VW California T5 ONLY Roof Corrosion - General Discussion

Where do you have the Roof Corrosion on your VW California?

  • Front panel only

    Votes: 197 37.4%
  • Main elevating roof only

    Votes: 80 15.2%
  • Both Front panel and main roof

    Votes: 250 47.4%

  • Total voters
    527
January 16th 2017, via Martins in Basingstoke as that is where it was registered in the first place for the repair
 
Just be aware the problem is " Galvanic Corrosion " due to 2 dissimilar metals in contact with an electrolytic solution. Land Rover Series 1,11,111 and all the variants upto the last Defender produced last year so 1947-2015 all suffered the same problem. Cosmetic but NOT structural in any way.

Had a chat with a Cali master tech last week about the Galvanic corrosion told me new repair is to strip paint back not remove front panel ( due to it being hard and not necessary) treat metal work then paint will bond correctly.

Mine needs doing and sorry to above but Poole Accident Repair will not be touching my Cali as long as i live... Shoddy work beyond belief 2 failed attempts then paid someone else to fix it for him.
 
Had 'Flo's' roof and front panel done by Claridges at Southport a couple of weeks ago.

Process took best part of a fortnight but I was kept informed and supplied with a run about by VW for the duration.

Roof and front panel look pretty good and they've put a barrier strip where the roof mets the panel to prevent contact. The strip is creased a bit where the angle changes but you wouldnt notice unless you climbed up to look. Removal and replacement to the bellows seems to have gone well and result where it meets the roof looks neat.

Claridges seem to have gaffered that process whereas I'm told Shorade were struggling to work out how to do it and it might be one of the reasons they've pulled out of doing the repairs.

Time will tell if the repairs effective.
 
Update from mine
It's still in the body shop and they have stripped ready for the new repair method (2 weeks later ) they are now saying the corrosion is to much and want to replace the main roof .... Awaiting someone fro the head of VW to explain what is going on
 
Update from mine
It's still in the body shop and they have stripped ready for the new repair method (2 weeks later ) they are now saying the corrosion is to much and want to replace the main roof .... Awaiting someone fro the head of VW to explain what is going on
Where is the "Holy Sh!t" rating / icon when you need one?
All along this has been described as an inconvenience, and definitely not structural.
 
Where is the "Holy Sh!t" rating / icon when you need one?
All along this has been described as an inconvenience, and definitely not structural.
Where has it been mentioned that the reason for replacing the roof section is for Structural problems.
More likely it is so extensive that it would take a significant number of man hours to make good the damage and more efficient to just replace the roof section.:thumb
 
Where has it been mentioned that the reason for replacing the roof section is for Structural problems.
More likely it is so extensive that it would take a significant number of man hours to make good the damage and more efficient to just replace the roof section.:thumb
Fair enough, I agree it doesn't state that, but as the roof is now 'stripped and ready' I don't think it's too big a jump. I'm not thinking the roof is going to fold in two, but it feels as if sufficient material has gone to make repair (at best) uneconomic and (at worst) unsound. Both cases are a long way from the assumption that 'out of warranty' owners could (at worst) rub it down and paint it every few years.

Edit - And my interest is that I'm likely to one of those out of warranty owners, rather than one with the assurance that VW will fix it for me or I'll sell it before the 6 years is up.
 
Unfortunately I think mine is the test model up in scotland. This is the first one they have tackled and don't really know what to do, if I can get a full new roof I'll be happy as that's what we where all expecting until the new repair method happened. It's going to be a long time until I see my California again !
 
We had roof and front panel corrosion, Cordwallis sorted out the claim with VW, and about a year later a truck cam and took the Cali away new front Panel, headlining, Bellows, seals and repaint of roof. Took a while but all sorted.
 
We had roof and front panel corrosion, Cordwallis sorted out the claim with VW, and about a year later a truck cam and took the Cali away new front Panel, headlining, Bellows, seals and repaint of roof. Took a while but all sorted.

@sebking good to hear from you on the forum
John
 
We had roof and front panel corrosion, Cordwallis sorted out the claim with VW, and about a year later a truck cam and took the Cali away new front Panel, headlining, Bellows, seals and repaint of roof. Took a while but all sorted.

Make sure you check it now and then to make sure the corrosion hasn't returned .
 
Took my 2011 180 DSG to a van centre's body shop in Kirkcaldy for inspection of roof corrosion a week ago today. The body shop confirmed a corrosion issue on front fixed roof panel and under rubber seal to pop-up roof.

I rang the body shop today to check that my claim had been submitted to VW and was somewhat put out to learn that it was likely to be several weeks before this happens because of the backlog of claims which are waiting to be "re-submitted".

I'm more than willing to accept that those poor folk who have already had a claim submitted and are now told, for some unaccountable reason, that their claim has to be re-submitted should be in front of me in the queue. What I cannot accept is that this unbelievable bureaucratic nightmare, invented by VW, is causing a delay of maybe 6-8 weeks after the body shop inspection has confirmed that my vehicle is suffering from the dreaded roof corrosion issue before my claim will be received by VW.

This is a major international manufacturer behaving like a dodgy back-street trader. Why on earth can it not get its act together?
 
Got a phone call today to say no further forward. Still deciding what to do
 
Took my 2011 180 DSG to a van centre's body shop in Kirkcaldy for inspection of roof corrosion a week ago today. The body shop confirmed a corrosion issue on front fixed roof panel and under rubber seal to pop-up roof.

I rang the body shop today to check that my claim had been submitted to VW and was somewhat put out to learn that it was likely to be several weeks before this happens because of the backlog of claims which are waiting to be "re-submitted".

I'm more than willing to accept that those poor folk who have already had a claim submitted and are now told, for some unaccountable reason, that their claim has to be re-submitted should be in front of me in the queue. What I cannot accept is that this unbelievable bureaucratic nightmare, invented by VW, is causing a delay of maybe 6-8 weeks after the body shop inspection has confirmed that my vehicle is suffering from the dreaded roof corrosion issue before my claim will be received by VW.

This is a major international manufacturer behaving like a dodgy back-street trader. Why on earth can it not get its act together?

Kirkcaldy are utterly useless. They gave me the same runaround and put me to the back of the queue (after being at the front) simply because I'd discovered a new case of corrosion on the main roof. I eventually got so annoyed I contacted VWCS who promptly got my van booked in for repair within a fortnight.

This isn't incompetence at VWCS (this time!) but Kirkcaldy's inability to process a claim quickly. I can understand a bottleneck in getting the actual work done but in submitting a claim ... not acceptable.
 
Article in new Caravan Club mag about Matt Allwright from BBC watchdog who owns a Cali this may help the watchdog cause re roof issue as he may understand what the forum is contacting about.
 
Article in new Caravan Club mag about Matt Allwright from BBC watchdog who owns a Cali this may help the watchdog cause re roof issue as he may understand what the forum is contacting about.
Do you have a link to the article Andy?
 
He already knows, he is on here already, sadly it is down to the researchers who decide on the stories they cover.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
He already knows, he is on here already, sadly it is down to the researchers who decide on the stories they cover.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Might change his mind when his roof has the dreaded lurgy and he's put on a 2 year waiting list;)
 
Well after 4 weeks in the bodyshop it's no where near getting repaired. Now it's getting moved down south as the garage it's in can't repair the roof
 
Well after 4 weeks in the bodyshop it's no where near getting repaired. Now it's getting moved down south as the garage it's in can't repair the roof

Which body shop is it that can't complete the repairs ?
 
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