My roof will not close

[Andy Chivers]

Just bought a 2012 Cali and drove to Spain, all good, then on our last day I showed one of the neighbours how the roof works, it went up fine but would not close. Had VW assistance which were hopeless so after hours trying to remove the control panel, managed to manually lower it! We have no straps so have managed to ratchet strap the roof down. Will post how we get on driving home! My question is has anyone had the same problem and can anyone recommend anyone to fix it, we live in Bristol. Thanks

 

[WelshGas]

Just bought a 2012 Cali and drove to Spain, all good, then on our last day I showed one of the neighbours how the roof works, it went up fine but would not close. Had VW assistance which were hopeless so after hours trying to remove the control panel, managed to manually lower it! We have no straps so have managed to ratchet strap the roof down. Will post how we get on driving home! My question is has anyone had the same problem and can anyone recommend anyone to fix it, we live in Bristol. Thanks

Sorry to hear of your problem. Not a common problem. Could be electrical or hydraulic.
South Hereford VW , not too far from you, are well recommended by some members on the Forum and do know the California.

Heritage VW van Centre, Bristol have some positive feedback in the Dealers Review Forum.

Oh and Welcome to the Forum. Do let us know how you get on. It may help some other Forum Member.

 

[Hotel California]

Hi and welcome on your first ( not so positive ) post.
Hard to tell what caused it , did you noticed strange things , what did the control panel showed,did you hear the hydrolic pump turning on you attemp to lower the roof , did you check fuses,.....

To be honest i think 99% of our forum members know if they got the roof emergency straps or not....specialy afther i posted a a video on how to use them...now you know your status also .
Think they are for sale in the forum shop?

Let us know the outcome of your issue and offcoarse more info about yourself and the trips you do with your Cali .

 

[Andy Chivers]

Sorry to hear of your problem. Not a common problem. Could be electrical or hydraulic.
South Hereford VW , not too far from you, are well recommended by some members on the Forum and do know the California.

Heritage VW van Centre, Bristol have some positive feedback in the Dealers Review Forum.

Oh and Welcome to the Forum. Do let us know how you get on. It may help some other Forum Member.[/QUOTE

Thanks for the reply,

Sorry to hear of your problem. Not a common problem. Could be electrical or hydraulic.
South Hereford VW , not too far from you, are well recommended by some members on the Forum and do know the California.

Heritage VW van Centre, Bristol have some positive feedback in the Dealers Review Forum.

Oh and Welcome to the Forum. Do let us know how you get on. It may help some other Forum Member.

First time I've posted on a forum so hope this works! Thanks for the reply, have mad

Sorry to hear of your problem. Not a common problem. Could be electrical or hydraulic.
South Hereford VW , not too far from you, are well recommended by some members on the Forum and do know the California.

Heritage VW van Centre, Bristol have some positive feedback in the Dealers Review Forum.

Oh and Welcome to the Forum. Do let us know how you get on. It may help some other Forum Member.

first time I've posted on a forum so hope this works, thanks for the reply, managed to drive 400 miles today with roof strapped down and a very nervous wife! I called VW Bristol twice for some advice and they never got back to me so not top of my list although they are closest! Will give Hereford a call when we are home. I'm hoping the roof is just a hydraulic problem, the motor was running but it sounded a bit strange? Will keep posting as we get further north! Cheers

 

[Andy Chivers]

Hi and welcome on your first ( not so positive ) post.
Hard to tell what caused it , did you noticed strange things , what did the control panel showed,did you hear the hydrolic pump turning on you attemp to lower the roof , did you check fuses,.....

To be honest i think 99% of our forum members know if the got the roof emergency straps or not....now you know your status also .
Think they are for sale in the forum shop?

Let us know the outcome of your issue and offcoarse more info about yourself and the trips you do with your Cali .

Thanks for the reply, I put the roof up no problem to show a neighbour, but when I pressed close the motor ran but the roof didn't budge, haven't tried the fuse as I thought that if the motor was running then that wouldn't be the fault, had a few strange noises from the motor though. It's been very hot in spain so thought maybe could of been a factor? Anyway trying to crawl back up,through france so will keep posting as and when we get wifi!

 

[T6 CFO]

Disappointing you got no call back. Where did you buy Cali from Andy?


Mike

 

[Hotel California]

If you heard the hydrolic pump turning and noting happend i guess the pump is broken or there's not enough oil in the circuit , that would mean a visible leak .

Lowering by emergency procedure by turning the screw did worked?
Good you knew where that was!

 

[Abyssinian]

Same thing happened to me last year in France. I had hydraulic fluid leaking through the roof lining though, so was visual and you could also smell the fluid. Bristol fixed mine by replacing the hydraulic motor. Cost over £1000

 

[Ant Clerici]

Hi

Our 2016 Cali had the same issue.

The VW international rescue "expert" who came wasn't familiar with Californias
Eventually I suggested we "phone a friend" ie South Hereford VW who were brilliant and talked us thro the process - control panel out, find the bleed screw, roof gracefully descended, straps (yes we had ours) and then South Hereford checked the roof.

Outcome?
No obvious cause - apparently there are several sensors that help the roof to go up and down.

No problem since

 

[laurentfox]

Greetings,
That happened to me with my T5 (2005) 2 years ago in Holland. Pulled the control panel and manually lowered the roof and drove it to Amersfoort VW. They said it was the control panel and 700 euro later for the replacement, has been working great....

 

[Andy Chivers]

Disappointing you got no call back. Where did you buy Cali from Andy?


Mike

Same thing happened to me last year in France. I had hydraulic fluid leaking through the roof lining though, so was visual and you could also smell the fluid. Bristol fixed mine by replacing the hydraulic motor. Cost over £1000

 

[Andy Chivers]

Just an update, managed to get home from Valencia with the roof ratchet strapped down, only problem was it poured down in France and the water ran down the straps into the cab and the roof lining was drenched when we woke up! Going to give Bristol and Hereford a call to get the bad news of how much it will cost!

 

[Andy Chivers]

Hi

Our 2016 Cali had the same issue.

The VW international rescue "expert" who came wasn't familiar with Californias
Eventually I suggested we "phone a friend" ie South Hereford VW who were brilliant and talked us thro the process - control panel out, find the bleed screw, roof gracefully descended, straps (yes we had ours) and then South Hereford checked the roof.

Outcome?
No obvious cause - apparently there are several sensors that help the roof to go up and down.

No problem since

Glad it got sorted, I did the same and called VW Bristol but they didn't respond so feel a bit sore about taking it there for the repair, I hope it's the sensors with mine!

 

[Andy Chivers]

Same thing happened to me last year in France. I had hydraulic fluid leaking through the roof lining though, so was visual and you could also smell the fluid. Bristol fixed mine by replacing the hydraulic motor. Cost over £1000

Managed to get home but in the background there's a wired smell so not sure if it's the hydraulic oil, no sign of it though, how were Bristol because I'm a bit aggrieved to take it there considering they couldn't be bothered to call me back. What happened about your roof lining?

 

[Andy Chivers]

Greetings,
That happened to me with my T5 (2005) 2 years ago in Holland. Pulled the control panel and manually lowered the roof and drove it to Amersfoort VW. They said it was the control panel and 700 euro later for the replacement, has been working great....

Did the motor run? Or was there no response from the panel?

 

[Andy Chivers]

Disappointing you got no call back. Where did you buy Cali from Andy?


Mike

Mike, got the Cali from a private sale in Portsmouth, only had a full service a couple of months ago and I've only put the roof up 4 times since I got it! Was a bit cheesed off bristol didn't get back to me!

 

[Andy Chivers]

If you heard the hydrolic pump turning and noting happend i guess the pump is broken or there's not enough oil in the circuit , that would mean a visible leak .

Lowering by emergency procedure by turning the screw did worked?
Good you knew where that was!

Only because I had the manual! But it still took about 3 hours to get the control panel off! And that was only because I trawled the Internet to try and find a video of how to find the top tabs to remove it!

 

[laurentfox]

Did the motor run? Or was there no response from the panel?

The roof went down about halfway and then just stopped. The control panel was working but when you pressed close, nothing happened. Tried pressing open also but still nothing. That was when I went to do it manually.

 

[T6 CFO]

Mike, got the Cali from a private sale in Portsmouth, only had a full service a couple of months ago and I've only put the roof up 4 times since I got it! Was a bit cheesed off bristol didn't get back to me!

Hopefully you will get it sorted. So far my only dealings with VW Commercial in Bristol have been ordering the Cali and on that the salesman has been excellent and very straight.
As you know the car and commercial dealerships are next to each other. I believe they have their own service departments.
I have only used the car service department when the car I had was on warranty and then other than for two fixed price cam belt replacements I switched to my local garage who are excellent on VW's.
My experience of the main dealership was good but they did seem to want to restore the vehicle to as new status after they inspected it and it caused some amusement when I showed my trusted garage the list of advisories.
Good luck with repair.

 

[Abyssinian]

Andy, Bristol fixed it, did a good job in my opinion. Only negative was that they left the plastic retainers for the roof strap in the roof rails and lost my strap, which I hadn't realised until a couple of months later, so have had to buy another one.
Regarding the roof lining, they wanted to replace the lining (about £400 as I remember) We declined, as it's barely noticeable.

 

[Andy Chivers]

Andy, Bristol fixed it, did a good job in my opinion. Only negative was that they left the plastic retainers for the roof strap in the roof rails and lost my strap, which I hadn't realised until a couple of months later, so have had to buy another one.
Regarding the roof lining, they wanted to replace the lining (about £400 as I remember) We declined, as it's barely noticeable.

Cheers for the reply, all booked into Bristol on Thursday keep you posted!

 

[WelshGas]

Cheers for the reply, all booked into Bristol on Thursday keep you posted!

I thought you had given up on them as they failed to return calls?

 

[Andy Chivers]

I thought you had given up on them as they failed to return calls?

Cutting off my nose to spite my face! Bristol only 4 miles away And Hereford 60? After a few positive posts and some harsh words I'm prepared to give them a try, although Hereford were very helpful except they could look at the

 

[Andy Chivers]

Quick update - Took the van to VW Bristol, they eventually looked at the van after quite a few days in their possession, they first diagnosed a sensor problem, but when they actually looked in the van they diagnosed a leak in the hydraulic line to the roof rams on the passenger side. The cab was stripped down and they discovered that when the roof had the corrosion repair undertaken the roof was stuffed full of sealer all round (undertaken by VW Heritage Westbury, no longer in business!) and to access the pipes the sealer has to be removed, which means the whole roof has to come off and repaired properly. Bristol say they cannot undertake the work, it has to be done by a bodyshop - really not happy with their service!

VW Customer care have washed their hands of this because the shoddy workmanship lies with the original repairers who are out of business!!

I have contacted Shorades in Cannock and so far they have been unbelievably helpful and professional and will do the work for me next week so my beloved stripped down van will go there friday to be repaired - and the cost just over £3600 so far!!

They will give me a report to say if they think its bad workmanship that has caused the line to split, as from the photos they think the line may have kinked through ill fitting.

 

[calikev]

Really sorry to hear of your problems andy shocking. I hope you get it sorted.