Sliding door sometimes scraping against rear wheel arch

[WelshGas]

Hey all and happy easter to everyone

I was washing the cali and i ve noticed that the wheel on the lower part of the sliding door is scratching the paint where it slides,my cali is black so there is a big white line along all its rail.

Is it normal?
How can i avoid this?

Ty all

Electric or Manually opening door?

Not an uncommon problem with the Electrical Opening Sliding Door. Warranty claim.

 

[VW Guru]

Hi we have a technical bulletin that come out about 2 months ago regarding this and there are a few adjustments that need to be done in order to change the angle of the sliding door. Other causes may be a worn or loose sliding door roller.

 

[2into1]

Still perhaps early days but VW's 3rd attempt at sorting my problem is (touch wood) still fine.

 

[somed84]

Ye already read about this,but mine is not on the wheel arch is where the white wheel slides:



Is it the same problem?

 

[KGCali]

Anyone know the part number of the small lower piece of narrow sliding door trim highlighted in my picture? Some of the clips are broken so I want to replace it.

 

[NickD]

We have had the same issue with our manual door which has caused scratches to both the table (in a circular arc which confused us initially because it was unclear where it came from) and the wheel arch. Make sure you don't let any small gritty dirt build up on the arch.

The dealer replaced the middle sprung loaded runner on the door which appears to have helped. I suspect that if the door trim clips aren't fully home it doesn't help. No offer of a respray under approved used warranty.

 

[VW Guru]

We have had the same issue with our manual door which has caused scratches to both the table (in a circular arc which confused us initially because it was unclear where it came from) and the wheel arch. Make sure you don't let any small gritty dirt build up on the arch.

The dealer replaced the middle sprung loaded runner on the door which appears to have helped. I suspect that if the door trim clips aren't fully home it doesn't help. No offer of a respray under approved used warranty.

Hi unfortunately the used warranty does not cover body faults ie paint, damage seat etc we do ha e some technical information about adjusting the angle of the sliding door so that The gap between the wheel arch and door is bigger. I know your dealer replaced the center roller but did they adjust the sliding angle of the door as well ?

 

[pjm-84]

Yep as Martin is probably aware I had a right saga with my electric sliding door. It took numerous visits to sort out and happy to say that it has been working as it should for the last two years. I lost count on the number of visits.

In the end all parts were changed and this seems to have cured the problem. I would also note the adjustment in the door to overcome insufficient tolerance due to the table in the door.

The table shouldn't hit as the surrounding door trim is slightly proud. (I toyed with heat adapting the offending area of trim to provide more clearance). Picture of original issue.

 

[NickD]

Hi unfortunately the used warranty does not cover body faults ie paint, damage seat etc we do ha e some technical information about adjusting the angle of the sliding door so that The gap between the wheel arch and door is bigger. I know your dealer replaced the center roller but did they adjust the sliding angle of the door as well ?

Yes. It was Breeze in Poole as it happens!

 

[Seamelody]

Were back in the sliding door saga, new parts fitted and rear panel again painted, took 7 days, finally back and oh now can’t remove table from door. So it’s booked in again for two more days on Thursday.


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[Bulli Ocean 1]

Hi ... that is exactly what I have just noticed on my new Cali. I noticed slight scratches, and yet I knew I had not driven against anything. Then I noticed it had gotten slightly worse ... and clicked that it was the electric door mechanism. I will be speaking to the dealer about this, and asking them to fix ... but after that I will also apply a 3M film over the spot ... or better still the bit on the inner door ... if I can see where it rubs. I do feel that there is too much give on the mechanism ... but that might be deliberate. However, I did discover that the trim on the inside of the door, was not 'popped' in on the bottom ... so I have clicked it back into place. I am reticent to get the panel painted again ... as I am not convinced they will get a perfect match (thoughts). I might just get this buffed, and then put some 3M tape over. As an aside, I did get the whole of the front done in 3M and I think it offers brilliant protection from stone chips etc.

View attachment 41427

 

[Bulli Ocean 1]

I have noticed the same problem with my new (Dec 2019) California Ocean. I found scratches on the rear wheel arch and like everyone else thought that it had been scratched by either myself or someone else. It was only when I joined the club and saw the posts that I realised that it was the electric sliding door. Thanks for the posts as I will now get it booked in with VW to hopefully get sorted. I am a bit annoyed though as this thread goes back a few years and VW obviously know this is a common fault and have not sorted it out. I have attached a photo.

 

[Max-Felix]

Best thing is to get rid of the "...truly terrible, unreliable, annoying, slow, noisy, inflexible, inconvenient, money eating, power consuming, panel gouging, shonky designed, plastic infested, gremlin prone, cable stretching, poorly designed option from hell..."

Electric side door conversion to fully manual?

Continued... Once removed - mind the cable end does not flick off into an eye - you can see the drive motor: So pop the cover off minus the pulleys. I did not but you can of course isolate the power to the motor to fully incapacitate it but it no longer has any connection to the door...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[SusiBus]

Having been through this saga with SusiBusOne many years ago, I can't believe it still hasn't been sorted. I've been informed by VW that if an issue arises a number of times as a warranty claim it is investigated. Surely it can't be rocket science to solve "Electric Door Bonce", but it does seem it's been beyond VW to sort.
For us it caused so much grief. Three long trips to the dealer, God knows how much wasted time ,not only for me, but the dealer as well. New rollers were fitted, rear arch paintwork repaired and then the whole sliding door repaired because it got damaged when it was taken off.
It did finally get sorted, and if I remember correctly all it needed was a software tweak to adjust the sensitivity of the mechanism, BOUNCE CURED!
Rant over, but if you're been through it, you will know what it is like.
Cali, I still love you, it's just you're birth mother that p--‐------ me off!

 

[Seamelody]

Took my local VW dealer two attempts to fix my electric scraping door - over a year on and it remains fine ( I must admit thou I cringe sometimes when it opens ) always concerned IF it will damage the rear wheel arch. Perhaps I’m mistaken but sure I’ve read that manual door owners have also experienced the same rear arch damage so potentially different reasons for the pair damage. Just mentioning before anyone decides to make the door manual, will it be a guaranteed fix ?


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[JeremyR]

Mine is in for a 3rd attempt to fix the electric door and the (probably following a heated discussion yet again) the paintwork. Last fix was December, so it has lasted 8 months before starting again, which implies to me something gets looser. It may be my mind, but I’m sure the bounce at the end is more ‘bouncy now’. I’ve just looked and can see some rubbing on the trim inside to the right of the table, so that must be what is catching?

My main concern is that this is not fixable and when my warranty runs out I’m either going to have to live with it, or keep paying for adjustments and body work. I think there are enough of us to claim this is a design or manufacturing error and they should come up with a better fix. Added pics of scrapes!

 

[TripleBee]

My god, how hard can it actually be to align a sliding door of a van?
They can/could do it on most of the California's, why not on all?
They have the measures, why don't they do it in the factory good?

 

[zinglefiffy]

Mine was due to go in for it's second attempt at sorting the scratchy door during the second week of lockdown and the dealership was closed so the job got shelved. We're now waiting until the dealership can provide a courtesy car before we book it in again, and they don't know when that will be.
After the first attempt was unsuccessful, I also started having issues with the door not unlocking so they had it for another day to investigate and decided they would dismantle the whole thing, do a proper job and try to remedy both issues at the same time and hopefully never take the door off again, which would potentially undo the fix.
So that means it's been used for about 10 months with this issue. Thankfully after the investigation they put some film over the arch which has kept the external scratches to a minimum, but I definitely now also have internal scratches in the same spot, to the right of the table storage. These weren't visible until recently, I'm not sure why.
As to the 'bounce', I've convinced myself the door motion was smoother when new. Now it rattles and bounces and when closing it sets off with a jerk.
Fingers crossed when the fix is done, it works. The dealership have been quite happy to accept it as warranty work and keep bashing away at it but it would be quite a pain if this was still happening beyond the warranty period.

 

[JeremyR]

I’ve now had mine fixed for the third time. The fix is known and there are instructions from VW for it. Since the dealer couldn’t tell me confidently it wouldn’t happen again, I’ve tried two things:
- Self added some helicopter tape to the wheel arch. It’s clearly not a professional job, but it better than scraped paint.
- Put a strip of the furry side of Velcro along the scraped trim to the right of the table - that is what is scraping along the paint.

Bit of a bodge But I’m fed up of scraped paint and week’s at the dealer having it fixed and painted!

 

[TripleBee]

Very strange you guys suffer from that.
They are making the T5 since 2003, and the base of the van didn't change up to present.
All the sliding doors are equal from the T5 all the way up to the T6.1.
What is wrong with those vans?
And even so, how hard can it be to align the sliding door so it makes enough clearance?
Mine is miles away from scraping the wheel arch, even when pushed towards the van (well, at least 1cm).
Can you take a picture of all the 3 hinges? One from the side of the door, one from the middle and one from the side of the van from each hinge? I might have a look at how mine are set in comparison with yours.

 

[JeremyR]

Very strange you guys suffer from that.
They are making the T5 since 2003, and the base of the van didn't change up to present.
All the sliding doors are equal from the T5 all the way up to the T6.1.
What is wrong with those vans?
And even so, how hard can it be to align the sliding door so it makes enough clearance?
Mine is miles away from scraping the wheel arch, even when pushed towards the van (well, at least 1cm).
Can you take a picture of all the 3 hinges? One from the side of the door, one from the middle and one from the side of the van from each hinge? I might have a look at how mine are set in comparison with yours.

I’ll do that tomorrow. I think the common thread is the electric doors and their ‘bounce’ make the door more likely to behave like this...