Afternoon. My 05S bellows now fitted. Manufacture date 11 Apr 24. No ‘A’ sticker on tag - not sure if that’s significant. Had a quick raise and lower at the dealers to check any obvious faults. None seen. Nor did I see any obvious changes. I’ll have a more detailed look at the weekend. Now waiting for the likely thunderstorms at the end of next week.
Nope, it's double skinned, as are all the 03S, 04S and 05S. The two layers are bonded. dark on outside, light on the inside. Good luck with the test in the coming days. In my experience there is no correlation between enlarged pinholes (when small) and leaks.
Agreed, I suspect the effect of light through the pinholes makes them appear larger than they really are. Seems very common. Ours has them very much like yours and (so far) hasn't let any water through at all.
Now had a more detailed look at my new 05S bellows. I can see a new black interfacing material between the bellows fabric and the zip seams. I think it was just on the horizontal seams on the 04S (from what I have read here) but it’s on both horizontal and vertical 05S zip seams now. I can’t recall it being on the old 03S bellows.
photos?... i could then compare to my 04S..
We have been told quite categorically by our dealership that vw will not honour the warranty if the bellows are sprayed with aquatex or similar.
Yes, I’ll do that in the next day or so. The differences aren’t obvious but i think they are there
Don’t tell them simple as that
Dealers are proving very variable. I have good hearsay evidence that unlike most warranty items, the bellows are disposed of locally, and not returned to VW. So it’s looking like a local decision. Whilst mine wasn’t a leak warranty, (though it did) there was a minor 5p hole in the rubber sealing ring at the bottom. Dealer said it will only get worse and instantly ordered a replacement.
I'm guessing that was VWCV Trafford Park? Great to hear positive comments on them
Now these are the sort of comments we have all been waiting for, so Thankyou..fingers crossed with further testing. I wonder what the difference is between O5S & O5SA?
Aquatex
Did you ask them why??? And what you are supposed to do if they leak.
They have probably treated the seams with Aquatex
I would not be surprised if the A on the label denotes Aquatex
'A' versions also leak
I think the change was forced due to to supply chain issues, rather than an elected change. It seems a bit coincidental it happened a short while after the conflict in Ukraine erupted (or escalated strictly speaking, after Crimea in 2014). The movement to the 02S from earlier "fabric" bellows seems logical as it meant you could have bedding against the bellows and it would stay dry, but the move to the 03S I think was forced. My guess is a new supplier had to be found, they were given a design brief but either didn't have access to the same materials or for their own manufacturing reasons had to use different materials; clearly R&D was lacking (probably due to immense pressure from VW to get stock flowing PDQ) and from that point they've repeatedly been on the back foot.
My guess is as you say, it either represents those that have been sample checked, or they don't adhere very well and half of them fall off.
I think it's pretty straightforward really; pretty much everyone at VW (both dealers and EO) are now saying "if it leaks, bring it in", mirroring pretty much the approach for anything else warranty related. If instead the customer elects to "solve the problem themselves", it is quite clear those affected components are potentially no longer covered by warranty. Now, if VW were being more obtuse with their attitude towards warranty and repairs, I'd be more inclined to kick up a fuss, but as they're being fairly helpful in the main, I don't think their stance is unreasonable.
I seriously doubt VW moved from single skin to double skin bellows due to supply chain issues. If you need to onboard a new supplier for a part you don’t go and redesign it at the same time - you maintain your design so you can verify it’s like for like build quality. I’ve done plenty of supply chain management, and what you suggest goes against everything in my experience.
Surely that assumes VW hold the design, not just a brief? I would imagine (and I have a lot of supply chain experience, but not in automotive so it might be different) VW would provide a specification rather than a design, say we need a product with a mesh vent front, left and right, a panoramic front, and with these dimensions to fit our bodyshell/roof. We want it waterproof/breathable and these are the acceptable colour ranges. Then the supplier goes away and actually decides the actual technical design, e.g. stitching, material choice etc.. to meet that design brief?
All the evidence available to us supports this hypothesis. VW were apparently looking for a fabric with a high water column rating. Ukraine might have accelerated the process if the original intention was to introduce on the Sharavan and then VW found themselves up the creek without a paddle. Makes no sense to make a drastic change mid model. Little did they know the seam stitching would be its achilies heel.
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