The electric window switches on my 2001 6n2 VW Polo GTi recently had always been a bit hit and miss – they’d work about 75% of the time, then one day, they just stopped working completely. It’s a common problem on these cars – and actually, I’d wager it doesn’t just afflict Polos, probably any of the Golf/Seats/Skodas etc. that use the similar components. The problem in my instance was not electrical (well not really) – that is the windows and the switches themselves were fine, the problem was that there was a build-up of “green corrosion” on the electrical contacts – a side effect of the oxidation of the soft metals used in the contacts. The end result is that the green sucks away the power running through the switch, so enough doesn’t get through the circuit, and hence the switches don’t work.
Needless to say, you don’t need to replace the switches to get them working again, it’s just a case of removing the corrosion and letting the juice flow through the circuit again – and that means saving yourself around £50 (if you replaced all three in the front). And it’s dead easy to do.
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