GC600 heating problems

[niklas941]

Hi all,

I have had my grand california for a few months and the heating has just stopped working (gas and electric). The gas symbol on the touch pad is blinking and when I try to switch off the heating it just tries to turn itself on (on the touch pad).

Have any of you had the same issue or have some tips on what I could try? I have an appointment booked at VW in mid January but would be nice to have it working before that.

Looking forward for your replies!
Niklas

 

[niklas941]

I have obviously checked that there are gas left in the bottles (the stove works perfectly).

 

[Jester]

I have obviously checked that there are gas left in the bottles (the stove works perfectly).

Is there water in the system, is it cold and dumped the water.

 

[niklas941]

Is there water in the system, is it cold and dumped the water.

Could be so! I am a little bit new to this, but how would that impact the heating?

 

[Eber123]

Could be so! I am a little bit new to this, but how would that impact the heating?

Hello,

I am not a specialist, but the heating works on my GC 600 even if the freshwater tank is empty. Last week it was rather cold so the water was gone, but I let the heater work because it was a wee bit dump in the camper.

Reading various forums (what is the plural of forum?) in recent weeks it comes up more and more that the heating stops working. In all those cases the temp solution was to disconnect the Camper Control Unit from the Truma display and only use the Truma display to control the heater. That works.

As far as I know VW has no solution for this. Maybe you want to give it a try?

Kind regards,
Eberhard

 

[itsSteve]

Fora is the plural of forum, I believe, but forums works for me as well

 

[Bobcat01]

I agree with Eber, my electric and diesel heating work with the water tank empty and van drained.

 

[niklas941]

Hello,

I am not a specialist, but the heating works on my GC 600 even if the freshwater tank is empty. Last week it was rather cold so the water was gone, but I let the heater work because it was a wee bit dump in the camper.

Reading various forums (what is the plural of forum?) in recent weeks it comes up more and more that the heating stops working. In all those cases the temp solution was to disconnect the Camper Control Unit from the Truma display and only use the Truma display to control the heater. That works.

As far as I know VW has no solution for this. Maybe you want to give it a try?

Kind regards,
Eberhard

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I will try to look at this asap. I am currently on a travel but will soon have access to the vehicle again. Cant wait to get it fixed so I can take it out on the road again.

Br,
Niklas

 

[Eber123]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I will try to look at this asap. I am currently on a travel but will soon have access to the vehicle again. Cant wait to get it fixed so I can take it out on the road again.

Br,
Niklas

Hello Niklas,

There is a lot of information about this issue, but it seems that there is no solution from VW about this. There is the workaround I mentioned above.

But even with the workaround there are some issues:

1.)
The Truma iNet Box is not cheap.

2.)
The Truma iNet Box seems to be an older solution. Soon (whatever that means) there is a new product available Truma xNet Box.
The main difference, the way I understood, is that the xNet box supports more moder phone services. (G3). It should not have any influence to the Bluetooth.

3.)
The Truma iNet Box needs 12 V, which might be not easy to get under the back bench.
The iNet Box needs a cable from the Truma heating. That is no problem. The box has to be installed where it is accesable, because a button has to be pressed in order to connect to Bluetooth.

The advantage is that in this way the system is more reliable and easier to control (even from bed, or at least in the range of Bluetooth). If you wait for the availability of the Truma xNet box, get a SIM card and you can control the heating worldwide (but that means more monthly cost for another SIM card).

Why, oh why, can't VW develop a Camper Control Unit that reliably controls the Truma heating including the timer function. They wanted to be so clever to "hide" the Truma control unit and use their own system. Maybe some day.

Talking about issues that VW has to work on (with no solution yet). On some GC the water stopps after a few seconds. Nobody knows why. In my camper I can reproduce the issue with warm water. After a few seconds the pump stops. That happens in the kitchen or in the wetroom. Not that often with only cold water. I took a video and gave it to my VW dealer. He said he will send it to VW to find a fix - bless him for his optimisem.

Happy sporadic Grand California,
Eberhard

 

[Stuartosmith]

Hi all,

I have had my grand california for a few months and the heating has just stopped working (gas and electric). The gas symbol on the touch pad is blinking and when I try to switch off the heating it just tries to turn itself on (on the touch pad).

Have any of you had the same issue or have some tips on what I could try? I have an appointment booked at VW in mid January but would be nice to have it working before that.

Looking forward for your replies!
Niklas

 

[Stuartosmith]

There is an over heat trip on the top of the boiler. This under the bench seat, you have to unscrew the wood panel to access the boil. Cali Chris on you tube gives a demonstration

 

[niklas941]

There is an over heat trip on the top of the boiler. This under the bench seat, you have to unscrew the wood panel to access the boil. Cali Chris on you tube gives a demonstration

Cali Chris is really great! Thanks for your reply.

Seems like it works now. I have one empty gas bottle and one full, and it seems like it didn't swap between those bottles automatically. What I did was to swap the gas pipes between the gas tubes and now it seems to work. Anyone had the same issue? Glad it works now however.

Thanks all for your time!

 

[Barnold123456]

Dear All,

I am new on the forum. I own GC600 since 2 years, I have same problem. The heating is switchng off without any reason. After couple of hours, after one day, after day and a half. Does no matter gas, electrical or mix mode. Nieither soft reset (Truma panel) nor hard reset under the sofa in not helping. Problem is coming back. I informed VW more than 10 times. Last time they kept my camper for 2 weeks, the next day I had the same problem. I know the solution is to disconnect VW panel and to instal the net box however it is not a right solution for me. First the car is during the warranty period so I can not touch anything, second that this is a problem of VW and they should solve it. When I bought my GC nobody informed me that I can use it only if it is hot weather. I am fed up to wake up early in the morning having my blood frozen to swith the heating on again.

In parallel the water pump is swithing on without any reason when the valves are closed. It happened already couple of times and discharged the battery. It was even funny because the pump was swithing on and off after touching the VW control panel. It helped to remove and to install again the safety switch but 2 weeks after the problem apeared again. Same story with VW - no error indicated. They think I am a liar and they give the car back to me,

I wonder if anybody had a similar battle against VW and if such a problems were solved by them? Anybody went to the court? Simply my California dream is becaming to be a California nightmare,

Pls. help if you had such an experiance.

 

[Eber123]

Hello Barnhold123456,

Yes, the issue with the heating is so anoying. Almost every day I try to look up the issue to see if there is a solution from VW - but so far there isn't. Because of this I gave up and got myself the Truma iNet Box, installed it and - problem solved.

So far I did a few changes on my camper, but almost all of them are reversable, in case of a warranty issue VW can't say it is not covered.

The installation of the iNet Box was done without cutting any cables. If needs be I can uninstall it without a trace in 30 minutes.

What annoys me is that I had to pay for the change, because VW is not capable to find the solution. I tried to argue my case with my VW dealer and VW Ireland but with no luck. And escalating the issue would have mean that the camper would be with VW for weeks on end. I didn't want that at all.

Like in many places in Europe we in Ireland got the cold weather as well. The heating is on since about 4 weeks without any issues. I switched it on to 10 degree to ensure that the frost control won't release the freshwater and to avoid too much moist in the air.

The Grand California has a few issues, which in itself is annoying, but VW should be a wee bit more proactive and more customer orientated. I won't blame the VW dealer, because they have to do what VW Ireland tells them (or they won't get the money back for their work), it is VW. They MUST know the issues, they know how many Grand Californias are in the country and they should work proactively with the customer to overcome the issues.

I read many times other manufacturers have issues as well. Good (bad) for them. I have a VW Grand California which I paid EUR 100.000 for it. I have nothing to do with other manufactuers. Also I read posts from people that it is not VWs fault, but the suppliers of the parts. I don't agree to that. Get the camper properly designed, research, test and properly install the parts (test them again) and that is what every car, van, bus, truck or camper manufacturer does worldwide. If there is an issue with the water pump, it is VWs fault, not Reichelt. I paid VW, I ask VW to fix it and do not contact Reichelt.

Best of luck with your Grand California,

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[The Yorkshireman]

Dear All,

I am new on the forum. I own GC600 since 2 years, I have same problem. The heating is switchng off without any reason. After couple of hours, after one day, after day and a half. Does no matter gas, electrical or mix mode. Nieither soft reset (Truma panel) nor hard reset under the sofa in not helping. Problem is coming back. I informed VW more than 10 times. Last time they kept my camper for 2 weeks, the next day I had the same problem. I know the solution is to disconnect VW panel and to instal the net box however it is not a right solution for me. First the car is during the warranty period so I can not touch anything, second that this is a problem of VW and they should solve it. When I bought my GC nobody informed me that I can use it only if it is hot weather. I am fed up to wake up early in the morning having my blood frozen to swith the heating on again.

In parallel the water pump is swithing on without any reason when the valves are closed. It happened already couple of times and discharged the battery. It was even funny because the pump was swithing on and off after touching the VW control panel. It helped to remove and to install again the safety switch but 2 weeks after the problem apeared again. Same story with VW - no error indicated. They think I am a liar and they give the car back to me,

I wonder if anybody had a similar battle against VW and if such a problems were solved by them? Anybody went to the court? Simply my California dream is becaming to be a California nightmare,

Pls. help if you had such an experiance.

Hi I have read on another site that having the time on the truma control the same as the vw control panel helps with the issue. Not sure if it works but might be worth a try.
With the tap vw will replace with a different model if it’s faulting when they inspect it. It only faults due to moisture on the micro switch in the tap. If you want a replacement I suggest you take out the red and blue caps in the tap, pour water in the tap this will cause it to fault while you take it to the dealer.
There are numerous posts about this fault on this and other user groups.
Keep the tap dry as possible in the meantime you can dry it out with a hair dryer as a temporary fix.
Good luck with it.

 

[Mr T]

Dear All,

I am new on the forum. I own GC600 since 2 years, I have same problem. The heating is switchng off without any reason. After couple of hours, after one day, after day and a half. Does no matter gas, electrical or mix mode. Nieither soft reset (Truma panel) nor hard reset under the sofa in not helping. Problem is coming back. I informed VW more than 10 times. Last time they kept my camper for 2 weeks, the next day I had the same problem. I know the solution is to disconnect VW panel and to instal the net box however it is not a right solution for me. First the car is during the warranty period so I can not touch anything, second that this is a problem of VW and they should solve it. When I bought my GC nobody informed me that I can use it only if it is hot weather. I am fed up to wake up early in the morning having my blood frozen to swith the heating on again.

In parallel the water pump is swithing on without any reason when the valves are closed. It happened already couple of times and discharged the battery. It was even funny because the pump was swithing on and off after touching the VW control panel. It helped to remove and to install again the safety switch but 2 weeks after the problem apeared again. Same story with VW - no error indicated. They think I am a liar and they give the car back to me,

I wonder if anybody had a similar battle against VW and if such a problems were solved by them? Anybody went to the court? Simply my California dream is becaming to be a California nightmare,

Pls. help if you had such an experiance.

As @The Yorkshireman says try synchronising the time on the control panel with that on the Truma control unit. Please report back as I have yet conclusively hear if this helps.
Also don’t forget that when you turn the red isolator switch off it turns the Truma panel off and you have to reset the time. Good luck.

 

[reimajarvinen]

I also installed the Truma Inet box. No problems since. We have still freezing temperatures here in Finland. Now I can use the GC680 own control panel, Truma control panel, Inet app with bluetooth and SMS messages.

 

[Barnold123456]

Thank you for an advice.. My GC is at VW service right now. When I get it back I will synchronise the time on both panels and I let you know if it helped. Thank you for an advice concerning the water pump.

 

[Barnold123456]

Thank you for an advice.. My GC is at VW service right now. When I get it back I will synchronise the time on both panels and I let you know if it helped. Thank you for an advice concerning the water pump.

Dear All,
The bad and the good news. The bad one is that the adjustment of the same time on both panels did not help, I was expecting that. In reality I had the same time adjusted. The good news is: the heating turned off twice at the official service of VW, so they no more treat me as a liar. They kept the car at the service and they wrote an official letter to the producer in Poznan in Poland for an advice. So now I have a reason to claim. I will continue to inform you about the progress. I do not want to leave this subject.