Electric window... WORST DESIGN part 2: the fusebox

The back drivers side electric window stopped working a while ago, but I didnt think too much of it. Then I accidentally pressed the switch and it went down a bit. Great! So I pressed to wind it up, and it went down some more. Huh? I pressed it again, and it went down more. What??? It got to the bottom and refused to come up.

In fact, it's been down ever since. And it's been snowing. Great. I cut a piece of wood to fit and fitted a black bag over it to keep it all dry (and my kids dry in the back too).

I had a look on the net and discovered that this is a very very common fault on Scenics. It can happen repeatedly after replacement parts. It can be expensive to fix. For some people, the window just randomly winds down at any old moment.

Some suggestions included holding down buttons to reset the system. Tried all sorts of combinations - no joy.

Another said change the fuse. HAHAHAHA!!! I'm manically laughing as I write this bit. Change a fuse?

First I looked in the handbook for the fusebox. And guess what - it wasnt there! There's no fuse box where it's supposed to be! No cover, nothing. Good joke, Renault!

So I thought I'd try the secondary gearbox in the engine bay. Again, I removed the cover (with it's funny screws). Totally inaccessible. Can't get at it without removing the battery and possibly other parts. Who on earth would design a car with inaccessible fuses?

Then a small victory dance felt deserved when I found a secret hidden panel in the glovebox. What could be in there? Thinking about it, it’s location is just at the back of the engine compartment fusebox, so it could be one too! But what’s this? The cover is unusually stiff and refuses to open (quelle surprise). A quick search on the internet reveals a raft of posts saying “Please help, I can’t get the glovebox fusebox cover open”. But I managed. Another victory.

Until I discover that it only opens a couple of inches, meaning it is completely impossible to see either any of the fuses or the little diagram saying which one is which. The handbook doesn’t say which one is which. It does helpfully say that the one that has the little picture of an electric window beside it will be for the electric windows (although it says this will be in the driver’s footwell fusebox which doesn’t exist). And by really stretching it is possible only to see the edge of a picture of an electric window with the number 40 in it. Success – a 40 watt fuse, and there’s only 2 of them. I remove them both. The other electric windows still work. Pah, foiled again.