Broken power lock switch

[Goblin]

I have 2012 Cayenne. My rear window lock button stopped working. I have to literally press it 10 times at various angles in order to lock unlock it. I don't use this button much , but its still very annoying. I saw on Ebay you can get the whole panel contol panel for about $30-$35 like this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Front-Door-Window-Switch-For-Porsche-Panamera-Cayenne-7PP959858MDML-/281963466546?epid=2121011919&hash=item41a6550f32:g:1zgAAOSwoudW6~hw&vxp=mtr

 

The question i have is...did anyone try using these cheap chinese parts? Do they hold up or do they fade in a year or does chrome on them rub off after the first car wash?

[scanner-1]

I don't have any experience with those parts, but if you do try them, please report your findings--I've got a switch starting to go bad too!

Thanks.

[deilenberger]

Even better - the switch caps are available - considering how frequently they break.. good thing: http://r.ebay.com/zId2iZ   and these replacements are made in Turkey (which is probably where the original switch was made..)

[Goblin]

update...the problem with my window control panel weren't those up/down buttons.  it was a child lock button.  Before ordering anything on Ebay or anywhere else , I decided to take off the control panel just to see how easy it is. Let me tell you, it is not. there are 4 metal lock clips, two on each side of the controller. you have  to push all 4 in and then pull the controller up. I slid 4 Credit cards between the controller and the door panel and used credit cards to push the metal clips. I suppose you can use flat screw driver but I was afraid to damage the door panel. It took me a good half an hour to wiggle the credit cards just enough for the clips to be push in and for the control panel to become loose. I suppose if you are replacing the controller you can just yank it up, and forget about broken clips. Once I took the window controller off, I realized what the issue is. One of the small plastic clips holding the bottom half of the controller to the top one,  broke, so when i pushed on the window lock button, the bottom of the controller moved down instead of pressing the actual button. The way those things are designed is the buttons that you press, are located on the top half of the controller, they have long plastic shafts that go all the way to the bottom of the controller where it is just the circuit board with small buttons mounted on it. The bottom half is snapped in into the top half with small plastic clips. If you press your buttons hard, or push into the controller from the top, those plastic clips will break and the controller will stop working or will work intermittently. Anyways, i soldered a metal paperclip into the plastic of side of the window control panel instead of the broken plastic clip. You potentially can superglue top and bottom parts, though, I am not sure if superglue will be able to withstand freezing temperatures.  The controller is working so I ended up not buying anything  for now, though I am still interested how the Chinese parts hold up, in case the paperclip gives way and switch will break before I sell my car.

 

[deilenberger]

19 hours ago, Goblin said:

 though I am still interested how the Chinese parts hold up, in case the paperclip gives way and switch will break before I sell my car.

 

Nowhere in the ebay listings I looked at did it refer to China. Some of them referred to Turkish made parts (which is likely exactly where the originals were made.)  Did you actually see a reference to China in any of the listings, or was that simply an assumption based on the price?

 

My WAG - someone at the company making the switches for VW/Audi/Porsche liberated some and is using eBay to market them. I can't imagine there is a big enough market for these very custom switches (different options and years result in different switch configurations) to be manufacturered simply as a replacement part - even in China.  And the fact that parts of the switches are being sold (the buttons - which frequently loose the chrome tip) reinforces that WAG.

 

YMMV..

[Goblin]

Deilenberger,

 

there are some subtle hints that these parts are made in China. That one i posted doesn't say anything about country of manufacture, but some do, and they say "from China" Secondly, a lot of items appear to be located in China, like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-Door-Window-Control-Switch-for-Porsche-Panamera-Cayenne-OEM-7PP959858MDML-/332372041228?epid=689425313&hash=item4d62eade0c:g:F68AAOSwEfBZsROM&vxp=mtr

 

And finally, you can buy this part directly from Chinese owned Aliexpress and Alibaba:

https://www.aliexpress.com/cheap/cheap-porsche-cayenne-window.html

 

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/For-Porsche-Cayenne-Power-Window-Switch_60388491713.html

 

 

So, if it walk like a duck and looks like a duck....

 

Thanks,

 

Mike