It's a fairly meaningless metric from them "all the vans" - if there were 4 delivered, that's 50%! As you say, I suspect many haven't seen the rain yet either.
They said they did and it didn't leak...but we shall see when I give it a go
I think if VW did the sealing then it could be an acceptable solution, although I’d hope for more than a few years, as the new two layer bellows are much nicer than the older version.
They're described as neither; the only official wording on the topic is to lower the roof in strong winds or strong winds with driven rain (happy to be corrected on the exact wording). Pin-pricks of light is normal; the older one (MY22) bellows were much more "starry starry night" but probably more obvious because the material was dark.
We love everything about the quality of the new bellows except the leaking. They just feel and look much plusher than the older ones. A real shame there’s this water ingress problem, so yes if we could keep this level of quality and have leak free bellows then we would rather than have the old type.
Your first line would make a great testimonial on the VW website….. “we love everything about …… except the leaking”
I know this is off pist but.............why has "...... the main thread on leaking new style bellows has been closed,........"
There was a lot of aggressive behaviour taking place and a lot of the recent posts were name calling and not adding value. So I presume that's why.
I'd agree with your line of reasoning - keep the pressure on, mails, calls and polite reasoning, awaiting the eventual design change / service bulletin that will resolve the issue. Some have had their bellows replaced, to no avail, as the part is currently identical and the replacements also leak.
My 23 Ocean is just over six weeks old and covered by the original VWCV three year warranty. I have had quite bad leaks already. My dealer has seen my photos and he took some of his own during a "hose test" at their premises. I will be extending that to five years & 80k kms. I expect the std warranty and the extended one to cover the solution that VWCV offer to fix the leaking canvas be it a seam sealant, a new bellows (modified), a return to the canvas used in the period before the the introduction of the new two skin version, or any other solution they may suggest. Above all It needs/has to be a VW solution in order to attract a VW manufacturers warranty. This is what I already paid for and am expecting.
The savvy way forward in the interim is, unfortunately, a pop top cover. I'd be pushing for a dealer to be supplying a loan one in the meantime. I know Breeze are looking to do this, smart dealers would be doing the same. Challenge is they will be looking to VW to recompense them for the covers (10 covers would be between 2 - 3K depending on make). Technically doing that is also admission of an issue, which the whole network and VW are avoiding, legally, until they really have to, such is the process.
Warn them all….
This mirrors the experience of people on the German forum. Confirms to me that, at this point in time, there’s no point going down the replacement route. I will, however, be logging it as a warranty issue with both the dealer and VWCS so it gets added to the stats (or not as the case may be!). @dspuk perhaps you can shed light on whether simply logging the issue without getting the dealer to look at it would actually get logged somewhere or whether I would need to get the dealer to agree there’s an issue and then decline a replacement (and run the risk of being charged an investigation fee being as the dealer will only be paid if they carry out the warranty work).
I don’t agree. If everybody sits quietly and buys pop top covers then as far as VW are concerned there isn’t a widespread issue. We should all be making warranty claims because the bellows are faulty. Where’s the logic in having a faulty vehicle that you don’t seek a repair or rectification on? Inaction could be seen as acceptance.
It’s no problem. As far as we’re concerned our vehicle is faulty so we wanted it fixed. It’s up to the dealer to rectify the issue so we just followed their advice and guidance, which was to fit replacement bellows and they felt would fix the issue. Sadly it hasn’t worked and so we’ll work with the dealer to get the issue resolved. Ultimately this is for the dealer (and in turn VW) to resolve and not us. We just need to keep making noise until the leaking issue is resolved as it’s not acceptable.
I'm sorry to hear that the replacements are no better.
I don’t know but it’s essential they make the bellows wet long enough for the outer material to become saturated. This may not happen immediately. With our bellows leaking hasn’t happened until 45 minute or so of light to moderate rain, but after that it’s been continuously leaking into the cabin.
I fully understand what you’re saying here and understand why you went with the replacement. However, now we know the replacements don’t work, I don’t want any work done to my van until there’s a known solution. I don’t want to replace my leaking, factory fitted bellows with leaking dealer fitted bellows with additional issues such as oily fingerprints all over the van (as has happened to others) and/or poorly fitted bellows that come away at the corners.
That’s fair enough. I have to say I was very impressed with everything when receiving my van back from Breeze. The work was carried out impeccably and with no sign anything’s happened to it other than the bellows look very slightly different. They even washed it for me.
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