This seems like a case of planned obsolescence. They know that the window is going to be used. They know that the speed at which the window rolls up and down is too fast for the clips. They also know that the automatic up and automatic down are too easy to push and cause problems. The cheap plastic clips were designed to fail. There is no way that they envisioned these cheap pieces of plastic lasting the life of the car. I got this car from a family member who bought it brand new. They took immaculate care of it and barely even drove it. I got it with around 132,000 miles on it. So far, I have driven this car for less than 10,000 miles and I have a check engine light on, (hopefully just an o2 sensor, but the code responds to 27 different things and is the most common code associated with this car.) and the window fell into the door. What happened to VW? I thought they were supposed to last.

I was traveling to visit my in-laws with my wife and infant son. We pulled over so that we could grab a bite to eat and my son could nurse. When my wife tried to open her window to get some air flow since we had the car engine off. I heard a CRACK, then watched her passenger window drop straight into the door. Luckilly, I had some Gorilla tape (super strong duct tape) in the car and I was able to pull the window back out of the door and tape it to the door frame.

When I got home I found a Passat blog website and found that it was pretty typical for the Passat window regulator clips to go bad. (the Audi A4 uses stronger clips)

So I found the expensive way to fix it is to replace the WHOLE regulator for $175 since the clips are not sold by themselves in the United States.

Or you can buy the Audi A4 clips from the dealership and "Modify them" for the Passat.

But the cheaper solution is to order new clips from Istanbul Turkey from E-Bay at $15 a set. Just make sure you know what you are doing otherwise you might up breaking... your door, your window, your door trim, your regulator, or your new regulator clips and need to order more parts.

Okay, what the hell? So far every single window regulator has broken in this car. All four!!!!! How does that even happen? A few months after i bought the car in 2005 the passenger side goes out. Then a few months after that the rear passenger side goes out and is now stuck on the seal. Then followed by the driver side too. I got around to replacing the two front ones and that was fine but then the driver side rear went out in June! I mean, WTF!?!?!?!?! How do all four go out in a 3 year period? VW truly sucks. I got screwed when I bought this thing.