T6.1 Control panel common Issues and Faults.

larrylamb · Jul 14, 2020

Starting this thread for users to add their own comments and issues etc. with the new style control panel fitted to the 6.1.
After the recent introduction of the T6.1 California I have been noticing quite a lot of people reporting issues and faults relating to the control panel. I have seen these mentioned on this forum and a few Facebook groups.
Faults relating to roof raising and lowering, heater, fridge and leisure batteries have been noted. Whilst the T5 and T5.1 control panel had it's faults and we hoped VW would improve on its design alarm bells are ringing for me with the new version raising so many glitches at this stage.

Swissian · Aug 3, 2020

My experience from last weekend

Fully charged at home and switched fridge on.
Next day I drove around 100km
Parked up, Roof up, Enjoy sun!

3 hours later I get a drink from the fridge. Seems warm

Check control panel. Fridge off! Voltage 12.5v and 0 current usage and only 2 hours time remaining

Switch on fridge again
Next morning fridge still on.

Control panel shows 12.4v -4A usage and 36h 30 mins left

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

vw_camper · Aug 3, 2020

We bought our T6.1 California Ocean in January and are very happy with it. Less happy are we with several software related issues.
-- We also had the roof issue where going up or down has no effect and after a few hours it suddenly works again. At the time we camped in Germany and called the Dutch main dealer Camper Centrum Nedeland. They did not tell me to pull fuses 5-8, but instead to remove the blue plug behind the cover below the steering wheel (left hand drive). They told me it was hard to reach and indeed we could not pull it out, could not release the clip of the plug. We tried over 1 hour without luck. Then called VW service, they were going to send the German road service ADAC. I was not impressed so tried again to lower the roof and YES, it worked fine! No fix for this problem yet.
-- I'm am fluent in Dutch, English and German, but it is very annoying to have a Dutch Operating Manual and several choices of the control panel language except Dutch!
-- When the fresh water tank is completely empty and then filled completely, the water pump goes in protection mode after 1s, which is not long enough to get the pump started with some air inside. Instead the software goes in protection and gives a warning in the display "Empty water tank". The only way we could fix this was to drive a couple 100km. VW does not have a fix for this yet.
-- If the software for the roof has issues, we could not turn on the heater. Again no fix yet.
-- When we returned after our 4 day vacation (always hooked up to 230V), the display said there was 10min battery capacity left, this stayed for over 1h. After a few stops and hours of driving, we returned home and the remaining capacity was ok again, >60h.
-- The option to reset the software should imho never have been deleted, this is a huge mistake from VW!

Greetings from The Netherlands

vw_camper · Aug 3, 2020

larrylamb said:
Starting this thread for users to add their own comments and issues etc. with the new style control panel fitted to the 6.1.
After the recent introduction of the T6.1 California I have been noticing quite a lot of people reporting issues and faults relating to the control panel. I have seen these mentioned on this forum and a few Facebook groups.
Faults relating to roof raising and lowering, heater, fridge and leisure batteries have been noted. Whilst the T5 and T5.1 control panel had it's faults and we hoped VW would improve on its design alarm bells are ringing for me with the new version raising so many glitches at this stage.

Edit: Our vehicle has the steering wheel on the left, so not left hand drive. Sorry

Garrycotic · Sep 15, 2020

Anybody having issues with roof lighting coming on unmasked or coming on and flashing?

HectaTheSpecta · Oct 6, 2021

Swissian said:
My experience from last weekend

Fully charged at home and switched fridge on.
Next day I drove around 100km
Parked up, Roof up, Enjoy sun!
3 hours later I get a drink from the fridge. Seems warm
Check control panel. Fridge off! Voltage 12.5v and 0 current usage and only 2 hours time remaining
Switch on fridge again
Next morning fridge still on.
Control panel shows 12.4v -4A usage and 36h 30 mins left

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds similar to a problem with mine.
What was the fix and anyone know how to download software updates with out a dealer visit?

HelenaJ · Sep 12, 2023

larrylamb said:
Starting this thread for users to add their own comments and issues etc. with the new style control panel fitted to the 6.1.
After the recent introduction of the T6.1 California I have been noticing quite a lot of people reporting issues and faults relating to the control panel. I have seen these mentioned on this forum and a few Facebook groups.
Faults relating to roof raising and lowering, heater, fridge and leisure batteries have been noted. Whilst the T5 and T5.1 control panel had it's faults and we hoped VW would improve on its design alarm bells are ringing for me with the new version raising so many glitches at this stage.

I've noticed several faults with our 6.1 Coast Camping Control Panel: a) Control Panel locking up after exceeding the 'Heat Immediately' time limit. b) Fridge turning off at random times - once when I pressed the Control Panel button to check the Leisure Battery charge icon and finally, c) A 'blue screen' showing no icons, rendering the entire Panel unusable. Staggeringly, there is no 'reset' option on this panel, which as a Software Designer, I can't comprehend. After some effort, as I've reported earlier, for our vehicle (manual roof and door) the 'frozen/lock up' issue can be 'power cycled' by pulling the 5A orange fuse under the passenger seat, at the front. As for the blue screen, as expected VW have just advised a replacement Control Panel. Apparently, these cost £980 + vat, plus 8 hours labour. Fortunately, ours has 10 months warranty remaining. I've mentioned all this to our VW van centre/s, but they seem unaware of all issues. I shall update this thread with further information when we get the replacement Panel. I'm both surprised and disappointed that somehow, this has passed all VW quality/acceptance checks.

yossarian · Sep 12, 2023

HelenaJ said:
plus 8 hours labour

I have a VW warranty service document suggesting VW will pay for 42 minutes of labour to remove and replace the control panel. Your dealer may have been exaggerating.

HelenaJ said:
Fridge turning off at random times

Yeah I've seen this one and logged it at my van center. The most credible explanation I've seen is that the starter bus voltage might have dropped below 12V briefly.

NessL · Sep 13, 2023

HelenaJ said:
I've noticed several faults with our 6.1 Coast Camping Control Panel: a) Control Panel locking up after exceeding the 'Heat Immediately' time limit. b) Fridge turning off at random times - once when I pressed the Control Panel button to check the Leisure Battery charge icon and finally, c) A 'blue screen' showing no icons, rendering the entire Panel unusable. Staggeringly, there is no 'reset' option on this panel, which as a Software Designer, I can't comprehend. After some effort, as I've reported earlier, for our vehicle (manual roof and door) the 'frozen/lock up' issue can be 'power cycled' by pulling the 5A orange fuse under the passenger seat, at the front. As for the blue screen, as expected VW have just advised a replacement Control Panel. Apparently, these cost £980 + vat, plus 8 hours labour. Fortunately, ours has 10 months warranty remaining. I've mentioned all this to our VW van centre/s, but they seem unaware of all issues. I shall update this thread with further information when we get the replacement Panel. I'm both surprised and disappointed that somehow, this has passed all VW quality/acceptance checks.

Have you tried this? https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/resources/control-panel-diagnostics.195/