My car is loving the attention it is getting right now, no doubt.
I took it back to the auto electrician to get the window part fitted, and.. well, it is one which is broken and doesn’t work. To be expected from a wrecked car, I suppose.
Anyway, at the auto electrician, the door latch packed it in on the drivers door. Fantastic. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, right? It’s that rego time of year, so maybe it’s just the car reading its sticker, and realising, I might as well as milk this for all I can.
What a royal pain in the arse. Anyway, remembering from my ringing around, a company had a part for $50 at another wrecker, so I figure, they might have the door latch there too, so I can get my drivers door latch working properly (would rather be driving with a shut door, k, thx).
Turns out that he doesn’t have one, but he still had the window for $50. Bargain, we’ll take it considering the other mob charged $75 – which is a rip off.
I then went to another wreckers around the corner from the place we went to, and asked for a door latch. Sure, they have one. $90. Your kidding right? Nope. $90 for a door latch. I’ll be back in 10 or 15, just gotta go pick my partner up from the other wreckers.
I decided against paying them $90. I got better things to spend $90 on, like the auto electrician to fit my window. So, I went back to the old wreckers where we bought the old part from, and asked if they had one, sure do, $75 (amazing, so how is a simple door latch worth the same as a motorised electric window?).
Anyway, realising we had the other part there, I thought we might just be able to swap it for the door latch. It’s not our fault it broke, it was in a damaged state when purchased, it just never was able to be inspected simply because we had no idea what we were looking for.
They remain confident it was working when he took it out, because he had to wind the window down to get it out.. and what’s to stop him from yanking on the twisted metal cable resulting in the connectors braking?
Anyway, at this point I’m a little tired from the effort put into the car for a SIMPLE window, that I decide, I need the drivers door shutting properly, it’s not easy driving holding the door shut, and of course, electrical tape can only hold the door shut for so long.
So, we get them to fit it as well, they charge $25 for fitting an electric window, but that seems to double for a door latch.
We were waiting for a fair while while they pulled it out, but they had it out, and someone else was investigating the electric window part that was broken, trying to rearrange the twisted metal cable to try and get it going again.
It was a mess, I was certain it was busted up when it left there, because I know the arch formed by the cable joined, was larger than that of the other unit we picked up from the other wreckers today (unfortunately, I couldn’t compare that, as we didn’t have anything to go off).
So, we’ve now got to wait til Monday to get it back to the auto electrician to get the parts, so on Tuesday, we can get to the wreckers, so they can fit the electric window, because they don’t seem to want to refund on the part that was faulty, and they now need to fix the door lock they broke, and a electrical wiring cover they broke when they were trying to fix the door lock.
I got them to fit the lock, because I realise, if it’s broken, then they can blame none other than themselves for it.
But, it turns out they aren’t any good at fitting parts anyway, because due care doesn’t exist when they reshape a screw so they can take it out!
I’m pondering whether I go bug fair trading over the illegal no refunds sign, or I simply go along and get them to fit the window which the auto electrician would probably be looking at $66 for anyway, and we call it even, and they end up on the shitlist of businesses I never deal with again, along with a local computer shop – Yep, I actually do drive an extra 10 minutes out of the way to ensure they don’t get any business from me.
So, all up, this has cost $75 for the electric window part, $31 for a failed pink slip, $35 for a headlight and middle brake light, $50 for another electric window part, $120 for a door latch and installation.
Plus, add on time, 1 hour to the auto electrician and back in 4 trips to get it fixed. 40 minutes to and from the wreckers the first time to get the large window part, which wouldn’t fit. 40 minutes again to the wreckers to get the part that would fit, but is damaged, 30 minutes this morning at the auto electrician discovering it is damaged, 1 hour today driving to select locations tracking down a door latch and a working electric window part. 2 hours waiting for them to remove and fit a door open part, and find the faults with the electric window opener.
Yeh, that window isn’t exactly a easy fixed solution, yet, fitting the part is something like a 10 – 20 minute process!
That window must feel so good, it’s the only window I know of to have so much time and money spent on it to get going (or involved in the process of getting going).
We are still ahead by comparison (even if you include fuel), because the new part will cost $500 or more we are told (and is backed up by someone else we know personally who had one done, and got it done new – $600!).
Is the lengths we go to, to satisfy the RTA worth it? No, not at all. Good thing we aren’t doing it just for RTA satisfiaction, it’s actually so my little one can actually see out, and sit there with some air flow coming in.
A working window is a big ask.
Enjoy!