Water Ingress in 2 1/2 year old Burstner

[eddieandsue]

Has anybody had this problem, we have found signs of water ingress above the passenger seat in our Burstner Nexxo where the cab joins the van.

Any suggestions of what to do would be appreciated as it looks as if we may have voided our warranty by having it serviced by the dealer we bought it from who apparently are not Burstner dealers.

We live in Burbage, Leicestershire.

[Bolly1965]

Leaks? On a foreign van?. Unheard of! (According to most on here...)

[woody.]

This doesnt surprise me since most companys get out of warranty issues with all sorts of excuses , have a look at the silicon seal around the join you might be able to sort it yourself otherwise ask your dealer . Good luck .

[globebuster]

You need to be more specific as to the location.

 

I'm assuming you've taken a look at the external seams around the area?

 

Have you ruled out condensation?

 

There has been another poster with a similar issue on here, and another if I recall on a personal blog.

 

Unfortunately the point of ingress will not necessarily be at the location it manifests itself in the van.

 

I would have thought that the supplying dealer [assuming its within a reasonable timescale from purchase] is your first port of call. Given the age of your van, I wouldn't imagine Burstner will fail to honour their ingress warranty, provided the van has had its annual hab check, although not complying with the stipulation that it needs to be done at an official Burstner dealer, might well be a get out clause for them.

 

In my opinion the more recent Burstner models are not so well assembled as earlier versions - there seems to be a retro grade step in terms of body mouldings and joints on newer models.

 

Why not speak directly to Burstner and get a feel for things?

[Brian Kirby]

To be clear, I assume this van was bought second-hand from a non Burstner dealer?

 

Since you refer to the warranty, I assume it was bought on the understanding that the warranty was valid at the time of your purchase, and that the van was supplied with the full warranty details?

 

Unless Burstner have changed their rules, the only stipulation to maintain the water ingress warranty was that an annual damp inspection had to be carried out by a Burstner authorised dealership. There were, so I assume still are, time limits for this inspection, so it would be wise to check these to see exactly what they say. The inspections relate to the date of first registration of the vehicle, and must be carried out every 12 months thereafter, with a stated latitude after the anniversary of registration, and possibly also before that date. From memory, that gave a quite wide window within which the inspection could be carried out and the warranty maintained. So, even if you took the van to the supplying dealer instead of an authorised dealer, there may still be time to get it to the right dealer before that window closes.

 

There was no requirement to have any kind of "service" carried out on the vehicle to maintain the water ingress warranty. The only servicing requirement was for the base vehicle, to maintain the Fiat warranty in force.

 

If you are unsure where you stand vis-a-vis the warranty, contact Burstner UK to see what they advise. I am unaware of any means by which the warranty could be reinstated if the terms have been breached, but it is surely worth asking on so young a vehicle?

 

In the meantime, the first obvious step is to take the van to an approved Burstner dealership to see what they say about the ingress. They should know the model better than the supplying dealer, and may have been advised by Burstner to check specific areas of known weakness.

 

However, the van should not be leaking, and whether or not the warranty is intact it is the supplying dealer who is legally liable under consumer legislation for the quality of what he supplied. Whether you feel you want to try to use the provisions of consumer legislation only you can decide. Irrespective of what you decide however, you would be wise, IMO, to take this up with the supplying dealer immediately, as his liability is not legally limited by the existence of the warranty and, as he carried out whatever "service" was involved, he should reasonably have identified the leakage at that time. You must notify him of the defect as soon as possible, and give him the opportunity to put it right. If you don't do this, but subsequently decide to pursue him legally for the repairs, you will have weakened your case against him.

 

Once you have done that, and have the definitive ruling on the Burstner warranty, you will know who is liable to make the repairs. You may find you have a choice between a Burstner dealership and the supplying dealer. in which case I think the answer is a no-brainer! Good luck.

[Keith T]

Yes, as stated the Burstner Warranty does require you to have an annual damp check by A Burstner dealer, which we had done up to the 5yr expiry. At almost 7 yrs we have found damp ingress into one of the lower under rear seat lockers, and it was thought to be a faulty/worn seal on the external locker door.Having had that done, when the next bout of heavy rain came, we had fortunately stuff loads of kitchen roll along the inside lower edge of the locker, and no it had made no difference, and the paper was absolutely soaked. We then examined it further and found the sealant around the frame had probably dried out, so initially we re-sealed that, where we could access it. However further examination suggested that it was going round the frame and in at the bottom where we could not get to it due to the design of the side panel.

In the end we discussed it further with our dealers, and agreed that the frame itself needed to be taken out and new sealant put right around before replacing this - a job not really DIY. So that has now been done, and hopefully will have solved the problem. Our dealer suggested that at 7 yeasr, such problems may occur, though on the whole Burstner models are pretty good on this.

However 2.5yrs is not on, but whether Burstner would honour a warranty if the terms have not been fulfilled is a question I would ask of a Burstner dealer. Not sure where the OP's nearest dealer would be, but Chelston, Somerset are very helpful in this respect.

I should add that with our previous Rapido 710F we did have a similar problem with damp ingress where the cab body joined the Caravan body, and this was dealt with by Rapido at Wokingham without any question.

[Noody]

Burstner has used steel screws in what is a marine environment, most issues occur out of warranty period so are never in my 12 year ownership period addressed.

 

The use of slowly corroding steel screws that allow water to pass in time explains the reason the issue hasn't been addressed. It's mostly second hand owners dealing with the problem.

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

This forum discussion was begun in April 2014 and (based on eddieandsue’s other postings) the Burstner Nexxo with water-ingress problems was 2011 vintage.

 

Even if Burstner had used non-stainless-steel screws for constructional purposes the location of the problem in this instance - "where the cab joins the van” - and the vehicle’s relative youth makes it improbable that corroded screws were the cause. It’s more likely that a poorly sealed joint was the culprit.

 

However, as there was no follow-up about how the problem was resolved (and it looks like eddieandsue may no longer actively participate on these forums) the reason for the water-ingress may forever remain a mystery.

[Noody]

Would it be convenient if we put a stop to the discussion ? Of course it would.

 

Most motorhome owners just don't have the tenacity to Persue these problems further than a couple of phone calls and the trade is well aware of the fertile ground this allows.