VW UK and the Kombi Leaky Window Saga

leeasy

Member
Hello all,

This is my first real post other than to say hello as a new member a few weeks back.

As I am the proud owner of a T6 kombi which I have wanted for a very long time, I was somewhat irritated to find when I took it to have the rear trimmed out that water had been making its way inside, down the outer panel and also onto the trim panel. My first port of call was the forum to bring myself up to speed with anyone else who had experienced the same..... lo and behold, it’s a tale as old as time.

I started making some enquiries, I spoke to my local VW commercial dealership and got the expected response of “ not heard anything about that, book it in and we’ll have a look”.....hmmm. Spoke to the independent dealer where I bought it from, they share the building with a conversion specialist, followed their advice of “clean everything” but the leak (ha..leak just auto corrected to lake) prevailed. Then spoke to a window specialist not far from the VW dealership, he was very forthcoming with information and told me that it’s been a fault for years and they have replaced “loads” of windows for the dealers as they change them out on the new vehicles before giving them to the customer as “they know they’re likely to leak”.

I decided then to contact VWUK on customercare@vwcv.co.uk, giving details of the problem and how I’ve discovered it’s a well known problem with lots of their customers commenting online but with very little available from VW addressing the problem.... I also added in that I am a long standing advocate of the brand and have owned VW’s for the last 25 years just for good measure. The reply I received was one that pretty much glossed over what I’d said and instructed me to book it in for a diagnosis. Not one to roll over easily, I sent a second mail pointing out that the “diagnosis” has already been made over many different vehicles over a long period and I failed to believe that VW were unaware of the problem. After this, I spoke to the local VW dealership again and asked if there had ever been any recalls for this fault, the service department took the time to speak to the technicians and look through the system and told me that there were some faults and rectification works to this effect....... well, well.

This is when VWUK telephoned me. The customer care consultant I spoke to was very professional in her responses and told me that “ there is NOTHING ON THEIR SYSTEM about this issue” hard to believe. The consultant said that VW will take notice if they receive contact from more their customers with the same issues, like I said, hard to believe that no-ones mentioned it.

Well, here it is, I figured I’m a member of a forum with several people with this very issue and as I’ve opened a case there can be no more denial that anyone’s mentioned the fault. My theory is if that enough of us put an email together with their own experience, VWUK will address the issue of what is a factory fault that they seem to think is perfectly ok to continue with.

Bear in mind that my T6 is a 2016, so out of any warranty but that’s not the point.

Contact details for VWUK:
customercare@vwcv.co.uk
0800 7834909

Thanks for reading to the end, maybe some people power might make a difference, maybe not but it’s worth a try.

Lee.
 
I’ve also just sent them an email about my leaking window. It will be interesting to see what they say.
 
You will get more success and joy from pissing up a rope. Leaking windows, defectkve EGR coolers, Adblue issues - you name it and VW will deny it.
 
I think it fair to say most manufacturers want to avoid acknowledging "known" issues.

VW and Moll batteries spring to mind! My local service centre deny its a problem ....... the workshop staff are well aware of it.

My window leaks slightly so I've just emailed them ............. wonder what they will say!
 
they have had my e mail as well

n/s slider pi55ing in, all cleaned out and greased previously

e mail was sent with delivery and read request, both confirmations have been sent back as received and opened, then got the standard "" Thank you for your enquiry"" e mail

lets see what what, as from the response given by a vw commercial dealership in north cambs , stating that "" issues such as this"" are not covered under warrantee, are not really good enough
twice its been seen, twice denied that it is an issue
 
VW called me back regarding my email today .... suggesting I take the van into the nearest service centre .....
 
When VW called me to discuss my email, we eventually got to the fact that customer service has to follow a process hence they also told me to “book in for a diagnosis “ as part of said process.
 
Hi Lee,

I would be very happy to pass details of my case, which was accepted and resolved by VW as a known issue. I can give you the reference number of my case so they can see it’s not an unknown issue!

Pm me and I can let you know..
Regards


Dave
 
good news

( hopefully)

had a call from vw customer services requesting the van be taken into another van service centre to confirm the leak, then i have to call back, reopen the case and customer services will liaise directly with the service centre to rectify and replace


heres hoping

kris
 
That’s the same as they’ve asked me to do, just need to sort time to get it to them.

Keep us informed,

Lee.
 
Had both mine replaced (twin slider) by VW. Took nearly 6 mths but they are certainly aware its an issue.
 
I had both of mine done, again twin slider, when the van was six months old. I’d only bought it a few weeks prior as an ex demo / staff vehicle. I ended up sending a long email to the dealer stating they had sold me something that wasn’t fit for purpose and that I would be handing the van back to them until the windows were fixed.

True to their word I was provided with a Kombi loaner, which we took on holiday :whistle:, and I picked my van up 10 days later with two new windows and the invoices for the work which had been done by local outside contractor.
 
Van went in this morning for the inspection of the leaky n/s slider, that was declined twice by another dealer, even though they had images of the ingress

vwuk issued case number, case manager etc and also informed me of another local Van service centre( not a sales center mores the pity :(

all i had to do was ring vwuk and let them know the date the van was booked in for

took it in this morning, they asked me to sit in the back whist a small light sprinkle of water was applied via a hose pipe

as you can see, it was pi55ing in, that was with hardly any pressure from the hose

they agreed immediately the warrantee claim, will be checking the o/s also, even though iv noticed no issues with that one
parts ordered this morning, fitted tomorrow and to be collected friday afternoon or saturday morning)
courtesy van given, insurance not charged etc
works well for me as im in hospital tomorrow morning to have 3 gnashers removed under sedation, so cant drive till friday afternoon anyway, so a van rather than kombi is not an issue

IF, it all goes well, i will name the local service centre, as this one has really slipped under the radar , especially in south lincolnshire ref servicing and warrentees etc
I've been travelling 80+ miles each way up to now !IMG_2410.jpg
 
Van went in this morning for the inspection of the leaky n/s slider, that was declined twice by another dealer, even though they had images of the ingress

vwuk issued case number, case manager etc and also informed me of another local Van service centre( not a sales center mores the pity :(

all i had to do was ring vwuk and let them know the date the van was booked in for

took it in this morning, they asked me to sit in the back whist a small light sprinkle of water was applied via a hose pipe

as you can see, it was pi55ing in, that was with hardly any pressure from the hose

they agreed immediately the warrantee claim, will be checking the o/s also, even though iv noticed no issues with that one
parts ordered this morning, fitted tomorrow and to be collected friday afternoon or saturday morning)
courtesy van given, insurance not charged etc
works well for me as im in hospital tomorrow morning to have 3 gnashers removed under sedation, so cant drive till friday afternoon anyway, so a van rather than kombi is not an issue

IF, it all goes well, i will name the local service centre, as this one has really slipped under the radar , especially in south lincolnshire ref servicing and warrentees etc
I've been travelling 80+ miles each way up to now !View attachment 44700
Hope it all goes well (gnashers and Windows).
 
Get them to check the sliding door cards as well! I’ve had both my side windows replaced twice and both door cards as well due to the water ingress had damaged the board. No quibbles from my local JCT600 centre they just sorted it and apologised it wasn’t done right the first time!
 
No advice to offer, just to confirm that this has been going on with OE windows since the T5. I had my T5 converted with OE glass and the converter steered me away from the OE sliders for this very reason...in 2008!

My T6 has aftermarket sliders with no issues at all.
 
My 56 plate T5 window’s leaked. My 16 plate T6 window’s leaked ( and replaced, both sides, both leak again). VW don’t give a sh!t. As long as people want to be “part of the scene” and VW can’t make make enough, they won’t spend a penny fixing any of the well documented problems.

Personally I’m only in a T6 because there is nothing else out there that fits the bill, but VW know they have the UK market in particular, by the short and curlies, and will keep squeezing until something pops.
 
:(I’m officially in the leaky window club!
Bought a 2016 LWB 4Motion Kombi from the local VW Van centre and to be fair they have been pretty good.
Noticed the windows were leaking and the brakes were juddering on the test drive but was advised by sales that the windows would be sorted later and the brakes would clean themselves up.
Took it back two weeks after I bought it and have had new front brakes and discs without quibble as unsurprisingly the corroded low mileage discs were knackered. And the van went to the body shop so they could video the windows and send the assessment to VWUK. 10 days later and they called me today to book it in on the 19th for new windows both sides. No hassles, will be getting loan car not van but no problem for me.
I suspect sales wanted me to wait so that they can charge the work to the Das Auto warranty and not pick up the tab themselves. Happy that I got the 6 month offer warranty increased to 12 months!
Also very happy with the van so far despite the issues.
Will probably get a third party warranty next year, they are cheap as chips for these vans which probably indicates much better than average reliability, there’s no bargains in insurance.
 
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