T6.1 Roof Stuck Open

[Hotel California]

Glad it came to good end , guess the new controlpanel (digital) had an issue?
Or you did something wrong? Who knows ...
Have it checked under warrenty anyway .
Was taking out the controlpanel easy ? As the removalprocedure for the old panel is writtin few times on the forum i think taking out the new panel is a thing not spoken about much.

 

[Jabberwocky]

And they’ve left out the most useful section... the fuse allocations! Before I get told off.....

Oh I think that's normal. They also leave bits of the Cali off when building! Mine was supposed to have the Lights and Vison package on but it got left off - they called it a miss build! sorry!

 

[ArunAlec]

@theosmonds ... have you actually got the roof down yet?

 

[WelshGas]

@theosmonds ... have you actually got the roof down yet?

Post 14 - all sorted.

 

[SusiBus]

I do wonder if anyone at VW actually proof read the handbooks or even better get a customer to try to use it in a real world scenario.

My brother was a technical author, one of his contracts was writing the service manuals for electrical backup generators to be exported around the world. He admitted that he had next to no knowledge about generators apart from the odd tour around the factory. Perhaps outsourcing happens like this at VW.

So as to keep this post on subject. It is yet another reminder that you must carry the emergency tie-down kit in the vehicle at all times. Otherwise you could find yourself in real problems should this happen to you.

 

[Swissian]

I wonder if they are written in German in a clear and understandable way but then converted into English by Google translate?

I can confirm that they are absolutely NOT written in a clear and understandable way in the German manual!
My German is pretty good, but even I threw up my hands in despair when I saw the manual. Currently battling with VW to get manuals in English although I don’t think they will help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hamish S]

Can't argue with that...….

 

[soulstyledevon]

Definitely agree it’s a warranty issue but having got to this stage I reckon it’s worth finding out how to carry out the manual drop.... ready for next time! I’d recommend any new Cali owners take some time to familiarise themselves with the process and do as many have done and pre cut the foam in readiness.

Wise words...
Always something I’ve dreaded happening with the electric roof. Not dared to have a peak yet.

Cant believe Volkswagen haven’t addressed this issue on the T6.1 and made access easier...

 

[theosmonds]

Wise words...
Always something I’ve dreaded happening with the electric roof. Not dared to have a peak yet.

Cant believe Volkswagen haven’t addressed this issue on the T6.1 and made access easier...

If anything they've made it harder.

 

[ArunAlec]

Wise words...
Always something I’ve dreaded happening with the electric roof. Not dared to have a peak yet.

Cant believe Volkswagen haven’t addressed this issue on the T6.1 and made access easier...

The more you think about it, the more it sounds ridiculous.... having to dismantle the control panel, then cut your way into a block of foam and dig out a screw. Unless You are reasonably mechanically minded it’s a non starter!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Maybe they are trying to steer us away from attempting the manual close. i.e. we should call them. Just a thought. Next issue of the manual could be devoid of any words about manual roof closure.......well if they can leave out the fuses section............
It really is annoying they can't put the Cali together without all these issues. Lord knows they have had enough time! What ever happened to "German Engineering"? Weren't they watch words for excellence and quality?
It seems those days are over. Sorry I will try and be a bit more positive.

 

[soulstyledevon]

@Jabberwocky i think the accountants moved in many years ago and things went down hill from there...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Then dieselgate.......Oh how the mighty have fallen!

 

[johnhampson]

Well I don't know what changed but I went and had some lunch, came back out to give it one last try before calling vw assist and this time it came to life and magically closed.
So I reopened and everything looks good and tight and then closed and all seated nicely.. Madness.
Nice that it's closed but as soon as I'm able I'll get it booked in to have it checked before our first trip away. Less than 200 miles on the clock and in for the second time. Heho, complicated machines and all that. thanks everyone for your input. Much appreciated.

I had exactly the same problem on the drive with my T6.1 roof as discussed in the control panel section:

T 6.1 Ocean control panel reset

As we haven't been able to use the van since we got it in March, we thought that we would have a "night away" on the drive last night. The roof has been fine until now and raised ok yesterday. Today, I can't get it to respond when I need to lower it. The display on the new style control panel...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

I had hoped to reboot the control panel to fix the problem and could not establish how to do so. I considered doing a manual lowering procedure but found the instructions in the manual insufficiently clear. On the Monday morning, I spoke to the dealer in Preston who was actually very helpful but could find no information on how to do this on a T6.1. They got on to VW who could not help either. It appears that it is not possible to reboot the control panel in a T6.1.

Ultimately, their suggestion was to call out roadside assistance and ask them to disconnect and then reconnect all three batteries. They didn't want me to do this myself. They also said that they were glad that I hadn't decided to lower the roof manually as in their experience, doing so causes problems.

So after having tried at least 20 times over the previous 48 hours to close the roof to no avail, I called VW roadside assistance. To be fair, the guy who came out had never seen a California before, let alone a stuck roof. As I was demonstrating the problem to him, the roof sprung back to life and closed perfectly without any intervention. I cannot explain this.

I did manage to get him to do a download of the log from the OBD port which showed the following error:

B1B6EF8 Control module for special function 2 Pop-up roof tilt position (00001000 passive /sporadic)

The roof seems to have been ok since but I'm intending to get it checked before going away. Very strange.

 

[theosmonds]

I had exactly the same problem on the drive with my T6.1 roof as discussed in the control panel section:

T 6.1 Ocean control panel reset

As we haven't been able to use the van since we got it in March, we thought that we would have a "night away" on the drive last night. The roof has been fine until now and raised ok yesterday. Today, I can't get it to respond when I need to lower it. The display on the new style control panel...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

I had hoped to reboot the control panel to fix the problem and could not establish how to do so. I considered doing a manual lowering procedure but found the instructions in the manual insufficiently clear. On the Monday morning, I spoke to the dealer in Preston who was actually very helpful but could find no information on how to do this on a T6.1. They got on to VW who could not help either. It appears that it is not possible to reboot the control panel in a T6.1.

Ultimately, their suggestion was to call out roadside assistance and ask them to disconnect and then reconnect all three batteries. They didn't want me to do this myself. They also said that they were glad that I hadn't decided to lower the roof manually as in their experience, doing so causes problems.

So after having tried at least 20 times over the previous 48 hours to close the roof to no avail, I called VW roadside assistance. To be fair, the guy who came out had never seen a California before, let alone a stuck roof. As I was demonstrating the problem to him, the roof sprung back to life and closed perfectly without any intervention. I cannot explain this.

I did manage to get him to do a download of the log from the OBD port which showed the following error:

B1B6EF8 Control module for special function 2 Pop-up roof tilt position (00001000 passive /sporadic)

The roof seems to have been ok since but I'm intending to get it checked before going away. Very strange.

Thanks John. I'll aim to get something to read the OBD data and see if I received the same error. There must be some way of forcing a reboot of the system that doesn't involve removing fuses!
I guess the only difference on mine was the offside roof had dropped by 10mm or so over a 2 day period. I had the same intermediate error at the start but that went away and like yours the screen was responsive but the roof function didn't respond. I didn't try the heater or fridge though. Now need to research obd2/vcds devices to see what the best option is.

 

[johnhampson]

Actually my roof had dropped a similar amount over the two day period too although I thought it was symmetrical. All other control panel functions including the fridge and heater were still functional - only the roof function was unresponsive. I'm convinced that nothing was any different to my previous efforts when it started to respond again.

I'm interested in the "passive / sporadic" narrative in the error message - and wondering whether sporadic means that it could happen again.

Hoping that these problems are not a T6.1 "feature"

 

[ArunAlec]

Actually my roof had dropped a similar amount over the two day period too although I thought it was symmetrical. All other control panel functions including the fridge and heater were still functional - only the roof function was unresponsive. I'm convinced that nothing was any different to my previous efforts when it started to respond again.

I'm interested in the "passive / sporadic" narrative in the error message - and wondering whether sporadic means that it could happen again.

Hoping that these problems are not a T6.1 "feature"

If the roof drops and you haven’t turned the ignition key it should automatically pump itself up after 5 hours (I think) then every 10 hrs, so long as you don’t use the ignition. Normally about 3am! Mine tends to need to pump up on the second night of a trip.

 

[theosmonds]

Interestingly, someone on the vw cali Facebook group in the Netherlands had the same unresponsive roof issue over the weekend. So that's 3 T6.1 examples of this that we know of..

 

[Hotel California]

Interestingly, someone on the vw cali Facebook group in the Netherlands had the same unresponsive roof issue over the weekend. So that's 3 T6.1 examples of this that we know of..

Yes together with a few 100 maybe even 1000's other Cali's
On almost every Cali this gets to happen , some owners don't even notice , sometimes you see them like that in the showroom.
Always raise the roof fully before lowering it if you notice it .

 

[theosmonds]

Yes together with a few 100 maybe even 1000's other Cali's
On almost every Cali this gets to happen , some owners don't even notice , sometimes you see them like that in the showroom.
Always raise the roof fully before lowering it if you notice it .

If only it was that easy on the 6.1...the new controls fail to respond and it seems there's no way to reset the new control panel short of taking out 4 fuses. And then after a seemingly random number of hours it decides to allow the controls to start working again.

 

[Hotel California]

@theosmonds , so if it's lowerd uneven by itself , you can't raise it back up with the new control panel ?
Interesting...

 

[theosmonds]

@theosmonds , so if it's lowerd uneven by itself , you can't raise it back up with the new control panel ?
Interesting...

Exactly. Everything else seems to work OK and the control panel is responsive to everything apart from the open and close roof options. No error message. You can toggle between the open and the close with the touchscreen or the dial, however clicking the dial to perform the action does nothing. Go away and do something else for a random amount of time before trying again. Eventually it decides to work. I've got a vcds cable arriving tomorrow so I'll take a look to see if there were any errors or faults generated. Dealer suggested just monitoring it for now.

 

[TripleBee]

Hmm, this is not good. All those problems with the roof on the T6.1?
They have been making them since 2003, and still they haven't learned?

And what I was afraid for: touch screens... Not as user friendly in case of problems.
Apart from the T5 vanishing display, and T5 and T5.1 breaking rotary knobs, they are quite fool proof (correct me if I am wrong?).
On touch screens, you just don't have control anymore on functions.

I hope they can get you an update for that control panel, or a replacement under warranty.
Anyone know the price of that new display? The old one is only about €700...

 

[johnhampson]

I hope they can get you an update for that control panel, or a replacement under warranty.
Anyone know the price of that new display? The old one is only about €700...

I shouldn't imagine that the solution to this is going to be swapping out the hardware as it seems that in the T6.1, the control panel is less "free standing" than in previous models. More likely flashing the VCU firmware when a fix is developed.

My van is due in at the dealer next week but I'm not expecting them to find anything that's immediately fixable. Hoping that the problem gets pushed upstream to VW for urgent investigation and perhaps a software solution. VW will need to appreciate that these are not isolated cases.

 

[babble]

At least you have the option of a Coast now, with a manual roof. I speced my coast to be almost the same as an ocean, but didn't check the (€2800 or something) box for an automatic roof. I don't have double glazing, electric mirrors, or sliding door and tail, and I have less chrome bits, but I got LED lights, AAC, overnight heater, three window roof, all the fancy interior lights, shower etc etc. Came out about 6k cheaper.