[r.gbrown]

My lovely Eos (less than than 3K miles) was towed away yesterday on a curtainsider recovery truck...............I'm not a happy man..

Was enjoying the sun and a pleasant drive with the roof down when, on returning home, my roof got stuck half closed and refused to move either up or down. The result was a fully open boot lid and sun roof. It looked like the passenger side arm did not engage properly with the latch on the top screen although the drivers side did. The roof was clearly out of line somewhere.
No warning message was shown and it was only after a number of attempts to open/close the roof did I get an error message "temp too high". Once this was left to cool down I then got the dreaded "workshop" message. The RAC man was stumped so now in Arnold Clark Glasgow. They will look at it Monday so God knows when I might see it again. Just as well it was dry and I was home when this happened. The car was undriveable as the slightest bit wind would rip the whole thing off.......also hence a curtainsider tow truck was called into action to keep it safe.
Anyone else had this problem?

 

[Steve 3]

Hi Ronnie, I have never had a problem with the roof being stuck.
The message ( temp too high ) would usually only come on, if you kept opening and closing about 5 times consecutively .

 

[SiJ2000]

The hydraulic pump will also overheat if the roof gets jammed as it is working against itself.

This is a rare issue and not once I have ever seen before. It is highly improbable that the pins should not engage at the same time. Were you closing it whilst parked on a curb or at an angle?

 

[r.gbrown]

Was parked straight and level on driveway. Maybe find out tomorrow from dealer what went wrong, hope not too serious.

Got 2 day hire car from tomorrow thru VW. They pay for first 2 days but I'm not clear what happens then as far as a free courtesy car is concerned. The repairing dealer was not the supplier. Anyone any thoughts or experience in this area?

 

[John_F]

Ronnie,
I had a severe oil leak on my Eos with only 3000 miles on the clock. My nearest dealer was not the supplier either. When I asked for a courtesy car while mine was off the road the dealer couldn't supply one as they were all out & they had 9!
The dealer got on to VW HQ, explained the situation & as my car was off the road the dealer was able to hire one for me. I got a Golf TDI for 3 days while mine was fixed. I had to give a credit card number in case I had an accident & would have had to pay the first £100.00.
It may well be that VW have given the dealer 2 days to sort your problem - any longer & the cost of a rental car would be down to the dealer.

 

[r.gbrown]

Roof replacement (yes the whole lot)

Not a good day. Had call from my local dealer to advise they have managed to get my roof closed after many adjustments but each adjustment knocks out the alignment elsewhere.

Bottom line is they confirm the roof has kinked, (very rare they tell me) and VW has agreed to fit a complete new structure. Its about £4000 worth of parts which will be here in a few days but they also need some kind of replacement bolts which hold the roof in place and they are on factory order.
Reckon it will be at least another 2 weeks minimum before I see my car again. Not very happy at this but at least the dealer (Arnold Clark) have kept me informed and VW have arranged a free Europcar car rental (too bad its a Vauxhall Vectra but at least its new...ish, reminds me of a 1993 Cavalier I once owned, pretty similar)

Anyone with any thoughts or comments, please let me know.

Whats the chances of claiming loss of use and enjoyment from VW? Anyone gone down this route with them?

 

[SiJ2000]

That is indeed very rare!!

Hope it works out well!

 

[Doolallygirl]

Whats the chances of claiming loss of use and enjoyment from VW? Anyone gone down this route with them?

As you would have known through my numerous messages regarding my leaky problems, I have been down a compensation route, where I am now at the moment on the pinacle of getting something to compensate my embarrassment of having to drive a Polo for two months while VW got my carpet imported from Germany. I have suggested a whole list of things I would be happy with including cash, the insurance difference (only £60 but stil worth claiming!), an Autogleam, free service/MOT when it comes up, free car washing whenever I want one for the next so many months etc, free bottle of lubricant. I don't think it's too much to ask as it is their car at fault. Ask about compensation when before you get your car back. Call VW customer services on 0800 0833 914 and say it's not good enough to put you in such a crap car etc etc etc. Let them know you are unhappy.

Fingers crossed you get it back sooner than they are saying though to enjoy the lovely weather we are having at the moment.

 

[Daneel]

Bottom line is they confirm the roof has kinked

You don't by chance have a SmartTop Mod that may have been operated while moving?

There seems to be a great deal of concern on this site about that possibility and I was wondering if it actually happened to anyone.

E

 

[silvershadow]

You don't by chance have a SmartTop Mod that may have been operated while moving?

There seems to be a great deal of concern on this site about that possibility and I was wondering if it actually happened to anyone.

E

If you do not have a SmartTop - was the car parked on the side of a road with a high crown such that the car had a visible tilt to one side?

When we arrived home after delivery of my partner's Eos, I observed some obvious sideways movement of the roof when my partner was closing it while parked on the side of the road in front of our garage. The extent of movement was such that I became concerned about possible binding of the mechanism or damage to the roof itself. We now make sure the opening and closing of the roof only takes place when the car is as level as possible.

 

[SiJ2000]

Whilst the roof is a bit delicate, it is pretty robust... One of the biggest causes of the roof being out of alignment is a hydraulic problem, perhaps some air in one of the cylinders...

 

[r.gbrown]

Whilst the roof is a bit delicate, it is pretty robust... One of the biggest causes of the roof being out of alignment is a hydraulic problem, perhaps some air in one of the cylinders...

Thanks for your comments.

No SmartTop or any other device fitted and was parked in driveway, straight, level and no wind. Boot was empty and internal cover thingy (forget what you call it) locked in place correctly.

Clearly a tech fault of some kind but I'm guessing VW maybe unsure of how to repair it or the resilience of such repair hence authorising a complete replacement roof.

If I find out any detail I'll let you all know.

 

[Doolallygirl]

Thanks for your comments.

No SmartTop or any other device fitted and was parked in driveway, straight, level and no wind. Boot was empty and internal cover thingy (forget what you call it) locked in place correctly.

Clearly a tech fault of some kind but I'm guessing VW maybe unsure of how to repair it or the resilience of such repair hence authorising a complete replacement roof.

If I find out any detail I'll let you all know.

Just as a by-the-by comment, I was told when I bought my Eos that the roof was probably worth about £7k and that gap insurance was the way forward as any problems with the roof would result in the car being written off. It made sense at the time and I did plump for the gap insurance in the end. Surprising to then hear it is only worth £4k, but at the same time still happy I have gap insurance in any case

 

[Elan Sprint '72]

The day before mine was due to go in to investigate water in the boot, was lovely, so I put the roof down for the first time for a while. Drove into the car-park at work, all the bits seemed to go back into place but before the windows came up there was a continued sound of the motor/hydraulic pump running and "System Error" came up on the info screen.
Switched off and opened it again, had a look in the boot slot, could see nothing amiss, so tried again and it shut.

Got the car back tonight (after four days, and they had not even washed it, despite it having a £295 service) and the roof seemed to work OK, although it was creaking like a galleon in a gale over rough roads, where before it was silent.

 

[r.gbrown]

Doolallygirl, I think £4k is parts only cost, it was the technician who mentioned this figure so not sure how accurate it is.
On the GAP question, are you sure this would cover you if your roof could not be repaired (outside warranty time)?
I'm no GAP expert but I thought this only covered any loss in the event of an accident rather than a "breakdown". Be very interested if you could check your policy wording in detail and let us know.

PS I hate this Vectra loan car, its like driving a boat...................

 

[r.gbrown]

Doolallygirl, I think £4k is parts only cost, it was the technician who mentioned this figure so not sure how accurate it is.
On the GAP question, are you sure this would cover you if your roof could not be repaired (outside warranty time)?
I'm no GAP expert but I thought this only covered any loss in the event of an accident rather than a "breakdown". Be very interested if you could check your policy wording in detail and let us know.

PS I hate this Vectra loan car, its like driving a boat...................

Up date.........
Now have an Astra loan car, drives much better than the Vectra.

Spoke to my dealer on Wednesday. The original replacement roof has got lost between MK and Glasgow, how can they misplace a whole roof???

Anyway, they tell me another has been ordered from the factory and should be here in a day or so. It will take maybe 3 full days work to fit plus painting of the new roof section so I reckon another week at least. Not happy at such a major repair time but cant rush them. God knows what the total bill will be for VW, I estimate all told they wont get much change from £7500. So glad I'm not paying.

Once fitted, it had better not bloody leak as was OK before....................

 

[cambourne7]

Make sure they kyrox the seals and i think they should do a free service while they have the car

 

[r.gbrown]

Make sure they kyrox the seals and i think they should do a free service while they have the car

Happy days............got my car back today after 4 weeks of having to endure a Vauxhall hire car.............so happy to have it back. Fingers crossed all is ok.
Thank God I wasnt paying the bill. VW will be glad not may roofs need replaced, however. this, I gather, this was the 2nd roof the dealer had done..................Letter now off to VW to claim compensation for loss of use, enjoyment and depreciation. Will let you know how I get on.

Meantime . where's the sun....................

 

[Doolallygirl]

Happy days............got my car back today after 4 weeks of having to endure a Vauxhall hire car.............so happy to have it back. Fingers crossed all is ok.
Thank God I wasnt paying the bill. VW will be glad not may roofs need replaced, however. this, I gather, this was the 2nd roof the dealer had done..................Letter now off to VW to claim compensation for loss of use, enjoyment and depreciation. Will let you know how I get on.

Meantime . where's the sun....................

Hey sorry only just checked back on this thread! The GAP insurance (although I haven't checked the documentation - my dad keeps all that "car stuff" away from me so I don't lose it!) I'm pretty sure it only covers if you have an accident and the car is "written off" not if there is a problem with the car or fundamentally with the roof etc etc. So you were right in what you said.

Glad you got your car back finally. Mine is going back in tomorrow. The only compo I managed to wrangle was a free service/MOT/valet/autoglym and bottle of lube! Let us know what you get.

 

[Coo]

The whole thing is not that rare... Hydraulics overheating causes the roof to jam and then the "temp high" flashes, as it happened in your case. The best thing you had to do was to wait..and wait... and wait until the hydraulics temp go down, then the roof is fully functional again. But I think the initial problem with the whole thing was that (I presume) you tried to close the roof on a non-horizontal place. The car is vital that remains in the most horizontal position as possible when you open/close the roof, otherwise you'll get those problems with roof alignment.
Sorry to see that you had to go through all of these procedure, but sometimes it is not only the car, we have to be careful with the instructions manual.
Sorry for my bad English.