[Bracus]

My Driver-side power window (North American driver side) broke today. It's freezing cold out today and I have just washed the car the previous day. I went to put my window down today and it make a crunchy noise and went down about 3/4 of the way. Now it is stuck and is making some kind of grinding noise while the motor is trying to work to put the window up or down... but the window isn't moving!

 

[EulessDave]

Been there, done that!

My Driver-side power window (North American driver side) broke today. It's freezing cold out today and I have just washed the car the previous day. I went to put my window down today and it make a crunchy noise and went down about 3/4 of the way. Now it is stuck and is making some kind of grinding noise while the motor is trying to work to put the window up or down... but the window isn't moving!

The cable has come loose usually due to the end anchor breaking. It's a replace, not a repair. The noise you hear is the motor winding the cable around the sprocket. I wouldn't mess with the switch any more because you don't want to damage the motor.

Here's a thread from a few years ago about this, including my instructions on how to repair it:
http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f43/window-regulator-help-77175.html

Note: Read all the way through and you'll see that the cheapie part I bought on Amazon broke about two weeks later. Get the real VW part from the dealership. It'll cost more but it's worth it. Mine still works flawlessly.

Note - my New Beetle has done this 4 times (three driver and one passenger).