CONTROL PANEL KNOB

[dod4luce]

There are VW dealers who are good in repairing anything on a Cali , you just need to find them.
But you are correct , the failure rate is probally low but the fact this forum exists and we all like to point out the things that get broken or are not good seems to end up that some think a Cali is rubbisch as are all VW dealers....but there are a lot more Cali owners who never have a issue and even if an issue accures they just get it repaired as i should be .
On a forum sometimes complaints by owners are magnified while in fact things are not all that unusual.

I would say to @dod4luce , have it repaired asap. so you can get to enjoy your Cali , no reason to sell up imo.

I know. I was fresh from camping without the pop top, and two people and a dog on the bottom bed is pretty sleepless, I love my Cali, just considering the care I take With that darn button shocked me that it’s broken at all. Probably go to vw Hereford and ask to watch what they do, I refuse to pay 60 quid for them to wiggle it and say yeah it’s a wobbly one. Lol

 

[dod4luce]

Believe the part number has been updated, my unit was swapped out after the button failed 2 weeks out of warranty.

According to SMG the new part does not have this issue.

Did you have a whole new control panel or just the font panel with the knob? Mine still clicks fine, just the turning of the knob spins and catches on an off. Seems obsurd to replace the whole unit if it’s just broken plastic teeth.

 

[dod4luce]

VW don’t build the Control Panels, they just buy them in. Likewise they don’t repair them, they will just swap them out within Warranty and the Company that makes the Control Panels bear the cost.
The fact that the Control Panel has not changed over the years leads me to suspect that the failure rate overall is not that significant for the manufacturer regarding Warranty Returns.

Would my dealership replace the front panel rather than the whole thing, or will they insist on a whole unit? Do they have the parts this website has in the store I wonder? Seems reasonable around 35 quid compared to 800.

 

[calikev]

i doubt the dealer will replace the front panel they dont have the skills

 

[dod4luce]

i doubt the dealer will replace the front panel they dont have the skills

Pathetic. Looks simple enough to me. I’ve taken apart many things and fixed stuff. Maybe I should buy the panel and either fix it myself. Best to try and if I fail then vw can do it. Since my warranty is out, might as well try it myself first. Would you do that first? I don’t think it looks difficult at all. I’ve dealt with laptops and disconnecting ribbons on lappys and PlayStations. Think I’ll buy that panel and give it a go. Got nothing to lose really.

 

[calikev]

worth a try most mechanics these days don't fix they just replace

 

[TizzMe]

It took me about an hour and half when I did it, but that included going to buy a small torx driver to open the back of the unit! If you have the tools it will take about half an hour, just follow the video.

 

[dod4luce]

I’ll just keep studying the video and instructions and get the tools necessary, then I’ll buy the front panel. Worth a try. Wouldn’t do anything I didn’t think I was capable of. Looks pretty straightforward.

 

[reserves]

Did you have a whole new control panel or just the font panel with the knob? Mine still clicks fine, just the turning of the knob spins and catches on an off.

The whole unit was replaced, I had exactly the same issue.

Seems obsurd to replace the whole unit if it’s just broken plastic teeth.

It's VW, they only deal with things in part numbers, as the whole unit is one part number, they can only order the whole unit (same for the entire kitchen cabinets, 1 part number only)

 

[dod4luce]

I’ll buy that panel then. If they are too incompetent to do what looks to be fairly basic. I hope so anyway. Lol I don’t want to spend 800 quid for it to break again. Imagine paying that kind of money and finding within a year it’s stuffed again. So frigging wrong. Makes me so angry hope yours continues to work well considering you’ve had the misfortune of having the whole unit replaced.

 

[reserves]

I’ll buy that panel then. If they are too incompetent to do what looks to be fairly basic. I hope so anyway. Lol I don’t want to spend 800 quid for it to break again. Imagine paying that kind of money and finding within a year it’s stuffed again. So frigging wrong. Makes me so angry hope yours continues to work well considering you’ve had the misfortune of having the whole unit replaced.

They covered it under warranty thankfully, otherwise I'd have just swapped the control knob over.

 

[dod4luce]

It took me about an hour and half when I did it, but that included going to buy a small torx driver to open the back of the unit! If you have the tools it will take about half an hour, just follow the video.

Thanks for that. Makes me feel more confident knowing someone has done one.

 

[dod4luce]

It took me about an hour and half when I did it, but that included going to buy a small torx driver to open the back of the unit! If you have the tools it will take about half an hour, just follow the video.

Did you lose any settings? Was it easy to reset date and time?

 

[jts46]

It is only the knob u replace, not the front panel, have done mine

 

[dod4luce]

Great thanks

 

[dod4luce]

Got the kit, plucking up courage for the weekend hopefully.

 

[Geesvw]

Took myself and a friend away for the weekend to Elan Valley Wales, found a nice campsite and went on to set up camp. Went to pop the roof up but felt the button didn’t feel right on the control panel. It was spinning and only catching randomly, so I was too worried to pop roof up in case I couldn’t get it back down again if button didn’t catch again. So we both had to sleep on bottom bed with a dog. Not too much sleep had lol

Anyone know what this will cost to fix? Can I buy a button panel without forking out silly money for a complete control panel? Keep reading things like it will cost 500 quid when it’s just a button issue. If that’s so, then VW are taking the pee and are designing stuff to make them more money, and make us considerably poorer.

If there is a button panel to purchase, are they easy to fit? Any instructions posted here at all? Would I need to disconnect battery/batteries? Would disconnecting batteries bugger anything up like settings that I couldn’t reset without a computer or something ridiculous? Lol

I’ve always been super careful and gentle with this knob button because I read they were delicate from day one of owning my Cali, really don’t understand how it’s gone wrong so quickly as I haven’t camped that much to justify any real wear and tear on that button.

Anyone ever done this job themselves?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

I recently did the control knob repair. There's information in the download section on how to do it, but I think it's not detailed enough. To get the control panel out, there's two retaining clips left and right at the bottom, just put a thin screwdriver in one at a time and move the bottom outwards, now what the download doesn't say is there's two clips on the top about 30mm in from each side. With the bottom partially out, put your thin screwdriver in from the front (as this can't really be done from the rear) and work the clips down to bring the unit out. Having got the unit on a table, break the seal to open the unit. Please be careful you don't strain the contact strips. The rest of the download detail is correct, but you have to adjust the retaining screws to get the knob to work properly. Best of luck though, I found this quite difficult and tricky!

 

[SimonB]

if you put into the google search box site:vwcaliforniaclub.com control panel knob you will find a lot of threads that may help you. Here are some
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/rotary-knob-on-control-panel.1174/
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/control-panel-knob.18115/

Hope this helps
Simon

 

[FyfettBoy]

Hope this helps, but everyone seems to be missing something here...

VW do an official repair kit (knob and front panel) and my dealer (SMV Commercials in Yeovil) fitted this for a total bill of about £150. DO NOT let you dealer tell you you need a whole new unit!!!
I've also bought replacement knobs from two different sources for those emergency campsite repairs...

By the way, my control knob felt odd right from when we got our (2 yr old at the time) Cali, but I was too green to know it wasn't right!
After about a year, we had the sinking feeling of the knob not working, but managed to get the roof down with what teeth it had left...

 

[Hotel California]

Hope this helps, but everyone seems to be missing something here...

VW do an official repair kit (knob and front panel) and my dealer (SMV Commercials in Yeovil) fitted this for a total bill of about £150. DO NOT let you dealer tell you you need a whole new unit!!!
I've also bought replacement knobs from two different sources for those emergency campsite repairs...

By the way, my control knob felt odd right from when we got our (2 yr old at the time) Cali, but I was too green to know it wasn't right!
After about a year, we had the sinking feeling of the knob not working, but managed to get the roof down with what teeth it had left...

I had a replacement front panel and knob fitted for 50€ at my VW dealer , quite a diffrence it seems ....

 

[FyfettBoy]

I guess you're underestimating how much we get ripped off here in the UK... I think the kit alone was about £90...

 

[dod4luce]

I recently did the control knob repair. There's information in the download section on how to do it, but I think it's not detailed enough. To get the control panel out, there's two retaining clips left and right at the bottom, just put a thin screwdriver in one at a time and move the bottom outwards, now what the download doesn't say is there's two clips on the top about 30mm in from each side. With the bottom partially out, put your thin screwdriver in from the front (as this can't really be done from the rear) and work the clips down to bring the unit out. Having got the unit on a table, break the seal to open the unit. Please be careful you don't strain the contact strips. The rest of the download detail is correct, but you have to adjust the retaining screws to get the knob to work properly. Best of luck though, I found this quite difficult and tricky!

Thanks for that, I haven’t done it yet, couldn’t find the torx 5 I used to have, so I’ve ordered one from eBay. Was the date and time easy to set afterwards? I’ll be super careful with everything, it’s bettter to try this for £35 rather than give vw close to a grand. Really sick of dealerships and their greed.
I’ll post how I get on, if I have anyone with me I’ll get them to make a video maybe of the process

 

[aileen]

I’m travelling in Portugal for months and realized that the control know was not making contact when I turned it. An engineer at a camp site told me to push it to the left and sure enough it contacted enough to elevate and lower roof. Today another engineer opened the panel in the same way as in the video and found that the plastic inside had cracked. He couldn’t believe that such an important part is so flimsy. He strengthened it and put thin wire around it plus inserted a screw to assist in case there’s future problems, it can be tightened or loosened. All those messages about ambient temperature and combi panel came up until I closed the roof and reset What a relief when it all returned to normal. Resetting wouldn’t apply while roof was up

 

[dod4luce]

I’ll look to re-enforce and strengthen where I can. Just hope i succeed in doing this correctly and all turns out right.

 

[Skewif]

I’m travelling in Portugal for months and realized that the control know was not making contact when I turned it. An engineer at a camp site told me to push it to the left and sure enough it contacted enough to elevate and lower roof. Today another engineer opened the panel in the same way as in the video and found that the plastic inside had cracked. He couldn’t believe that such an important part is so flimsy. He strengthened it and put thin wire around it plus inserted a screw to assist in case there’s future problems, it can be tightened or loosened. All those messages about ambient temperature and combi panel came up until I closed the roof and reset What a relief when it all returned to normal. Resetting wouldn’t apply while roof was up

It does indeed seem flimsy. On my third. Might be best to buy a new spare knob and fill the space between the inner and outer part with epoxy glue in advance so if it goes again it hopefully the will be last.