Beware of BOTCHED Window replacement!

I just thought I would post about the absolutely horrendous experience I have had due to a poorly glued in front window after a replacement. If you get stone chipped/cracked front window and it needs replacement MAKE SURE THEY WATER TEST IT! I had mine done a long time ago now but I nor the fitter water tested it. I don't tend to drive the car when its raining so I never had any idea what was about to happen... EXPENSIVE and time consuming...

You may not believe this but....

The front left side had a water leak (that I had absolutely no idea about) and I'd decided to drive over to Paris for a nice relaxing weekend at a Spa hotel in the outskirts. Actually that dream turned into a bit of a nightmare (car wise). All started off good, nice and sunny, no issues. Arrived at the chateau that evening but they had no underground or under cover parking and it just happened to torrential rain that evening. No problem I thought, a little rain won't hurt it....

or so I thought....

Returned to the car the next morning to check on it only to find the Front windows down and I knew I hadn't left it like that! Very odd I thought!!! At first I thought I'd had the windows smashed in a jealous act. But no, nothing stolen, nothing messed with. Yet the interior was soaking wet and the drivers door was absolutely not able to move! I could therefore only get in from the passengers side.

Further examination and lots of hotel towels later revealed no problems with the interior but the windows would not go up! After some head scratching, fuse checking it was clear something else was wrong. Eventually traced it to water getting in under the windshield on the drivers side and FRYING the electric window ECU. Which in turn opened the windows/closed the windows many times FRYING it [shorting it]. The lock motor got wet/damaged/overheated killing the d/s lock and completely draining the battery flat as a pancake. What to do? Didn't want to call the breakdown services so I had to think. I did have the charger and a few spanners and a pair of scissors.... so I removed the battery and used my battery charger in the hotel room for a few hours. Asked the hotel to keep an eye on the car in the meantime.

After the battery was charged enough, fired up the laptop and tracing the wiring loom to the window/door lock ecu and lock relays. Re-fitted it and after a few choice words I was able to convince my better half that she should "sacrifice" her hair straighteners to get the window 'back up!!!!!'.

I then proceeded to cut a length of cable from them and trace the loom. Managed to power the windows directly to the battery and get them to go back up! Result!! At least I was able to finished the weekend [with no window but still didn't totally RUIN everything]. Was a real pain trying to explain this at the French customs returning back to the UK I can tell you that!!!!] and 2 days later drove home.

Upon arriving home started poor down with rain again and just as I was getting the car into the garage the REVS starting rising and to MAX.. OMG... There goes water on the damn digital throttle pedal... Arrrrg......

Dumped the clutch and coaxed the car in the garage before killing the power and going to bed! Finally got the car in the garage.

Final result...

1. Complete Seized door lock and a door that wouldn't open.
2. Water damaged window/door lock ecu.
3. Water damaged lock relay
4. Water damaged digital throttle pedal potentiometer
5. Flat battery [on the day]

...and an engine that tried to lunch itself!!!!

---
Next day I took a further look. That damn door lock wouldn't budge. But what to do? Door won't open at all. Only result in the end was to REMOVE THE ENTIRE CAR DASHBOARD so I could gain access internally to remove the door panel and the prize off the seized door lock. Nice. What a pita!

Finally ordered all the parts up and in the process of putting it all back together again..

Moral of the story - MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOUR WINDOW FITTER does a good job!

I'll post pictures later but suffice to say its been one expensive weekend. I dread to think how much this would have cost if I hadn't been doing the work myself, the parts alone have cost enough!

 

Sorry for the delay getting back to this thread!

Thanks for all the kind words and support. It was a bit annoying at the time but I was determined to still enjoy the long weekend and the little on the road fix prevented a major incident.

I've now been able to get my door lock and windows working fine again. which is nice but still don't have the dash re-fitted (yet). Still need to remove more bits to fully gain access to where the leaking emanated from. Just annoying considering the UK is currently undergoing a heatwave and I'm missing it!

Here's some pics..

Also I had to break the seized lock only to find its only a cheap $1 dc motor inside the door lock (!) which has FIAT/LANCIA stamped on it. Typically a cheap door lock with equally poor quality plastic bits inside. These should never have been used on a Ferrari but I can only assume accountants won that little war.... Spoke to people in the know whom inform me that these door locks and relays are forever failing... Unsurprising really considering the cheap components used!
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