Bad Design Issue?
 

During some recent snow storms i have had problems with the frameless door windows. If you notice each time that you open the doors, the window moves down a quarter of an inch or so and then raises again once the door is shut. During these storms the windows froze. I could open the door but the windows would not move down the quarter inch its supposed to, so then the doors would not shut. To fix this i scraped off all of the ice from where the window retreats into the door, this made me nervous because it felt as if i could be scratching the glass, but that did not work toatlly so i would hit the down switch and hit the window down with my hand, it seemed like this was also bad due to flexing the window and putting strain on the window motor.
Has anyone else had this problem or anyone have any thoughts about this situation i have encountered?

It';s not an A5/S5-specific design flaw so much as it's an issue with almost all cars with frameless windows.

If you have a good ice scraper you should be able to get the ice off the glass without scraping if you do it carefully. You should also make sure the plastic seal around the window frame doesn't dry out, which can make a frozen window more likely to stick. (You can lubricate with a very small amount of silicone lubricant.)

You can't possibly scratch the glass. Those plastic ice scrapers are too soft. The only thing that can scratch glass is other glass or diamond.

+1 .. a plastic scraper isn't going to scratch glass.. any marks that the scraper leaves will be plastic residue that can be easily removed.

Do yourself a favor though. DON'T scrape your sideview mirrors. Those are laminated in such a way that they will scratch. I was trying to remove some residue from a mirror with a razor blade and it left marks.

Windshields DO scratch! If you run torn wipers over a windshield and the metal makes contact, it will leave a mark. It may not be immediately but it will over time.

Make sure your scraper has a smooth edge. Be careful next to the black framing. you don't want to scratch that.

I DID EXPERIENCE SAME, I THOUGHT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY A5 3.2. THANKS FOR THE POSTING.

YOU'RE WELCOME!!!

Owww.. my ears..

Obviously i know that a plastic ice scraper won't scratch, i was refering to me using the metal part of my key to scrape along the seam where the window retreats into the door because thats where the problem was and it had to be something small in order to get the ice loose.

Well, you really didn't specify what you were using to do the scraping. I wouldn't recommend using anything metal to scrape on the glass.. but that's just a no-brainer.

brass scrapers
 

Cringe as you might, I got a brass ice scraper from my grandmotehr when I first started to drive like 17 years ago, and I was always afraid to use the thing for fear of it scratching the window. When I bought my beater '89 Oldsmobile that you can see in my profile garage, I tried it out and it works great. Not so much for heavy ice, but frost. Its like making shaving ice and it clears a nice clean path, not the streaky lines you get from plastic scrapers. And no it doesn't scratch the windows.
Here is what mine looks like.
http://www.amazon.com/BLITZ-7-BRASS-.../dp/B000I1TJG2

Bascially it doesn't scratch because brass has a hardness of around 3.5 and regular laminated glass is usually between 4.5 and 6.5. Softer can't scratch something harder and the like.