New Beach in use for ten days ... some issues/questions

[LBB]

Dear all,

We are now the happy owners of a new VW California Beach (3 seater).
Only drove some 120km, this weekend I've planned a longer trip so the engine can "deliver" a bit.
Overall we are happy. The DSG engine is quite something (compared to what we were used to ...).



Nevertheless we have encountered some issues. By sharing them with you we hope to get some feedback from the more experienced users.

1. The main issue is about the roof that does not come down in a normal way. We already noticed this at the dealer when the car was demonstrated at pick up but this "problem" to them was just because of the stiffness of the joints in the beginning (is that in fact a known issue ?). Anyway, when back at home with the car, we opened the roof once more in order to check again (it is a manual roof by the way). We encountered the same problem but could now better identify the problem. At the right side (passenger side for a continental car), when the roof is almost closed (5 cm left), some kind of plastic wheel attached to the roof should fit up to another plastic part attached at the car itself in order to guide the roof to its final position. Both parts do not touch correctly up to each other causing the blocking. The only way to close the roof is to push the roof itself from aside (into the direction of the driver) while someone else pulls from the inside. We brought the car back to the dealer and they told us that they would order the wheel part so it can be remplaced. Anyone experienced the same ?



(BTW, I noticed on the forum two posts with a similar issue ... but I'm not sure the problem is exactly the same ...

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/beach-roof-problems.7178/#post-62846

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/california-beach-pop-roof-issue.3764/ )

2. The following I only experienced once (until now). We have opted as parking assistance just the rear camera. Two days ago, when parking the car and putting the gear into "R", all of a sudden, the screen showing the rear view splitted into 4 parts (showing 4x the rear), went from color to B&W, faded away and after a few seconds turned to a black screen. No rear view anymore. I decided to put the engine of and I got the following message "Park pilot not available" ... When turning the engine on again, everything worked just fine ... but the message remained. Yesterday non of all of this anymore. How to understand this ?

3. As indicated, we have not been driving a lot yet. I noticed that after a short trip of about 5 to 10 kilometers, when stopping and turning the engine of, some kind of noise is produced by the car. I guess it is some kind of cooling ventilator ? At the same time, one can smell heated plastic/caoutchouc (don't know the English word). Should I be worried or is this normal for a new car (smell and or noise) ?

4. Like everyone (I guess with a T6) we have this functionality that turns off the engine while you stop somewhere. I have noticed (on my short trips) that it does not always work. The guide says that it might be that this only functions when the engine is heated ... Is this normal ?

Hope none of the above is really a worry.

regards,
Lieven

* edited the original message to get rid of some errors against the English language *

 

[WelshGas]

Dear all,

We are now the happy owners of a new VW California Beach (3 seater).
Only drove some 120km, this weekend I'ven planned a longer trip so the engine can "deliver" a bit.
Overall we are happy. The DSG engine is quite something (compared to what we were used to ...).

View attachment 21525

Nevertheless we have encountered some issues/questions. By sharing them with you we hope to get some feedback from the more experienced users.

1. The main issue is about the roof that does not come down in a normal way. We already noticed this at the dealer when the car was demonstrated but this "problem" to them was just because of the stiffness of the joints in the beginning (is that in fact a known issue ?). Anyway, when back at home with the car, we opened the roof once more in order to check again (it is a manual roof by the way). We encountered the same problem but could now better identify the problem. At the right side (passenger side for a continental car), when the roof is almost closed (5 cm left), some kind of plastic wheel attached to the roof should fit up to another plastic part attached at the car itself in order to guide the roof to its final position. Both parts do not touch correctly up to each other causing the blocking. The only way to close the roof is to push the roof itself aside (into the direction of the driver) while someone else pulls from the inside. We brought the car back to the dealer and they told us that they would order the wheel part and in order to install this again. Anyone had the same ?

View attachment 21526

(BTW, I noticed on the forum two posts with a similar issue ... but I'm not sure the problem is exactly the same ...

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/beach-roof-problems.7178/#post-62846

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/california-beach-pop-roof-issue.3764/ )

2. The following I only experience once. We have opted as parking assistance only the rear camera. Two days ago, when parking the car and putting the gear into "R", all of a sudden, the screen showing the rear view splitter into 4 parts, turned black and white and the, after a few seconds turned to a black screen. No rear view anymore. I decided to put the car of and I got the following message "Park pilot not available" ... When turning the car on again, everything worked just fine ... but the message remained. Yesterday non of all of this anymore. How to understand this ?

3. As indicated, we have not been driving a lot yet. I noticed that after a short trip of about 5 to 10 kilometers, when stopping and turning the engine of, some can of noise is produced by the car. I guess it is some kind of cooling ventilator. At the same time, one can smell the smell of heated plastic/caoutchouc (don't know the English word). Should I be worried or is this normal for a new car (smell and or noise) ?

4. Like everyone (I guess with a T6) we have this functionality that turns off the engine while you stop somewhere. I have noticed (on my short trips) that it does not always work. The guide says that it might be that this only functions when the engine is heated ... Is this normal ?

Hope none of the above is really a worry.

regards,
Lieven

Hi and to the Forum.
Points 1 & 2 I cannot help with as I have the Hydraulic Roof and the RNS 510 Head Unit.
However, Point 3 has been reported frequently and the new engines seem to run the radiator fans for a while after Engine Off. Also, if it has been cold, less than 5c a Diesel powered Webasto Heater starts with the engine to speed up engine warm up. This is completely automatic. Smells from the engine exhaust/engine paint burning off etc are not uncommon and usually disappear after the engine has covered 5-800 Kms at normal temperature.

Point 4. Stop/Start only works if a number of things are correct, Engine Temperature, Coolant and Oil temperature, battery condition, lights, AirCon or heating settings etc. Also with the DSG system, firm pressure on the brake peddle as well.

Points1& 2 should be checked out by the Dealer under warranty.

Hope you get it sorted soon. They are complex machines and that's why there is a warrant, so we do the checking and they do the fixing otherwise it would cost a lot more.

 

[Hotel California]

Great stuff you got your Beach deliverd!

As for the roof issues you dealer needs to take a look at it . Great you did the research on the forum and found two other treads on this problem , thas whats so great on this forum! You can now point your dealer in the right direction and show him the issue he will sure be supprised by your knowledge and realise you are expecting this to be fixed....

The strange smels is pretty common on new verhicles so just follow this up during the first weeks .

Start/stop has also been mentiont not to kick in at some point as @WelshGas has explained . There also been reports of people disliking the system,as it somtimes kicks in when it not should , there are also treads on this .

The camera issue could be a one time issue if it keeps comming back you need to point this out at the dealer.

Many Cali owners got one or two things that needs to look afther in the first months from new , i don't think it is normal but it's just that way , as we can see by the reports on the forum it is a complicated verhicle , your warrenty will cover this.

Enjoy it , list things up your dealer should look afther and bring it in within' a few weeks time to sort it out .

 

[hirsty]

Yes, agree with above.

1 & 2 are not normal & should be fixed straight away by Dealer.

3 & 4 are normal:

- The fan on the T6 is crazy loud & many people have posted about it.

- Start/Stop only works when the engine is warmed up & often only when aircon is off - you will learn how to control it with very careful braking!

Have fun!

 

[LBB]

Thanks all of you. for your feedback Made this weekend a first ride +100km to do a triathlon. Great car to do this as you have plenty of room for bike and stuff and a spot to relax after the race

• The fan keeps on going. I assume it is normal behavior.
• Start/stop ... still strange. During my 100km going back home, at my first stop, 100m from the parking, the engine stopped ... but after having done the long distance on the highway, at the first stop, the engine kept on running. I'm clueless...

For the roof and rear camera (no more issues so far) ... I have an appointment at the dealer June 2nd.

I have more questions in mind ... but that's for later on

Have a nice evening,
Lieven

 

[Max-Felix]

Just turn the start/stop off, most do. Total PITA systems.

 

[Jay586]

Start stop is fine, tho does seem to be less predictable than on my BMW. It does save fuel & given the massive figures for deaths from air pollution, anything that stops people mindlessly idling their engines is a good thing. No idea why people sit in car parks, windows wide open, engine running, pet hate of mine.

Definitely time to leave the forum...

 

[WelshGas]

Start stop is fine, tho does seem to be less predictable than on my BMW. It does save fuel & given the massive figures for deaths from air pollution, anything that stops people mindlessly idling their engines is a good thing. No idea why people sit in car parks, windows wide open, engine running, pet hate of mine.

Definitely time to leave the forum...

Agree. Old green Land Cruiser , smoky, idling in Car Park while driver on the phone - covered in Green Party stickers relating to the environment and climate control.
Lots of conditions have to be met before Stop/Start is initiated. Battery Charge, Engine and Coolant temperature, load on alternator from lights and Leisure Battery, AirCon set below 20c and lastly DPF regen.

 

[bigmac77]

Agree. Old green Land Cruiser , smoky, idling in Car Park while driver on the phone - covered in Green Party stickers relating to the environment and climate control.
Lots of conditions have to be met before Stop/Start is initiated. Battery Charge, Engine and Coolant temperature, load on alternator from lights and Leisure Battery, AirCon set below 20c and lastly DPF regen.

And you have to have your seatbelt on too I believe.

 

[Ignazio]

Point 3 should be DPF burning


Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk Pro

 

[RoB5urf]

I wish black cabs had stop/ start. I hate it when i see a whole line of them sitting at the taxi rank with their engines idling.


Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[zeratul]

Another Beach owner from Belgium here, I guess everything's been answered. I also have a manual roof but it's a T5.2 and from your picture it looks a different closing system. I've never seen those plastic things that you say are to be replaced.
The smells go away indeed. Especially using the night time heater the first few times was a bit annoying, but just leave a window a little open.

 

[Jabberwocky]

This detail diagram shows a roller, part 22, which looks like what might be missing in your roof. I would have thought this is quite easy to fix once the dealer has the spare part as it seems to be fixed by washers and circlips. http://www.oemepc.com/vw/part_singl...875/subcategory/875021/part_id/3708547/lang/e
All the best.

 

[flying banana]

Start stop is fine, tho does seem to be less predictable than on my BMW. It does save fuel & given the massive figures for deaths from air pollution, anything that stops people mindlessly idling their engines is a good thing. No idea why people sit in car parks, windows wide open, engine running, pet hate of mine.

Definitely time to leave the forum...

do people sit in car parks running engines?just to annoy you?

 

[hirsty]

Taxis sit on the street idling - on their break, not a cab rank - round the corner from my house belching out unnecessary carcinogenic diesel particulates into our neighbourhood air & the kiddies nursery playground.

Are they doing it to annoy me specially? No. Are they eejits who could be helped by better technology? Hopefully.

 

[LBB]

Hi everyone,

An update of the earlier mentioned issues.

• The roof is meanwhile fixed by replacing the roller part.
• Start/stop: dealer checked if any errors could be detected through the software: no issues found ... but they actually confirmed that the functioning of this sometimes rather unlogic... they see this as well with other car types the sell :-/
• Fan and rear camera seem to work just fine now...

Just before bringing the car back to the dealer for this repair, two new issues popped up :-( ...

1. Something I did not notice when the car was delivered: the plastic part of the awning covering at both ends the aluminium structure is at one side a bit detached. In the picture below you can see what I mean. When unfolding the awning with 50cm, the plastic part loosens a bit and I thought the dealer would be able to fix it correctly be screwing it up somehow but they didn't touch it and took some pictures in order to send it to one or the other VW technical service. Anyone seen this ?
2. At our first trip (really) we were fortunate enough to be visited by a beech marten (Martes foina) ... I was able to bite through two cables (circulated pressured air for several technical functions). We discovered this during a ride afterwards as we got error messages on the dashboard. VW assistance repaired by putting some stents (if this is the correct word in English ?). The dealer checked it over and it should be ok now (at least no further error messages). So the question is: who else has experienced this (I see from a map on wikipedia that this species is not living in the UK) and what is your solution (anti marten spray, a high device spreading ultrasonic waves, ...). Oh, apologies, I did not look up the forum database this time ...

Lieven

 

[Jay586]

do people sit in car parks running engines?just to annoy you?

Nope, but once you become mindful of it, it's very common. Such a simple way to reduce air pollution, which given the stats for unnecessary deaths (asthma/copd, etc.), I would think more people should/could care about...

I understand it in winter but in summer, windows down, engine left running is pointless.

 

[MattBW]

I wish black cabs had stop/ start. I hate it when i see a whole line of them sitting at the taxi rank with their engines idling.


Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

The new ones wll have and will be hybrid from all accounts. I've seen a couple of test ones around Coventry

 

[hirsty]

Just before bringing the car back to the dealer for this repair, two new issues popped up

Sorry to hear of your troubles, but it sounds like you are making progress - though 'two steps forward, one step back' ...

I haven't seen that awning problem before personally & it's cleary not right (as your Dealer seems to realise). Stay on them to fix or replace!

You've also been unlucky with the animal visitor - I'd be furious! To say Calis (should) spend more time in the wilds than average vehicles I've also never seen that before either, usually it's animals nesting in unused vehicles etc. Are you going to get a full fix, or carry on with the temporary repair? - where on the van is it?

Perpetrator:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_marten

 

[hirsty]

Car damage

Since the mid-1970s, the beech marten has been known to occasionally cause damage to cars. Cars attacked by martens typically have cut tubes and cables. A beech marten can slice through the cables of a starter motor with just one bite. The reason for this is not fully known, as the damaged items are not eaten. There is, however, a seasonal peak in marten attacks on cars in spring, when young martens explore their surroundings more often and have yet to learn which items in their habitat are edible or not.[27]The fishoil, often contained in the cables of cars of Japanese origin, may contribute to this.[citation needed]

 

[Jabberwocky]

Animal damage to cars is surprisingly common especially if the car is kept outside and not used for long periods. I have BMW Z4 which is garaged over the winter and has suffered rodent attack twice in 6 years. Thankfully no major damage but the little blighter ate quite large areas of insulation from the transmission tunnel area. I now have baited traps in my garage - no problems since but caught two mice!
I have a pal who has a Porsche dealership and he is forever telling me of horror stories they have to deal with. Usually in the most inaccessible places of course!

 

[Alan Greensall]

I had my new Beach attacked twice here in the UK cannot be Martens, but foxes or mice were blamed. It is the coating on the wiring looms they like. VW agreed to fit an approved Marten deterrent that is also available on Amazon. no trouble since .....

Volkswagen 000054650F Anti-Rodent System Electric with Ultrasound/High Voltage​