3 years in a T6.1 - warranty repairs

[Mehdime]

And so we’re now just a few days short of 3 years owning our T6.1 Ocean (from new). It’s been by far and away the best purchase we’ve ever made, despite it being financially non-sensical on paper. Not far from life-changing, in a good way.

I also got to know our local VW dealership really well with all the trips there for various warranty repairs. I thought it would be interesting to keep a record here:

From new

• A/C leaking and soaking the carpet between the passenger and driver seats.

1 month old

• Sagging roof

2 months old

• Blind at the back on the side on the van doesn’t stay down anymore (quite a big job to fix that I believe)

6 months old

• Broken kitchen cupboard latch
• Broken plastic rail guide on the wardrobe sliding door
• ^^^ both of these were arguably me forcing the door to open when they were blocked by something.

1.5 years old

• Folding leg on the indoor table doesn’t stay attached to the table anymore when folded (it falls off). They had to replace the whole table for this.

2 years old

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.
• The “catch” of the sliding door that keeps it locked open became really stiff - you had to really shove the door open for it to engage.

2.5 years old

• Shower connection at the back leaks when using the shower
• Water pump became more and more noisy over a few months. And then starting randomly failing altogether with a screeching noise.
• Latch of the kitchen sink slowly but surely started to fail. The sink was incredibly hard to open.

3 years old

• Latch of the fridge failed. Fridge doesn’t close anymore.

That’s all for now. The dealership has been great all along and fixed all issues without ever making a fuss.

But I’m sure glad I bought the 2 year warranty extension (thanks to all the advice on this forum). Here’s to the next 2 years of warranty repairs!

 

[JuanVecino2023]

And so we’re now just a few days short of 3 years owning our T6.1 Ocean (from new). It’s been by far and away the best purchase we’ve ever made, despite it being financially non-sensical on paper. Not far from life-changing, in a good way.

I also got to know our local VW dealership really well with all the trips there for various warranty repairs. I thought it would be interesting to keep a record here:

From new

• A/C leaking and soaking the carpet between the passenger and driver seats.

1 month old

• Sagging roof

2 months old

• Blind at the back on the side on the van doesn’t stay down anymore (quite a big job to fix that I believe)

6 months old

• Broken kitchen cupboard latch
• Broken plastic rail guide on the wardrobe sliding door
• ^^^ both of these were arguably me forcing the door to open when they were blocked by something.

1.5 years old

• Folding leg on the indoor table doesn’t stay attached to the table anymore when folded (it falls off). They had to replace the whole table for this.

2 years old

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.
• The “catch” of the sliding door that keeps it locked open became really stiff - you had to really shove the door open for it to engage.

2.5 years old

• Shower connection at the back leaks when using the shower
• Water pump became more and more noisy over a few months. And then starting randomly failing altogether with a screeching noise.
• Latch of the kitchen sink slowly but surely started to fail. The sink was incredibly hard to open.

3 years old

• Latch of the fridge failed. Fridge doesn’t close anymore.

That’s all for now. The dealership has been great all along and fixed all issues without ever making a fuss.

But I’m sure glad I bought the 2 year warranty extension (thanks to all the advice on this forum). Here’s to the next 2 years of warranty repairs!

Is this a known issue? Mine bent year one and VW refused to repair under warranty!

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.

 

[Mehdime]

Is this a known issue? Mine bent year one and VW refused to repair under warranty!

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.

That really sucks. Yes, saw it mentioned a few times on this forum. In our case, it was definitely not mis-use. We used the drawer perfectly normally. But the piece of metal that holds the handle was like hard butter. It just bent no matter what you did.

The replacement one doesn’t seem to have that issue. Or at least not yet. It’s still perfectly straight.

 

[JuanVecino2023]

That really sucks. Yes, saw it mentioned a few times on this forum. In our case, it was definitely not mis-use. We used the drawer perfectly normally. But the piece of metal that holds the handle was like hard butter. It just bent no matter what you did.

The replacement one doesn’t seem to have that issue. Or at least not yet. It’s still perfectly straight.

I was 99% sure I had seen it mentioned on here it was a weak spot.

They also refused to acknowledge the leaking AC (same as you under passenger footwell), despite it being a known problem.

Last, my bed extension was delivered damaged, I only noticed 3 months after purchase, when I moved the mattress extension pillow.

They simply claimed I had dropped something on it.

Overall, I was hugely unimpressed with the warranty on a one year old car.

 

[Mehdime]

Forgot to mention another one: at 2 years old, driver side side mirror stopped responding to the knob you use to tilt it up and down. It would tilt down. But not respond when trying to tilt it back up.

It was not replaced under warranty however as, before I got to bring the van to the dealership to have it fixed, I managed to destroy the side mirror entirely by reversing out of a parking space in an underground car park and forgetting I had parked very close to a pillar. I ripped the mirror off the van.

Despite my pleas that the mirror was already broken before I finished it off, I was not able to get them to replace it under warranty (the bill did hurt. €500).

 

[JAG7001]

has anyone else had the top of the drawer under rear bench, catch on the plastic panel above it, when opening it? ours has started doing that, and i'm concerned it might end up snapping a piece off

cheers

 

[Viktorgeorge]

… 2 months old

• Blind at the back on the side on the van doesn’t stay down anymore (quite a big job to fix that I believe) …

I realise you had this solved under warranty, @Mehdime, but for anyone else suffering this side blind problem (as we did) @Perfectos has a brilliant advice post that goes into great and helpful details on what is actually a really simple job once you have absorbed that advice:

Thread 'Side Window blind issue - Sun blind - won’t stay down - pop up - retract - stuck'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/side-window-blind-issue-sun-blind-won’t-stay-down-pop-up-retract-stuck.54995/

 

[chockswahay]

• Latch of the fridge failed. Fridge doesn’t close anymore.

That happened to us, had it repaired under original warranty (4 years) even tho We had a 2 year 'All in' from three years they tried to wriggle out of it. The whole fridge has to be removed to replace the latch! I went down the for 'not fit for purpose' route and they buckled. Worth a try?

 

[Viktorgeorge]

That happened to us, had it repaired under original warranty (4 years) even tho We had a 2 year 'All in' from three years they tried to wriggle out of it. The whole fridge has to be removed to replace the latch! I went down the for 'not fit for purpose' route and they buckled. Worth a try?

I may have misunderstood, but I think @Mehdime is saying all the items were fixed by his dealership.

It would interesting to know which dealer it was, they sound great.

 

[Mehdime]

I may have misunderstood, but I think @Mehdime is saying all the items were fixed by his dealership.

It would interesting to know which dealer it was, they sound great.

It’s Bright Volkswagen in Sword near Dublin, Ireland. Their sales guy messed up my order and dicked me around for 2 years (he no longer works there and the manager resolved the issue in the end).

But their service department is brilliant. That’s despite the fact that they don’t see a lot of Californias as most people buy them from the Frank Keane dealership.

They always have appointments available within a week. The staff is lovely. They’ve never tried to push back on warranty work. And, so far, I can’t fault their repairs.

 

[Viktorgeorge]

It’s Bright Volkswagen in Sword near Dublin, Ireland. Their sales guy messed up my order and dicked me around for 2 years (he no longer works there and the manager resolved the issue in the end).

But their service department is brilliant. That’s despite the fact that they don’t see a lot of Californias as most people buy them from the Frank Keane dealership.

They always have appointments available within a week. The staff is lovely. They’ve never tried to push back on warranty work. And, so far, I can’t fault their repairs.

Dreams are made of that …

 

[chockswahay]

Dreams are made of that …

Yeah that's true...... how nice it would be to never get the Spanish Inquisition from either the dealer or VW for the simplest of faults/claims etc .....

 

[JuanVecino2023]

Yeah that's true...... how nice it would be to never get the Spanish Inquisition from either the dealer or VW for the simplest of faults/claims etc .....

Do I get the impression I need to keep pushing back on everything?

The dealer is quite a drive away and had the van 3 days. I was expecting them to have dealt with the fault list.

I was surprised given their positive feedback that they addressed so few items.

 

[Perfectos]

I realise you had this solved under warranty, @Mehdime, but for anyone else suffering this side blind problem (as we did) @Perfectos has a brilliant advice post that goes into great and helpful details on what is actually a really simple job once you have absorbed that advice:

Thread 'Side Window blind issue - Sun blind- won’t stay down - pop up - retract - stuck'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/side-window-blind-issue-sun-blind-won’t-stay-down-pop-up-retract-stuck.54995/

For anyone looking in future , The Blind Fix, post is contained in the Resources section for those of you who subscribe to support the Forum

 

[chockswahay]

Do I get the impression I need to keep pushing back on everything?

The dealer is quite a drive away and had the van 3 days. I was expecting them to have dealt with the fault list.

I was surprised given their positive feedback that they addressed so few items.

I’ve never had an issue resolved without an uphill climb, it feels like VW see you as guilty until proven innocent. I have to confess to a double standard here……. If it wasn’t for the fact that the van is such a delight to drive and use for its intended purpose I would change it for an alternative in a flash!

 

[CampervanFlattie]

Is this a known issue? Mine bent year one and VW refused to repair under warranty!

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.

We had this and it happened again a few months ago after the dealer had supposedly fixed it by bending it back into shape I think. I have now made my own mechanical repair which seems to have sorted it as I felt the design seemed to be at fault.

 

[Mehdime]

I realise you had this solved under warranty, @Mehdime, but for anyone else suffering this side blind problem (as we did) @Perfectos has a brilliant advice post that goes into great and helpful details on what is actually a really simple job once you have absorbed that advice:

Thread 'Side Window blind issue - Sun blind- won’t stay down - pop up - retract - stuck'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/side-window-blind-issue-sun-blind-won’t-stay-down-pop-up-retract-stuck.54995/

Thanks for this. It looks like it may have solved it indeed if I had found it at the time.

 

[Wallaces Travels]

For such great vehicles it's really disappointing that the quality is lacking. Unfortunately VW Is fighting every claim saying VW won't cover costs-such as a rusty sink. It's only when I threatened to get the Ombudsman involved that things started to progress-but very slowly. I have never had such problems with the other numerous new vehicles I have purchased.

It's disgraceful.

 

[Skootyalan]

And so we’re now just a few days short of 3 years owning our T6.1 Ocean (from new). It’s been by far and away the best purchase we’ve ever made, despite it being financially non-sensical on paper. Not far from life-changing, in a good way.

I also got to know our local VW dealership really well with all the trips there for various warranty repairs. I thought it would be interesting to keep a record here:

From new

• A/C leaking and soaking the carpet between the passenger and driver seats.

1 month old

• Sagging roof

2 months old

• Blind at the back on the side on the van doesn’t stay down anymore (quite a big job to fix that I believe)

6 months old

• Broken kitchen cupboard latch
• Broken plastic rail guide on the wardrobe sliding door
• ^^^ both of these were arguably me forcing the door to open when they were blocked by something.

1.5 years old

• Folding leg on the indoor table doesn’t stay attached to the table anymore when folded (it falls off). They had to replace the whole table for this.

2 years old

• Handle of the small drawer underneath the rear bench slowly but surely became more and more bent with usage and ended up blocking the main drawer entirely.
• The “catch” of the sliding door that keeps it locked open became really stiff - you had to really shove the door open for it to engage.

2.5 years old

• Shower connection at the back leaks when using the shower
• Water pump became more and more noisy over a few months. And then starting randomly failing altogether with a screeching noise.
• Latch of the kitchen sink slowly but surely started to fail. The sink was incredibly hard to open.

3 years old

• Latch of the fridge failed. Fridge doesn’t close anymore.

That’s all for now. The dealership has been great all along and fixed all issues without ever making a fuss.

But I’m sure glad I bought the 2 year warranty extension (thanks to all the advice on this forum). Here’s to the next 2 years of warranty repairs!

That sounds a very good dealer. The catch on the rear cupboard sliding door broke on our ocean at 3 months old and JCT Van centre York wouldn’t fix under warranty

 

[RockinNRollin]

Our sliding door didn’t want to engage either; a small smear of grease in the latch pin and it has worked perfectly for nearly 2 years

 

[scottk]

Our van needed the drivers seat plastic sides replaced as the bolts were catching it every time is was revolved. They also fitted shorter bolts but they still catch a little. Fridge latch was changed as it would release easily and eventually stopped working and the sliding door blind was too tight to get fully down. All these were within the first month but we were away so didn’t get fixed until we returned. No issue getting fixed.
Lately we have had the rear air con button stuck issue. We told the dealer the issue but still had to go in for investigation which took 2 days!! That was in March and we are still waiting for the part.
Dealer has been ok just a little slow.
Glad I have the 5 year warranty though.

 

[Tim&carolsvan]

Our roof sags on the drivers side it’s been in 5 times to dealer last time they replaced the ram. It
Still sags. It’s booked in for the 6th time on our return from Portugal what did they do to repair yours it’s 2 1/2 years old

 

[Mehdime]

Our roof sags on the drivers side it’s been in 5 times to dealer last time they replaced the ram. It
Still sags. It’s booked in for the 6th time on our return from Portugal what did they do to repair yours it’s 2 1/2 years old

I don’t remember the details to be honest.

But I also can’t tell you it’s been fixed for sure. The issue happened in France in the middle of summer when it was extremely hot. We spent 7 weeks in France that summer. Temperatures reached 50 degrees inside the van when the van was left in the sun. It was insanely hot.

From what I read online at the time, high temperatures can be a reason for this to happen. And indeed, once we were back in Ireland, and while the dealership was waiting for the parts to arrive (which took weeks), we noticed that the roof had stopped sagging. They went ahead and fixed it anyway.

We haven’t gone to a really hot place since. So I couldn’t tell you for sure that the roof isn’t sagging in extremely hot temperatures.

What I can say is that it’s not sagging in Irish and English temperatures as we’ve done a ton a camping in Ireland (and a bit in England) since then.

 

[Ghostbuster]

Our van needed the drivers seat plastic sides replaced as the bolts were catching it every time is was revolved. They also fitted shorter bolts but they still catch a little. Fridge latch was changed as it would release easily and eventually stopped working and the sliding door blind was too tight to get fully down. All these were within the first month but we were away so didn’t get fixed until we returned. No issue getting fixed.
Lately we have had the rear air con button stuck issue. We told the dealer the issue but still had to go in for investigation which took 2 days!! That was in March and we are still waiting for the part.
Dealer has been ok just a little slow.
Glad I have the 5 year warranty though.

I have the passenger seat plastic sides problem when turning the seat through 180.
I have removed the non used threaded bolts myself but find now that the plastic trim attachments aren’t that secure and the trim starts to sag to the point where it catches the working seat bolts now.
I also had the rear air vent control buttons sticking. I removed the buttons and used some 1000 grade paper to sort it.
I’m probably a fool for doing it myself whilst it’s under warranty but I lose the will to live dealing with VW dealerships.

 

[Wilcali]

has anyone else had the top of the drawer under rear bench, catch on the plastic panel above it, when opening it? ours has started doing that, and i'm concerned it might end up snapping a piece off

cheers

Yes. And yes it snapped off partly. Superglue does miracles.