (duandcc)*

Nice FAQ.


----------



## Sallad (Aug 29, 2004)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (duandcc)*

On my car at least (87 4ks Canadain version) the rear door switches are popped out away from the door panel, not pushed in like the fronts. But the wires are soldered in place, unlike the fronts which just have a harness that pulls out.


----------



## aaonms (Mar 20, 2002)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (Sallad)*

LMAO!
My 1984 Coupé GT had this same problem. You’d think ‘they’ would have fixed this by now.
Switch looks different, but the problem persists...


----------



## thegetawaycar (Oct 29, 2006)

*Re: DIY Repair 101: Cleaning Audi Window Switches (StormChaser)*

the images are broken


----------



## AudiCoupeGT1986 (Apr 20, 2011)

The images are indeed broken. Could someone try and fix this?


----------

