[voxmagna]

This question popped up and some saying they had gaps like MY07 or bigger. We concluded that as long as the side members are fully locked, any gap seen however ugly to look at was a common EOS 'feature'.

I can now explain this:
Each side member trim is held by seals on the outside, 3 pegs and two torx screws fixing through brackets at the rear of the trim. The trim cover is a cunning piece of ABS to remove. Towards the front are 2 white 8mm door card type pegs that run in slots in the trim and push into a hole in the side member assembly. The third peg catches you out because it's a solid fixed steel peg that also slides in a slot (in the opposite direction!) about half way along the trim capping. At the far rear end are 2 torx screws fastening through brackets that are also slotted.

Therefore, the entire length of this side member capping can be moved forwards and back once the two rear screws are slackened. To access these screws (I've marked mine in yellow) you have to drop the headlining from the front, but only as far as the center retaining bar. Unfortunately, the length once moved forwards or back either leaves a gap at the rear and closure at the front, or a big gap at the front and no gap at the rear.

My personal preference is for not much gap where the capping trim meets the 'A' pillar, and a larger gap at the rear which you don't often look at. If you have large gaps at the 'A' pillar, experiment by moving the trim cover. It may be stiff and it helps to have a bag full of the press in clips (Fleabay) just in case they break.

 

[GreenGables]

I just ran across this post after posting about a recently-developed gap seen from the interior of my Eos. Just to clarify, are you saying that the gap is just an aesthetic issue and would not be a cause of water leaking in at the top of the A-pillar? Thanks.

 

[voxmagna]

It's aesthetic. The important roof metal parts should be together and locked without a gap against the 'A' pillar - check if you aren't sure? This usually means the curved seal at the front of the top roof section is hard up against the 'A' pillar frame? The way the top front roof locks work is they hook over the roller keep and rotate pulling the parts together with quite a lot of hydraulic force. I doubt you will have a gap there.

However, The painted top roof section you look at from the outside with seals fitted, which most call the roof seals, are heavy duty 'covers' bolted over the roof hinge mechanism. They are an integral part of safety protection in the event of a rollover. Although there is not much written about them, or documented in V.W procedures, they do have some alignment. But this is extremely critical and not really for DIY because it affects not just the front edge of the seal but the long seal all the way back to the rear quarters. I succeded in working with these top roof sections, but there is a huge amount of time spent going to and fro checking seal gaps on BOTH sides, whilst making adjustments and using creative methods not described in V.W texts. You could to start with a small water drip at the 'A' pillar seal connection and end up with a bigger leak through the sunroof or rear quarters! Maybe a recently trained EOS roof technician has more info about them than me, I don't know? There are some weasel words in the shop manual to give a customer bad news if seal leaks to the sunroof are found, stuff about replacing seals which probably won't last, but nothing about the important alignment of the top roof sections AFIK.

This reply is really about the long trim cover that needs positioning to reduce the gap because others claimed they had larger gaps than me. V.W could have made the trim cover 5-10mm longer, but my suggestion is move it forwards to make the front gaps less horrible and put up with a larger gap at the rear.