Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Manual windows are SOOO underrated

We have been having problems with our van's driver side window for several months now. It will get stuck partially open, and not move.

In the past, we were able to get it to work by: opening and shutting the door, fidgeting with the power locks, and/or pushing or pulling on the glass itself while working the button.

All of those tactics failed, though, when Aaron drove the van a week ago Saturday. And rolled the window all the way down. As you can imagine, this leaves very little glass to for fidgeting.

For a week I'd try to get that window up every time I drove it. And for a week there was no reply from the window. Knowing that we are headed out of town on Thursday, preferably in the van, I called Monday morning to make an appointment to get it fixed. They could get me in that afternoon! Joy!

And wouldn't you know it, as I pulled out of the driveway and happened to try the button again, that darned thing worked. I think I scared it or something.

So, at least my window was closed for the chilly morning drive to Leah's dance class. But we kept the appointment. Doing that involved my mom coming to stay with the kids while I took the van all the way across town, then got a ride back.

Good news! It was just the switch, so with labor + parts, it was $135. Not too bad. We picked it up when Aaron was done with work, and then had dinner at Applebee's and headed to Lowe's to look at more exterior doors (and you thought we had made a decision!). After Lowe's, I got in the van, and tried to roll the window up....with no luck. Aaron and I were both pretty disgusted, as you can imagine.

I called the shop again today and made another appointment. This time, we took it over on Aaron's lunch break, hauling and transferring both kids. I didn't get a phone call until their closing time, saying that this time they replaced the motor, but that they were giving me a credit for the previous day's work, so the total bill was again around $120.

The van is still at the shop, but the guy there was very nice, and even offered to drive it over for us tonight or after 9am. Fortunately, we are okay, since Aaron's car has carseats for both kids and he is driving his scooter to work. Plus, I'll probably take the kids to gymnastics tomorrow in the bike trailer again anyway.

Thank goodness for the low-tech option.

2 comments:

Noel said...

We also ended up replacing the driver's window motor in our, at that time, 7 year old minivan. My fear was always thatI would lower the window to get my parking ticket for the Fargo airport and then not be able to get it up as I was trying to make my flight.

While that never happened, there was the time I left the vent open in my truck and returned with a foot high snow drift INSIDE the cab...

Anonymous said...

Oh yes! I desperately wish there was a way to replace all our power windows with manual windows. We shelled out over $600 last summer to get our driver's window motor fixed. Yikes. And we still had to take it back 2 more times as the motor kept shorting out. Now, the passenger side window is giving us fits and I'm ready to pull my hair out.