2023 electric roof sags on one side - including VW workshop instructions

[jaydisc]

On my 2023 T6.1 Cali, after I had the bellows replaced under warranty, my electric roof would start sagging on the right side. Within 30 minutes, the display no longer sensed the roof as up, and the roof lights would stop working. 5-hour Timelapse video can be seen here (can't embed videos in the post). The manual states that the car checks for sag after 10 hours, and adjusts if necessary, and continues to check every 5 hours and adjusts until it longer requires and then it stops checking. This seemingly never happens. My best guess at to why not is that the left sensor was showing the roof as properly in the "up" position.

I posted about this in our Facebook Group, and it seems like it affects a lot of us, and is particularly exacerbated by sun and heat. I live in Australia, so… yeah.

Anywho, my local VW dealer insisted on having the van for 3 days as that's the procedure VW insists on before proceeding. I'm thrilled that they came back and said they successfully recreated the problem and reported it to Volkswagen. The customer rep was kind enough to show me the printout with the details of the procedure that VW wants the workshop to follow.

I thought some of you might appreciate this, especially any do-it-yourselfers.

Technical background

Since model year 2020 the customer-specific functions control unit checks the upright roof after 10 hours. This is followed by an enquiry whether the roof has lowered. If yes, it is pumped up again and another enquiry follows after 5 hours.

If the roof has not lowered after 10 hours, no further check takes place and there is also no further pumping up.

Lowering of the pop-up roof over a longer stationary period is permitted.

Indication: about 10-20 cm after three days.

Production change

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Measure

1. Customer complaint is in the tolerance above => Explain the background to the customer. Do not repair.
2. Roof drops by more than 20 cm after three days => Bleed the roof as follows:

Remove the central operating unit of the roof according to ELSA in order to get to the emergency release bolt of the hydraulic pump. Do not disconnect the electric connections of the operating unit.

Completely open pop-up roof until the hydraulic pump switches off.

Carefully open emergency release bolt anti-clockwise.

If the roof has lowered by 50%, press the roof open function on the removed operating unit for 5-7 seconds, while simultaneously holding the roof in this position by opening and closing the emergency release bolt.

Then, with the pump still running, close the emergency release bolt. (Tightening torque 4Nm)

Completely open pop-up roof, close and re-open.

Reassess the situation. Should the complaint not be resolved, repeat the ventilation process up to two times.

3: Complaint cannot be resolved with repeated correct bleeding and continues to occur => Create a technical repair enquiry.

So, now I've had to book it in for TWO WEEKS in case the procedure fails, as it takes (up to) 3 days to assess success. I'll report back in a month once that's done.

 

[CaliforniaCylus]

You got to see the actual bulletin. Dealer wouldn't show me.

There is a major flaw in the TPI measuring, which neither the dealer nor VW answered successfully for me.

see this thread

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/thread...ng-bellows-roof-poptop-tpi.56210/#post-731078

 

[jaydisc]

Wow, great thread! And damn, I should have done a better search and added to your thread. Maybe a mod can merge?