Putting the Customer First: Audi responds to the TT Window Regulator issue

Hi Steve, I have the same problem with my Audi TT and I have just spoke to customer services and they told me that it wasn’t a recognised design fault and it was wear and tear. Any help gratefully received. Pamela

Hi Pamela, could you send me an email with a bit of background and I will then help escalate to customer services. It’s probably a genuine mistake, perhaps by someone new to the job. There’s no question of it being a design fault – wear and tear does not lead to such a failure and therefore Audi should be willing to lend a hand and ease your frustration.

You can reach me at steve fitchmedia com

Hi Steve, I’ve sent through an email hope you’ve received it. If you need any more information just let me know. Thanks Pamela.

Hi Steve,
Thank you for your informative article. I have experienced the same problem with my Audi TT and given the advice above from Jon Zammett I contacted customer service on the number provided. They were not helpful. I was told that this is not a known issue, ‘no where near the number’ to make it an issue and that it was up to the dealership to charge what they wanted for the repair (I was quoted £580 initially, which then that came down to £497). When i asked what i should expect to pay given that this is a known issue the customer services representative reiterated that it is NOT an issue and that I should tell the garage to offer me a goodwill gesture since I have always service my car there. He also said in no uncertain terms that this is not an Audi problem! Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi Steve,
Thank you for your informative article. I have experienced the same problem with my Audi TT and given the advice above from Jon Zammett I contacted customer service on the number provided. They were not helpful. I was told that this is not a known issue, ‘no where near the number’ to make it an issue and that it was up to the dealership to charge what they wanted for the repair (I was quoted £580 initially, which then came down to £497). When I asked what I should expect to pay given that this is a known issue the customer services representative reiterated that it is NOT an issue and that I should tell the garage to offer me a goodwill gesture since I have always service my car there. He also said in no uncertain terms that this is not an Audi problem! Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi Anu, I got in touch with both Audi Customer Services and Jon Zammett’s comms and PR team recently after another owner experienced the same ‘shrug of the shoulders’ when going through official channels.

Looks like it’s time to spread the news that Audi really don’t care about their customers. I was assured by Jon that this issue had been resolved and I spoke with Cust Services at the same time as they ‘logged’ the fault as a ‘known issue’.

To find they are now repeatedly failing to live up to this promise shows either extreme ineptitude or, perhaps more worrying, a conscious decision to exploit the ignorance of existing customers.

If you know of any other owners who’d like to be heard, then ask them to contact me (via the feedback form on this page) and/or post their concerns in the comments – I’d like to demonstrate that this remains a real issue for Audi TT owners and not merely limited to 20 or 30 cars.

In Finland this is also common problem. I contacted finnish Audi importer and they said that this is NOT known issue. WTF…? All mk2 Audi TT I know so far have had this same problem and its not common?
We need to do something together!

Hi Jussi, I will speak (again!) to Audi and see how they’d like to play this. The last thing I want is to blow it all out of proportion, but as far as I understand (from my experience and of other owners), every Mk2 Audi TT will at some point experience this problem.

I don’t believe it is serious enough for a recall, however it should be logged on Audi’s support database and handled by each Customer Service territory as a KNOWN ISSUE!

Just to add my experience – Audi offered a small discount to the repair. I sent a follow up letter to voice my dissatisfaction at the idea that a window that is never used should have this fault and the lady claimed that it wasn’t a common fault and that it was just wear and tear.

Oh and to add a bit of further interest, I use a wheelchair and enter/exit the car through the rear (generally). This means that the driver’s door (which is the one with the knackered window) has been used ~50% less, yet still failed after 5 years (which seems to be the pattern here).

Thanks for sharing that insight Steve. I can confirm that Audi ‘do know’ about the issue and from repairing it on the car we run I can also confirm that it is NOT wear and tear.

I will reach out to Audi today and thereafter it sounds like it might be time to revisit this issue in a new article.

Same problem just happened to our 5 yr old tt. We live in London and don’t even have a driveway so hopefully will still be there in the morning. Did you get any joy with Audi in the end or should I resign myself to a big bill?

Sorry to hear about that Adrian, as I’ve said before it’s inevitable and despite Audi CS & PR agreeing this with us, it seems they have failed to operationalise this within the front-line customer service teams.

Both departments are adopting a ‘head-in-the-sand’ approach – despite contacting and speaking to them several times – so they’re clearly hoping they can ride this one out and leave *customers* to fend for themselves.

Interestingly, my mother’s A2 has just failed in a similar way (albeit hers is a much older car), but it’s worth noting that Audi are the only car maker where we’ve experienced this problem.

So for anyone weighing up the pros and cons against a rival brand, make sure you bear this in mind.

Steve, what makes you think this is linked to Audi TT’s?
This has happened on all of my VAG cars. First on my 1999 Golf TDI (drivers), both sides went on my 2002 MK1 TT and my MK5 GTI (drivers) was showing signs of failure.

Hi Dan, yes you’re quite right, the problem won’t be unique to the TT.
VAG were one of the first car makers to adopt cable-operated gear change and
electric window mechanisms and most of the time the approach works well.

As with every other manufacturer they lab test these mechanisms to simulate
a lifetime of use, but inevitable ‘the lab’ is only a simulation of the real
word. In the real world the TT’s frameless windows get pretty filthy
(beneath the window frame) and I noticed this added extra stress to the
regulator mechanism.

Ultimately there are two possible points of failure – the regulator motor
and the pulley system which enables the motor to raise and lower the
window.

If the dozens of failures we’ve discovered were purely down to ‘user error’
I would expect to hear of burned out motors, but in every case (so far) it’s
the cable which frays and fouls the pulley system, which leads me to conclude
that it was not up to standard – since it would be reasonable to expect the
lifetime of the vehicle to be longer than 3 years.

An electric window mechanism ‘should not’ be seen as a consumable (although
it will require servicing during the life of the car) – but if VAG do secretly
believe this is the case then they should make this clear to customers before
they buy their cars. Dropping this news on customers once their warranty
runs out is not good form..

Ultimately there are two possible points of failure – the regulator motor
and the pulley system which enables the motor to raise and lower the
window. The TT has a particularly shallow arrangement (because of the depth of the door panel) and therefore seems to place greater strain on the perpendicular turns of the mechanism.

I am currently speaking about this issue with Craig Westwood, Customer Relations Manager at Audi UK, so will let you all know if we manage to agree a solution which makes the window regulator failure on Mk2 TTs a little bit less painful to experience.

I am naturally somewhat sceptical from what I’ve seen so far, but perhaps we’re reaching a turning point. Watch this space..

I have a 2008 2.0 TT bought at Audi Perth. Last year the passenger window broke in exactly this fashion. £283 to repair at audi Glasgow. Just tonight the driver window has done the same thing, incidentally the day it started snowing in central Scotland. I shall now need to take this back to Audi glasgow and have it out with them once again. I merely wish to note this in the hoe Audi start to recognise the problem as a design fault, not wear and tear thereby takeing the vehicle out with the requirements of the sale of goods act 1979 and would entitle all customers to have this fault rectified without charge, whether under warranty or not.

I’m sure you all agree that for a £30k motor this is entirely unacceptable, in terms of vehicle build, customer service and legal accountability.

Hi Marc, sorry to hear about your car – it sounds about the right age of vehicle for this particular issue. Audi got in touch with me again last week and say they are ‘looking into it’.

I totally agree that it’s a design/production fault – just imagine the TT sales brochure if it said *please note the electronic window mechanism will only last up to 3 years.

Ironically Audi has just announced that 2012 has been its best year ever (for US markets) – sales were up 24% compared to the same time last year, and November was 23rd consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Yay!! Doesn’t that just make you feel warm all over? Oh, hang on, you’re a customer.

We’ll be watching closely to see if Audi celebrate customer service wins as loudly as sales wins..

Hi Steve, Our late 2007 21K TT has just suffered the same issue with the passenger window, when I spoke to my local Audi centre they said it was not a known problem, just natural wear and tear for a relatively old car… Mmmm! the passenger seat of this car is hardly ever used and from a mileage perspective the car is not old. As we are just contemplating our next family car purchase, this kind of response makes me think that Audi should not benefit from our custom next time around.

I have spoken to Audi PR as you suggest, who rather unfortunately have a vey different perspective on this and are very, very clear in expressing it:

‘John Zammett is quoted here, but this is spurious as no problem exists with the regulators and he is miss quoted. They do not follow forums and only work on data from the dealer network. They told me to take my car to a dealer and IF they think it appropriate some level of goodwill offset may be applied.’

Which of course ties me into potentially substantial dealer costs. Audi do not appear to be concerned about the issues this type of failure cases the cars user, especially as it completely compromises the cars security and leaves the car open to the elements. The use of mild steel in the cable is a very poor engineering choice, which will only save a peppercorn in costs during assembly, but must reap huge financial rewards for the dealer network, corrosion enduced failures must have been foreseen with this assembly in the TT doors damp environment and could probably be predicted to begin post warranty. I have to wonder if this is clearly just a cynical business choice!

Mark, I can assure you that John Z is ‘not’ mis-quoted. I spoke at length with Audi CS when we first diagnosed there was a problem, it didn’t show up in the dealer service records, but it did show up when we reviewed the archive of parts being ordered. We also discovered that the part itself had been updated ‘three’ times in the interim, which shows that the folks in Ingolstadt were well aware of the problem.

John’s carefully worded email to me (above) was in recognition that a problem had arisen – without admitting blame – and I left it with him to ensure Audi CS were aware and would handle it on a case by case basis.

You can judge ‘how well’ the situation has been handled by the comments here on SkiddMark.

I have an 07 TT 3.2 automatic with 40k miles on the clock. Last year, the driver side one went and was fixed by Audi Bradford under extended warranty. Said warranty expired in November, and guess what, the passenger side one has just gone >:|

Looking to buy a part from a breaker and get a local garage to fix it as I’m not lining audi’s pockets any more over this one.

Steve > any advice on how easy this is to fix myself? The father in law was a mechanic and if I can get the part from a breakers, does he need any special tools to fix this?

Si, sorry for the delay in getting back to you – I personally wouldn’t buy the part from a breakers yard and I’ll tell you the reason why. When you examine the window regulator there’s nothing obviously wrong with it and yet the part number has changed several times during the past few years.

This led us to conclude (in conversation with Audi CS) that Audi AG know about a problem and have been revising the spec accordingly, therefore it would be reasonable to assume that more recent cars won’t suffer from these same failures.

The cars I’ve come across have all been just-under or (mainly) over 3 years old, so it doesn’t make sense fitting an old part which Audi (or their OEM supplier) has since improved. For the sake of £130+ or so you might as well fix it for good, especially since the job takes a good 4-5 hours at least. It’s not a difficult job per se, just an unfamiliar one for most of us, so you spend most of the time tip toeing around the fitment trying to avoid breaking anything else. If you’re planning on keeping your TT, then you’ll not want to repeat the same job twice.

The other factor, and I realise this probably sticks in your throat a bit, is as people fix their cars ‘off radar’ Audi remain ignorant of how much of a problem the window regulator mechanism on the TT can be.

During my initial conversations, Audi denied there was any problem, because they were tracking the jobs performed by ‘approved’ service agents. When we dug a little deeper we discovered that the parts supply was disproportionate to the number of service jobs performed by agents, which means customers (or 3rd party garages) were buying the part and fitting it themselves. This completely slipped past Audi’s attention. If customers like yourself take this further and fix their cars using second-hand parts, then Audi will be completely in the dark and the ‘cycle of ignorance’ will be complete..

I can understand how difficult it is to keep on top of these issue, from Audi’s perspective, what I’m none to impressed by is what they do when people like ourselves bring it to their attention (see no evil – hear no evil – speak no evil)

Just as it snows and turns minus 5, drivers window stuck 3/4 down!! 59 plate with 13k on the clock. ridiculous.

59 plate, so is that still within warranty? Yours is also one of the newest we’ve heard of and suggests the problem might not have been solved in more recent cars. There’s no way it can be reasoned that a car with 13,000 miles should fail due to ‘wear and tear’.

Audi, you really need to act ‘pro-actively’ and show your customers that you individually give a damn..

Passenger side window on a 2008 TT failed last summer, had it replaced at a local independent garage – £350 bill. End of last year, both external door handles failed (could only open doors from inside) – £400 bill from an Audi dealer. Now the drivers side window is making the dreaded graunching noise!! Not sure whether to try going through Audi to argue the toss re: known issue, or go to an independent who will probably be cheaper. Audi TT is a great car to look at and drive, but hell they need to sort out the doors / customer service!!

Andy, I’m going to pass your comment directly on to Audi. I agree with you, the TT is otherwise a great car to own – we still have ours (it’s now covered nearly 70k miles) but I’ve found Audi the ‘least’ customer-oriented company I’ve bought a car from in 20 years.

I’ve told them, but they clearly aren’t concerned, which is a shame – If I were a shareholder I’d be calling for heads to roll – I’ve been contacted by dozens of people who’ll no longer buy an Audi because of the way they’ve been treated.

I see a number of brands make this mistake, as sales numbers increase they see it as a sign of their own increasing status, rather than a greater burden of responsibility to maintain standards across a wider customer base.

In my line of work I usually get called in to sort a company out ‘after’ they’ve screwed up, prior to this they nearly always believe they can do no wrong.

wow – same issues exactly with my 08 TT. First of all the passenger window stuck and needed the regulator replacing and this morning both the drivers and passenger doors would not open with the exterior door handles. I had to ask my daughter to climb in through the tailgate to open from the inside! the doors now appear to have corrected themselves but I have zero confidence in it remaining this way. For a great car, these fittings appear to be a ‘Friday afternoon’ job taht lets the whole side down.

Brian, the door mechanism is on a separate circuit to the window regulator, but it sounds like your central locking mechanism had a brain freeze. If it happens again, then the best thing would be to take it into your Audi dealer and ask them to plug it in (to read the central ECU). There might be an error code they can pick up which will help them pin point the cause.

As far as I know there’s no inherent issue with the TT’s central locking, so I’d recommend treating it as a one-off.

Hi Steve – I progressed the investigations a little further this morning.

Once again, both doors were jammed shut but, as I had previously only witnessed the issue with the driver’s door I tried another approach on the passenger side. Due to the extreme cold temperatures and a slight issue with the door seal since I had my electric window regulator replaced late last year, it appears that the passenger door had managed to freeze shut. I pushed on the door a few times to release the seal and it opened fine.

The driver’s side remained an issue and had to be opened from the inside. Once I was in, it started working fine again but I suspect the issue will reoccur on the drivers side, as this seems to be getting more frequent recently. I have seen another forum posting that suggested greasing the catch as this sometime sticks so I’ll try that and let the forum know if I have any success on that front. As its intermittent and I don’t want to damage anything I am avoiding taking the door trim off for now.

Glad to see you’ve made some headway Brian, our car is always garaged overnight, so perhaps it’s a water ingress problem caused by rapidly cooling damp air?

I wonder if a PTFE lubricant might be the solution, because even grease can become sticky – a good PTFE product such as Valvoline’s High Pressure Lubricant operates across a wide range of temperatures from -50 degrees C to +250 degrees.

I usually only use grease in areas where heat naturally builds (i.e. moving parts), whereas on a door handle (or joint) an anti-friction product would probably be more effective. http://www.tredz.co.uk/.WD40-Ptfe-Anti-Friction-Dry-Lube_54810.htm?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=AdwordsProductAds&utm_campaign=Adwords&gclid=CP6Lmoae97UCFcbKtAodAgMAnw

Hi Everybody, I just had the same surprise yesterday evening with the passenger side window. I ve just got it fixed today with Audi Edinburgh – £290. The woman admitted that I was not the only one having this issue. And she also said that even latest TT has got the issue. .

Glad to hear you got it fixed (and £290 seems very reasonable). The reason why some of the dealer service people don’t know about the issue is because many people are buying the part and either replacing it themselves, or arranging for an independent dealer to fit it (because often their car is outside warranty).

It’s a simple case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, nevertheless it’s disappointing to see so many people still experiencing the problem.

Interesting to note your car failed on the passenger side, it’s usually the driver’s side (which gets the most use)

I have the same issue for my 2008 Audi TT with window regolater and I have got it fixed at dealer for 350$

but the didn’t balance the window right, any one have the guidelines on how to do it home cause I got sick with taking appointment for a week!!

This happened to me on Friday i have a 58 plate Audi TT Quattro

same story …. my 58 plate TT Quattro stuck down !!! Surely Audi must realise this is a customer satisfaction issue

We British often don’t like to complain, but this is precisely why we MUST complain if a genuine injustice is evident. Sometimes the company doesn’t realise it’s an issue (as I believe was true ‘originally’ in this case). I have spoken with Audi several times and originally they were grateful (after a few pokes) of being notified, then their PR process kicked in..

Many companies still believe they can control their reputation through spin, positive self-promotion and the tried-and-tested head in the sand routine – in this case Audi know you are complaining (I’ve kept them appraised of the number of owners we’ve logged) and have chosen to ‘play the odds’. The odds are you will go away (eventually).

Meanwhile they redouble their efforts to work with media whom they can influence – which in the automotive world means those who are invited to join their press junkets and who they can therefore agree a quid-pro-qua deal with – we’ll provide you with new cars to drive just so long as you respect ‘the line’ which you must not cross. In one sense you cannot blame them, PR stands for promotion in most respects and journalists are part of their investment in ‘earned media’.

That’s why in most cases, we (SkiddMark) do not attend press launches – we’ll review cars on our own terms and at our own convenience, not because it suits a particular brand.

Because of this I’m happy to convey customer satisfaction issues like this, because somebody needs to put the customer/reader first.

08 plate TT ~ 60,000 miles and drivers window mechanism has gone, currently discussing with Audi UK. Clearly this part is not “fit for purpose” however I assume from everyone’s experience I’m not going to get anywhere with them?

Rob, I am still awaiting a ‘good news’ story from Audi despite repeatedly asking them for an alternative perspective on what we’ve observed. Now and again issues such as this arise, and despite seeming conclusive, there’s in fact a much larger contingent of owners who’ve never experienced the problem and are quite happy with their cars.

When I was originally contacted by an Audi spokesperson, we took this into account and as more cases have mounted up, I’ve asked them to clarify if we’re only seeing part of the picture.

Audi know about this question, are well aware of this article and I can only assume (from their subsequent silence) are hiding a far bigger problem.

I do believe however that the part concerned has now been improved and no longer represents such a weak link, so Audi are hoping owners will keep quiet, pay to fix their cars and that the problem will eventually go away by itself.

The experience has certainly stopped me buying another Audi, and I know of many others who’ve chosen to go elsewhere, but Audi are still reporting record sales figures, so as you can imagine they’re not unduly concerned as long as they’re filling the bucket faster than it leaks..

Also, has anyone actually taken this through the small claims court?

We don’t have ‘Lemon’ Laws here in the UK, but even so the law is fairly clear – claims need to be made in the first few months of a car’s lifetime (if a product is truly not fit for purpose), in which case the car maker is given ample opportunity to remedy the problem.

Thereafter, as time passes the warranty scheme takes precedence and once outside this period (as most of the cars affected clearly are) it’s up to the manufacturer’s discretion what they do about such a problem. Recalls are usually only forthcoming where safety is concerned (due to the liability risk), otherwise you’re on your own. A small claims court would only be of use in suing the dealer who sold the car, and even then, they’d have recourse to claim it was within the standards of the manufacturer provided it had been properly inspected.

Thereafter you’d need to pursue some form of class-action suit on behalf of a large group of customers, but that would cost more than just replacing the part. Car maker wins with reputation slightly tarnished, but otherwise all in a day’s work..

So £300 later window fixed! Audi Cardiff were excellent, more than can be said about Audi UK customer services! Twice told that i would be contacted by phone, twice let down, not an impressive response. Thanks for your input Steve and good luck to anyone else dealing with this issue! I’m just waiting for the second window to go now!

hi i have a 07 fsi ,o/s cable rusted and broke.had it fixed.and now the n/s has gone.fitted the o/s myself not to bad to do.but its buying them is costly audi should at least sell them cheaper..baz