VW T5 Leaking side windows.

[Harold11]

We first read about the problem in MMM in December 2005 in an article about a Bilbo,s Nexa. We wre seriously thinking of buying a Nexa in July 2007 and , remembering this, asked if the problem had been sorted, the reply which was given in good faith was that it seemed to be.

We went ahead and bought a new van and within a few weeks found that the side windows were leaking. So far, in 18 months the van has had one replacement assembly on the sliding door, two complete assemblies and a sliding panel on the drivers side and the leaks are still there.

We have since heard of many other instances and have made our own investigation and owners of T 5's may be interested to hear our findings:-

There are in fact several faults,

1) The bonding of the complete window assembly to the van can be faulty and let in water. This apparently was particularly bad with replacements if there was any dirt or grease around or the temperature was wrong or not enough time was allowed for the bonding agent to cure. This seems to have been sorted out.

2) The seal between the fixed and sliding parts of the window was too soft and allowed water ingress. VW modified this to a harder seal which helped but is not 100% successful.They also found that with the improved seal it was more difficult for owners to shut the window fully.

3)In view of the fact that some water was likely to come in a drain was added which collected water from the plastic guide runner and led it out through a duct under the bonding. A second duct at the rear of the window opening was added.

 

We feel that any seal is likely to wear with age and ,provided the drains work properly, the situation is acceptable. However We have noticed that if the van is parked facing up a relatively slight incline the water does not reach the drains but runs out at the back of the runner. We have recently seen this reported on other forums--what is needed is another drain at the rear of the assembly.

 

The problem with our Van is that the water HAS NEVER REACHED THE DRAINS. We could never understand how it managed to come out into the van from under the plastic trim clipped under the guide runner and this was the same with all our windows. Then, after a year of puzzling we noticed that water running down the inside of the fixed glass just vanished and re-appeared under the runner a minute or so later.

It is in fact passing throgh the bonded joint between the fixed glass and the guide runner presumably either because the bonding material is porous or because a robot has not applied a continuous bead.

 

This is a potential major problem. we were lucky in that the Nexa's window is accessible but in the traditional VW layout with furniture down the side and possibly fitted blinds it woul be quite easy not to notice the water ingress with potentially very expensive results.

This may be a limited problem but we have had it on five window assemblies and we tried a brand new T5 camper wiyh the same result.

Our VW dealer has witness our test and reported it to VW.

I have been in touch with VW technical who now believe me but say that this is a one-off ,they don't seem inclined to go and try a few for themselves, it only takes about ten minutes.

 

We would like to find out whether this is a real problem or not so if anyone out there wants to know the test proceedure just let me know and I will post it.

If we are correct then this needs to be shown to several VW dealers so that they can report it.

 

Look forward to hearing from anyone interested.

 

Harold11

[brom]

I'm sorry to hear that this has raised its head again. I was the writer of the Nexa article. We had a great deal of trouble with the leaking windows, but ours was finally solved with the installation of the replacement units with drains. It sounds, from what you say, that the last of your replacements units wasn't fitted properly, and should be replaced under warranty by VW - I found Technical Department quite helpful, (I dealt with Phil), and if your VW dealer agrees with you, they should be prepared to help, one-off or not.

I also wondered whether the extra body flex caused by removing the top of the 'van (in the rising-roof version) might cause a loosening of the seal twixt window and frame. I thought this because the straps holding the roof down could loosen over a journey on twisting roads, leading us to suppose there was some flexing of the body occurring.

You also have to be very careful to make sure the window is actually shut, as it's easy to leave it a smidgen ajar.

At one point in our saga, I did consider having replacement windows fitted, made by a firm in Manchester (was it STI?) - they supply windows to LeisureDrive for their campers, which have very obvious drain holes, and which appear not to leak.

Good luck

Brom

[Harold11]

Hi Brom,

Nice to hear from you.

1) Ours is a high top and I know that Bilbo's are fully approved by VW for their reinforcement so I am certain that body flexing has not been a problem with ours. The bonding of the window assemblies onto the van body has been carried out impeccably and fully tested.

2) There is only slight leakage through the current windows( which arealways carefully shut) but this leakage(which wouldn't matter if it went out through the drains) came into the van through the joint between the main glass panel and the lower guide rail which is bonded to it-- seems incredible and it took us a year to spot it !!

3)This fault was obviously unknown to VW or anyone else- in the case of our Nexa with rear Kitchen the leakage could be mopped (up using wads of kitchen roll tucked under the runner trim) but pity the poor owners of normal side kitchen VW's who have a potential time bomb ticking away.

4) We have heard of the replacements available- Vansport in Penzance are first rate- but we are determined to try and get VW to do a proper permanent cure.

5) When we demonstrated the fault to the VW technician his attitude ,after initial disbelief, was "good lord they are probably all like it".

When we showed Bilbos they wer quite amazed.

6) we have a temporary fix done by our VW garage who removed the sliding windows and applied a very thin bead of sealer along the runner/window joint. This works which shows our diagnosis was correct but the water,instead of running along the little channel next to the glass,

now runs over into the runner guide grooves where it doesn't drain fully.

Much better than before.

 

We don't know how widespread this problem is but we are concerned that there could be quite a few unsuspecting owners who find they have unsuspected damp problems

The test is very simple and takes about ten minutes so if anyone wants furthe info I would be pleased to post it here.

 

Finally,on a more cheerful note, aren't Nexas great and T5's as well apart from the blooming windows!!

 

Cheerio,

Harold11