VW UK and the Kombi Leaky Window Saga

The de bonding of the bottom rail is the main cause of the leaks, the issue has been raised many times with VW. My converter uses genuine VW windows but rejects one in ten where he sees the bonding is not properly fixed.
Clearing the drains can help where the leaks are just blockages, but if the bonding has failed then water gets in regardless...
 
Mine was at the dealer last week and they said it was the door seal, not the window. Gave them the benefit of the doubt......got up this morning to find water in the footwell of the sliding door. Back she goes again...….ffs!
 
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So I'm a fully paid up member of leaky window club. Warranty replacement of my PS slider. Re-fitted and resealed, will see how it goes I guess.
 
Well I finally managed to get past the gatekeeper dragon at Pullman Durham (i.e. 19-yr old service clerk!). Spoke to a Technician for 2 mins, he looked where the water's coming in and agreed I need to a new window. Now waiting for the new window to arrive. Unbelievably annoying chew to go through!!
 
I’ll join the club. 17 plate kombi. Been in once for a fix and still pouring in. Dealer explained they cleaned the drain. BS . Fuming. They had it for 5 days too. Still under warranty. Phone call required tomorrow.
 
Just reading this and mines out of warranty with a leaky issue

I thought for the short term to use tiger seal to seal up the plastic part as below in the pic

that so the only way I can see it keeping dry until I can afford to replace it

anybody else done this?

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I opened up the drain holes on mine last week, I ground down a hacksaw blade & really had to force it though the sealant. I was able to do the rear hole without removing the opening window. Thankfully I can report there wasn't any water ingress during the rain we had yesterday.
 
I’m also a fully paid member of the leaky window club. 2016 Kombi so out of warranty too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've read all of these comments and I’m surprised no one has come up with a cheap and easy fix for this.
Whoever does could be very busy and very wealthy.
 
I bought my 2017 Kombi privately and found the sliding door window seemed to be manufacturing water. It was just out of warranty but I contacted VW who sent me to the local dealer to have the problem diagnosed. They wanted £110 to diagnose a problem. I could have shown them in minutes with the aid a few pints of foaming ale, some cold weather and a chair. It would have also given me a chance to show my feelings about the design. The dealer said that as the vehicle had a manufacturer service history VW might consider replacing the window. I declined as they might have refused and even if they did replace it I would only get another design fault window. I decided to cure it myself and yesterday had the window replaced with a solid pane. Problem solved.
 
I got fed up with the leaks and didn't fancy getting something with an inherent design fault fitted again so I had both leaky sliders taken out of my kombi and replaced with fixed windows.

Very pleased with the change and back seat passengers get huge single window to look out of now. Only downside is obviously not being able to open the windows for fresh air.
 
Has anyone had their windows changed to non-openers? My passenger side window has just started weeping a little (2017 model) but if it's going to be a re-occurring issue I'd rather just replace them with non-openers (as I had on my T5).
Yes. We've just done that. We never used the useless little sliders anyway and they leaked from new, irrespective of what I did. We now have one-piece glass and no longer have leaking windows. Which is nice, given the potential for damage to the floor and furniture on the off-side. My advice would be to spec one-piece glass from new, something I believe can be done.
 
Our 2016 twin slider kombi started to leak the first December we had it. The dealer had it overnight to sort it. They loaned us a brand new Kombi whilst they had it, that night it was raining heavily and it leaked like a sieve. Their efforts were in vain as the remedial work did not cure our leak. In fairness to the dealer they replaced the window and loaned us another brand new panel van. This cured the problem. After 2 years the other window started to leak after a night of very heavy rain. As our van was out of warranty I decided to look at every post on the forum and every google post about the problem. Some kind person has posted the fix that worked for me on the T6 Forum. All you need to do is as follows:
  • Remove the glass that slides (very carefully)
  • Clean the seals to remove all of the grit etc.
  • With the glass removed you will see all of the drain holes (there are more than you think and they are actually slots)
  • Use a plastic cable tie to poke all of the debris out of the slots
  • Carefully replace the glass
  • This worked for me
  • Another tip is try to park the van nose down a this is the best way to get any water that does leak in through the seals out of the drain holes
  • Also never open the window once you have fixed it, which really defeats the object of having the damn thing in the first place
Other people I have spoken to found issues with the glue bead having gaps in it which leaked. This happened when the windows were fitted by the manufacturer.
If VW say they are not aware of the problem ask yourself why most converters, when fitting opening side windows, steer well clear of the genuine VW ones.
Good luck!
 
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.
Well interesting, I took my van back to my local dealer to rectify an ongoing issue with my windscreen demister third time in as many weeks - another story....! Any way, After reading Lee's and others comments I was well prepared to mention the leaky side window saga the interesting point was the feedback from the service manager who has a novel solution - they no longer swap the windows out instead they bring a guy in to increase the size of the drainage holes which apparently does the trick - I'll keep you posted....
 
Well interesting, I took my van back to my local dealer to rectify an ongoing issue with my windscreen demister third time in as many weeks - another story....! Any way, After reading Lee's and others comments I was well prepared to mention the leaky side window saga the interesting point was the feedback from the service manager who has a novel solution - they no longer swap the windows out instead they bring a guy in to increase the size of the drainage holes which apparently does the trick - I'll keep you posted....
Interesting
 
Well interesting, I took my van back to my local dealer to rectify an ongoing issue with my windscreen demister third time in as many weeks - another story....! Any way, After reading Lee's and others comments I was well prepared to mention the leaky side window saga the interesting point was the feedback from the service manager who has a novel solution - they no longer swap the windows out instead they bring a guy in to increase the size of the drainage holes which apparently does the trick - I'll keep you posted....
Amusing - it'll not fix the leak.
 
Ha, my first 05 T5 leaked, as did my T6, as does my T6.1 (if I forget to clean it regularly ) as does my mates two £70K top spec T7's. I do love VWCS's response " oh really? We've never heard that before". I wonder if the Buzz's windows leak? ( I'm sure I've seen some with sliders) .
 
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