Electric Sliding Door Spring Catch issue...

[Geoff&Julia]

Hi all. I've a T5.1 with electric sliders, which I really like. But, the nearside one lurches when it starts to close. Having cleaned out the trackway and checked the wire tension, and cleaned out the bottom channel, and had the roller thing off I now know it's clean and gunge free and it's a lot better.

But it still jumps a bit as the roller moves out from the spring catch. Given that the doors stay open anyway due to the drag of the motor, is there a downside in disabling the spring catch?

I'm tempted to make something up to replace it so there's nothing to interrupt the smooth flow of the door. Am I missing something? Will that muck the operation of the door up?

 

[Pauly]

Good question, i had considered its purpose in the past but figured if it wasn’t necessary VW would not have fitted it
It’s only held in by two bolts and can be withdrawn so I wonder if it could be removed and manipulated on the workbench to be a bit weaker/softer

 

[Geoff&Julia]

You need something there I think to stop any danger of the roller popping out and dropping the door, and I've tried popping a bit of wood in the end of the catch to keep it fully tensioned and thus as out of the way as much possible, and it improves it but it still lurches. So I'm thinking of making up a flat version...

But I had horrible visions of the door motor burning out as the catch somehow tells the motor to stop!

 

[MyOtherCarIsA]

Resurrecting an old thread... is this the behaviour you describe? I've managed to get the door to close now, but it doesn't work reliably. I think the bounce back is being triggered by the drag on the middle slider. Did you ever come up with a solution?

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