hunterp27

So, outta the clear blue both of my rear door shades stop extending to the full and hooked position. One day they were working, the next day they are not. I did some searching and there appears to have been some experience with this but I couldn't really find a solution for this outside of replacing the entire unit. In my frustration, I pulled extremely hard on one of them and it came all the way out but now it wont retract. What the heck???

1. Has anyone been able to fix this problem without replacing the unit?
2. How difficult is it to access the shade unit behind the door skin?

I see these on ebay going for 50-60 bucks but would rather keep mine and fix it.

Jack88

It sounds to me like in your frustration, you broke the one. That one I would suspect cannot be fixed. I would suggest start by taking them apart and seeing if they are dirty or otherwise hung up. Accessing the shades isn't terribly difficult, just ask my brother who had a very unfortunate mess to clean up when he decided to be nice and be the designated driver. If you can't see anything obvious wrong and cleaning fails, leave them mostly apart and order new shades. My take, anyhow.

A good rule of thumb for the future, if you normally don't have to force something, don't.

ooeddym

I had the exact same problem two days ago, both sides would only come out about half way and no further. I also applied a little force and one finally came the rest of the way out and would re wind, the other side unfortunately pulled all the way out and will not rewind. I haven't removed it yet but am assuming the unit will have to be replaced. I'm a little nervous to pull the wood/aluminum trim to get to the door screws because if I break it the cost goes way up and if you have the carbon option double the cost. I will be watching your post closely because I know you like to fix things.

aTOMic

There is a stiffening wire ~1/3 of the way up from the bottom, it has a small angle bent into it (IIRC) and it is not intended to rotate; if it does, it can cause the blind to catch badly. It will also try to escape its location and that catches, too. Cure is to superglue it with gorilla superglue and a 23ga needle; let dry in extended position for six months. Oh, and never, ever, allow anyone under 18 years of age operate it. They'll usually be busy breaking the rear vanity mirrors anyway. (I've driven on one too many field trips).

Too late now, but like they said: don't force it!

-Tom

hunterp27

OK, so I took the door skin/panels off this evening and removed the retractable blinds from both sides. Removing the door panels is very easy and the likelihood of breaking something very remote as these door panels may be one of the best engineered pieces of the car. Very well built and durable and the plastic clips are very hearty. When you pop the door skin off, some of the clips may remain stuck in the door but they are easy to pry out and load back into their slot on the backside of the door skin. Just reload them before you go to re-install.

In any event, these retractable blinds are essentially sealed units done on a compression assembly line and are not designed to be repaired. Once they loose their zip, it's game over. The retractable unit is is actually 3 pieces and can be disassembled to some degree, but where the problem actually is, is inside the spring loaded tube......and it is sealed. They behave very much like the old white retractable window shades your grandma had at her house. I have never opened up one of those shades to see how the spring loading worx but even if I knew, these are too small to fix. Furthermore, to get the tube out of the aluminum guide, you have to drill two rivets out of the end-pieces and unless you are really careful you drive right thru the plastic making a re-rivet next to impossible. In other words, if your window shades go bad, it's time to start looking for used or new ones. I have seen them on eBay and will be trying t locate them quickly because driving around with the inner side of the door exposed is not good. Kids could kick one of the B&O drivers, plus you don't have a handle to open the back door.

I don't like it when I cannot fix something. It pisses me off. I cannot understand how these things just stop working overnight. I guess they need to be exercised often to keep things working.

MP4.2+6.0

FWIW, when I have pulled D3 door panels I find probably 20-30% of those easterners you mention become unusable. Look carefully at the heads before trying to put panel back on. Compare it to a known good one, likely one that pulled out cleanly and stayed attached to the panel. Like with the fender liner push pins and a few other things, I kept a small supply on hand knowing they often get tweaked.

hunterp27

MP, I was extremely surprised that I only had one fastener break during the removal process. I had a couple extras on hand just in case, but with only one breaking, i felt lucky. These clips/fasteners are really high quality

Greybeast

One of the first things I repaired\replaced was my drivers side door shade. I found a gently used on on fleabay for $40.00 USD. They are fairly easily replaced and a straightforward procedure. Good luck.
Mike

hunterp27

OK, so I found a few on eBay for between 75.00 and 100.00 bucks, but I have found them brand new at a few dealerships online parts departments for 220.00. This seems like a no-brainer to buy new since age is enemy of these things and any of the used ones could decide to go **** up just like mine did. I think I'll just buy 2 new ones and call it could. Did I mention I don't like it when I cant fix something and have to replace it? I thought so.....

richard-tx

Forcing something is almost always a bad idea.

"When something is too tight, just get a bigger hammer"
"If something doesn't want to come out, get a bigger prybar".

Collectively, those two adages have resulted in repairs more costly than the GDP of a small country.

I remember one fellow that tried to replace an axle seal. When he got done removing the axle, the differential was scrap. In replacing the diff, he destroyed the driveshaft. When replacing the driveshaft he destroyed the transmission because the replacement drive shaft was too long thus cracking the transmission case. He should have paid the local garage the $50 they wanted to replace the seal. Instead he totaled his car.

There was one fellow that decided to re-route the wiring harness on his A8. He cut it...fiber optics and all. When he found out that his stereo didn't work, he took it to Audi. The verdict? Totaled. It would cost more in parts than what the car was worth as there are no fiber optic splicing kits. Splicing fiber optic cables is not a task for the average person.