Back driverside roller blind not staying down

[Monica]

Hi
One of the side window blinds does not want to stay down. It rolls up immediately. All other blinds function well and can be lowered to any level but one of them (driverside, back) will not hold any position. Last night we had to hold it down with a backpack .... not ideal. Does anyone know how to fix it? Thanks!
Kind regards
Monica

 

[AlanC]

Hi Monica,

I have found that using a pair of thin nosed pliers and squeezing the track, inside the plastic trim, together slightly at the bottom increases the friction and the blind will stay down better. The track is ally, so only a small amount of pressure is needed to do this, so little by little is the best way.

Alan

 

[CALI FATE]

Hi - we experienced exactly the same issue - the whole thing was swapped over under warranty by Listers VW Worcs - in my view the blind is vulnerable to a bit of accidental abuse as it is over the door. I have instructed the family not to pull it down unless the sliding door is closed.

 

[Freeley]

I'm guessing the OP means the rear side blind behind the bench seat rather than the one over the sliding door but the advice given by AlanC seems good if the van is out of warranty, if it's still under warranty then do as CALI FATE says and get the dealer to sort it out. We had a couple of ours replaced when still in warranty, one didn't stay down while the other was too stiff.
They did break the surrounding trim on one though and had to replace that too after I noticed it (funny how the mechanic that breaks these things never notices!)

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[Roger Boeken]

I'm guessing the OP means the rear side blind behind the bench seat rather than the one over the sliding door but the advice given by AlanC seems good if the van is out of warranty, if it's still under warranty then do as CALI FATE says and get the dealer to sort it out. We had a couple of ours replaced when still in warranty, one didn't stay down while the other was too stiff.
They did break the surrounding trim on one though and had to replace that too after I noticed it (funny how the mechanic that breaks these things never notices!)

Sent from my Galaxy S6

We have the same problem , same rear window, the blind does not stay down last inch . VW replaced the blind under warranty but problem is not solved .. to be continued. Brand new T6 ocean. I was also thinking about the solution Alan C gives but as it is a new car under warranty..

 

[GrannyJen]

Mine went kaput. I went ballistic. VW put it right.

 

[AlanC]

My van is well out of warranty so I tend to do all these things myself.

Alan

 

[gear box oil]

Yes good advice go back to the dealer.
They will have to remove a lot of the trim as the bind unit is the size of the window. Take some pictures before of the area before you hand it over and be thorough about checking it when you get it back. I had mine done on the second day of ownership. Which was good service but my wife Can here something rattling about near the window now. Recommended a small test drive as well.

 

[Monica]

Thanks for all the advice. I've just seen all this responses! (should adjust notification settings)
On closer inspection the little black plastic piece that was supposed to be inside the aluminium handle of the blind was not attached to it. I have managed to sort it out. Working well now!

 

[Roger Boeken]

Thanks for all the advice. I've just seen all this responses! (should adjust notification settings)
On closer inspection the little black plastic piece that was supposed to be inside the aluminium handle of the blind was not attached to it. I have managed to sort it out. Working well now!

can you show any pictures ? My garage is going to dismantle the whole back of the car in order to repair ..what frightens me a bit.

 

[Monica]

can you show any pictures ? My garage is going to dismantle the whole back of the car in order to repair ..what frightens me a bit.

Well nothing to show now I'm afraid .. it took a bit of force to fit it into position and I really don't want to undo it .... In our case the bottom aluminium handle was completely lose (not attached to the tensioned cable in the rail) and that was the problem. The little plastic piece is rough so there is friction within the rail and it has a lip that goes into blind handle. This was completely detached. It is pretty obvious when you know what you are looking for. If your blind stays down I don't think we have the same problem (ours kept rolling up constantly)

 

[Roger Boeken]

Well nothing to show now I'm afraid .. it took a bit of force to fit it into position and I really don't want to undo it .... In our case the bottom aluminium handle was completely lose (not attached to the tensioned cable in the rail) and that was the problem. The little plastic piece is rough so there is friction within the rail and it has a lip that goes into blind handle. This was completely detached. It is pretty obvious when you know what you are looking for. If your blind stays down I don't think we have the same problem (ours kept rolling up constantly)

Ours want to roll up on one side . Thanks for detailed explanation , unfortunately the cali is at the garage right now, so I cannot check.

 

[Monica]

Ours want to roll up on one side . Thanks for detailed explanation , unfortunately the cali is at the garage right now, so I cannot check.

You can post a picture when you get it back, maybe I can look at it and tell you if it is the same problem

 

[Roger Boeken]

Well nothing to show now I'm afraid .. it took a bit of force to fit it into position and I really don't want to undo it .... In our case the bottom aluminium handle was completely lose (not attached to the tensioned cable in the rail) and that was the problem. The little plastic piece is rough so there is friction within the rail and it has a lip that goes into blind handle. This was completely detached. It is pretty obvious when you know what you are looking for. If your blind stays down I don't think we have the same problem (ours kept rolling up constantly)

Ours want to roll up on one side . Thanks for detailed explanation , unfortunately the cali is at the garage right now, so I cannot check.

You can post a picture when you get it back, maybe I can look at it and tell you if it is the same problem

the car is back and the blind is repaired, I see now what you mean, not sure this was the problem. However our blind still has a small problem : when it is completely down on the left side the right side still has to go another half inch. When we push down the right side to the bottom the left side is no longer stretched .

 

[andrew bazeley]

In 8 years, I've had no end of problems with just one blind - the one on the sliding door. The string on one side broke some time back, but this - if anything - made it better! The main problem with mine seems to be not retracting. But it always seems to sort itself eventually by gentle persuasion. So I'm not in a big rush to take stuff apart. Like so many things on these Calis - patience and a stiff upper lip!

 

[MattBW]

I dropped mine off yesterday to have 2 blinds replaced that don't return up (both on passenger side).. They called me shortly after saying they may need it for a little over a day as its a lot of work.

Anyone know how long the job takes? They may have just been busy.

 

[MattBW]

Happy to report my defective blinds have been replaced under warranty by Listers Coventry Van Centre just in time for Eastnor castle.

They even mopped out a sunscreen mark on the passenger door, fantastic!

 

[MattBW]

The difference is amazing they seem to have done them all but just the two I was annoyed with. Clearly they were never right from new.

Can't recommend Marc at Cov highly enough.

 

[Bigted]

One of mine is a pain to retract sometimes when it's hot - feel a dealer trip coming on!

 

[MattBW]

Get it in on warranty but be warned I think its a big job because of the amount of trim they have to remove.

 

[zisdorf]

We had the problem of window shade coming off of its holsters, and not staying down. Clark's in Edinburgh (6 Dryden Loan, Loanhead) fixed it!

"On closer inspection the little black plastic piece that was supposed to be inside the aluminium handle of the blind was not attached to it"
Here are the pictures to show you what I think Monica was talking about. There is a thin metal chain inside the window frame that provides the up/down resistance. The "little black plastic piece" is attached at the end of this thin metal chain. And so, once the little black plastic piece is inside of the long alumunim bottom of the shade, the shade stays down.

We could NOT get this black piece inside the aluminum frame ourselves. We spent an hour and gave up. But there must be some trick, as the guys at Clark's said they did it quick enough and didn't charge for it.

 

[Spartan]

The trick (that worked for me anyway) is to pull the blind down to the bottom then move the unattached black plastic piece to a position where the bottom of the blind - now held at an angle - will just clear it (the blind material will be slightly gathered on that side but with care will not come to any harm). Now, you can pull the bottom of the blind down on that side to re-engage the black plastic. Hey presto!

 

[GrannyJen]

I had the same problem,

My local dealer fixed it in five minutes as a nod of goodwill. Always worth an ask

 

[IanE]

The trick (that worked for me anyway) is to pull the blind down to the bottom then move the unattached black plastic piece to a position where the bottom of the blind - now held at an angle - will just clear it (the blind material will be slightly gathered on that side but with care will not come to any harm). Now, you can pull the bottom of the blind down on that side to re-engage the black plastic. Hey presto!

Hooray hooray! This issue has been vexing me for ages - I just couldn’t figure it out, but your explanation along with the photos above resulted in the penny finally dropping. This has made my day - many thanks to you and to this marvellous forum.

Surely for anyone thinking about buying an out of warranty VW camper the existence of this forum has to be a major advantage of going for the fabulous California!

 

[Elmidd]

Many thanks to everyone from this, uh, 6 year old thread!! This has been bugging me for ages but after 4 weeks on the road I fixed my blind within a couple of minutes thanks to the photos above. FWIW I found that attaching / inserting one side of the rail to the black plastic runner while fully pulled down was simple. Then I pushed that side carefully up about half way giving the angle to line up the other disengaged side to the black attachment still at the bottom. Pulling the fixed side back down made everything pop into place and, bingo, fully working blind again