So disappointed in our cali...

[Jack Burns II]

Came over from Nth Ireland this morning to Ayr. After we got off the boat, the van showed a yellow symbol that the manual said was 'a catalytic fault' and that we were to drive slowly to a VW centre. Found one in Ayr, they ran a test that showed them an error but said they would have to run more detailed tests to find out exactly what the problem is. We had to unload 4 days stuff etc and find a dog friendly hotel for our 2 bichons costing £120 for B&B plus dinner of course. All this digital technology and it still can't tell us what is wrong. We don't know if they will find it or have it ready for tomorrow. Has this happened to anyone else and will VW give us any compensation. We spent nearly £50000 on the van last January because we thought it would be more reliable than one of those 'adapted' motorhomes. Think not now.

H&E

 

[WelshGas]

I presume it is under warranty?
Unless you have holiday insurance then it is no different to something going wrong at home. Might get a courtesy vehicle.
My EGR valve went at 900 miles, 2 weeks after I took delivery on 1st Dec 2014. Since covered 17,000 miles with no problems. All modern vehicles can have problems and it is basically down to EU regulations and the Environmental lobby trying to curtail our freedom.
Do you use your vehicle as a Daily driver or just high days and holidays?
If the latter, then that is possibly the reason. The T5 is based on a Van and meant to be used frquently!
I'm sure they will sort it out, probably a sensor or something. That's life I'm afraid.

 

[Martin]

If under warranty VW Assist will supply either a courtesy vehicle of hotel accomodation.

 

[Rob02]

Had the same problem a few years ago fixed by VW in an afternoon Sensor fault out of warranty as well.

 

[Jack Burns II]

I presume it is under warranty?
Unless you have holiday insurance then it is no different to something going wrong at home. Might get a courtesy vehicle.
My EGR valve went at 900 miles, 2 weeks after I took delivery on 1st Dec 2014. Since covered 17,000 miles with no problems. All modern vehicles can have problems and it is basically down to EU regulations and the Environmental lobby trying to curtail our freedom.
Do you use your vehicle as a Daily driver or just high days and holidays?
If the latter, then that is possibly the reason. The T5 is based on a Van and meant to be used frquently!
I'm sure they will sort it out, probably a sensor or something. That's life I'm afraid.

Thanks, still under warranty as only 8 months old. It is a 'second home' but we take it out frequently i.e. if not going away on a weekend. Just a bit worried that they won't find what problem is and we need to get home Sunday and of course have our wee break in Scotland beforehand-hotels don't do it for us any more when we could be in our campervan under the stars!

 

[GrannyJen]

VW customer care should cough up for the hotel. They are quite good that way. In fact, for the things that are quick fixes they are excellent.

Probably a sensor but it is, as Paul said, a penalty of the green world we are creating and diesels now have to expel cleaner air than what they probably ingest.

 

[BerndRos]

Nope sorry don't agree with all this..no point blaming it on the EU.

VW need to take these reliability issues seriously, which they do not.

I can confirm that when I broke down in Eastern Europe they did put me up in a hotel while it was fixed.

 

[WelshGas]

Sorry BerndRos but these sort of problems are not just confined to VW. All vehicle manufacturers suffer equally, even Rolls Royce and Ferarri . All modern engines have been over complicated due to EU regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and then the EU moves itself to Strasburg for just 4 days every month. Sorry, they are just a bunch of idiots feathering their own nests, and we the public just go along with it all and pay through the nose for "their" regulations.
Diesels were very simple engines once upon a time. That's why the Army still use "simple" diesels for operational vehicles.

 

[BerndRos]

Welshgas...

I can see all that and agree.

But really VW and other manufacturers need to take these things things seriously. Can you imagine the clout that have with governments....

 

[Jack Burns II]

Thank you all for your comments, helps when you feel stranded. VW garage never mentioned a vehicle and we had to find our own hotel. We went straight to garage and didn't contact breakdown service. Have phoned this morning and they are very busy so waiting for them to phone back, explained that this is our home for the next 4 days. Hotel check out is 11am but said to let then know if problem. Will phone customer service if not getting anywhere

 

[Jack Burns II]

Sorry BerndRos but these sort of problems are not just confined to VW. All vehicle manufacturers suffer equally, even Rolls Royce and Ferarri . All modern engines have been over complicated due to EU regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and then the EU moves itself to Strasburg for just 4 days every month. Sorry, they are just a bunch of idiots feathering their own nests, and we the public just go along with it all and pay through the nose for "their" regulations.
Diesels were very simple engines once upon a time. That's why the Army still use "simple" diesels for operational vehicles.

 

[Jack Burns II]

Garage just phoned, still running diagnostics but think it is the 'gas emission recycle valve' that has gone. If it is, not in stock and will get overnight and fit tomorrow, won't get van back until afternoon. Have to book into hotel for another night and hopefully they will let us stay in the room for a bit longer tomorrow if we pay supplement. Phoned VW customer services who told us that we should have phoned breakdown service who would have supplied either car or accommodation. But we went straight to a VW centre as advised in booklet and the garage never offered anything or advised us to phone breakdown service in the garage! Frustrating but what can we do, customer services said they would get supervisor to phone us back by Monday...goodness help anyone who didn't have money to pay for accommodation etc

 

[Jack Burns II]

Welshgas...

I can see all that and agree.

But really VW and other manufacturers need to take these things things seriously. Can you imagine the clout that have with governments....

Phoned garage there to see if they would give us a courtesy car to get us around. Said it is the emission recycle valve and will get in over night but they have never fitted one in a vehicle like this so can't guarantee van will be ready tomorrow but may be next week. We have to go home Sunday so they are gone to check with customer services as to what happens in circumstances like this! Have no courtesy cars at present but will look into it and get back to us later today. So we may have to stay in hotel for the 4 days, don't know if we will be re imbursed or if we will get our van back before we go home, how we will get home etc. Not a person's fault but a system, a very bad system

 

[rippers]

Nightmare scenario I really feel for you (and family) if like me you spend ages planning these trips and organising places to stay etc (often paying upfront) and really build up expectations just to be let down like this is really bad, on all T5's but especially Campervans where like you say its your traveling home for a week. I feel that if this is a known fault then VW should recall the 180's and change the EGR's for known reliable versions.

I have to admit driving to Spain and back last month it was in the back of my mind what would we do if the worst happened but you can't let these things stress you out.. T2 ownership taught me that lol you never knew what was going to happen or whether you make it out of the end of your road lol

Try and keep positive thou, once fixed hopefully it will be long forgotten and your have plenty of great trips out.

We intended to go to Ireland ourselves next year, whats the ferry crossing like?

 

[snowy55]

We intended to go to Ireland ourselves next year, whats the ferry crossing like

Expensive!

 

[rippers]

Do you get bad crossings as I'm usually very unlucky with Ferry crossings had a shocker from Denia to Ibiza and it was 4 and half hours of hell..
Infact our Calias crossing last week was bad enough for me to loose my lunch lol

 

[snowy55]

Do you get bad crossings as I'm usually very unlucky with Ferry crossings had a shocker from Denia to Ibiza and it was 4 and half hours of hell..
Infact our Calias crossing last week was bad enough for me to loose my lunch lol

We went Fishguard to Rosslare a couple of years ago at Easter, it was as smooth as a smooth thing both ways.

 

[Jack Burns II]

Thank you. Ferry crossing just over 2 hours to Scotland from Ireland. The garage are now very supportive, say that this hasn't happened to them before. But the van won't be ready until next week now so they are giving us a loan car and said that VW will pay for the hotel (we have to move to another tomorrow as this one booked out) and bring the van over to Ireland when ready. Nightmare & we are exhausted but will try to make the most of the next 2 days, not easy to find a dog friendly hotel last minute. Hope VW do something if this is a common fault, you all seemed to know what it was before the garage but we suppose they had to go through all the checks anyway

 

[Jack Burns II]

Well folks. Garage phoned yesterday to say definitely won't have van ready until next week. They have supplied a nice car and said to email them the hotel receipts on our return home. First hotel lovely but didn't have room for Friday or Saturday so we had to move on. Second hotel awful, we have spent 2 hours on the net this morning trying to find another dog friendly one for tonight. Found one 50 miles away, at least we will see some more of Scotland. Gave all the food out of our fridge to the staff in the garage. Will never feel confident going away in van again, we didn't buy it for this...

 

[GrannyJen]

I am so sorry to read this

The disruption and difficulties you must all be facing is a nightmare.

I can only hope for you that this is an aberration, a one-off, and after this everything performs well for you and you get confidence back again. What a rotten thing to happen.

 

[Jack Burns II]

I am so sorry to read this

The disruption and difficulties you must all be facing is a nightmare.

I can only hope for you that this is an aberration, a one-off, and after this everything performs well for you and you get confidence back again. What a rotten thing to happen.

Thanks, they say that they will bring over on the ferry next week and we can give them back the loan car at the terminal. Hope we do get our confidence back as JB II is our second home

 

[GrannyJen]

Thanks, they say that they will bring over on the ferry next week and we can give them back the loan car at the terminal. Hope we do get our confidence back as JB II is our second home

That is a sentiment often overlooked by the dealer network.

A Cali is not just a van. It is also a home, a refuge, a get-away vehicle, a shelter and a friend. When they go wrong on us it's had not to feel a little personal about it.

I do hope JB2 is home soon.

 

[rod_vw]

I am intrigued as to why the garage did not tell you to continue using the Cali unless performance was affected.

I suffered exactly the same problem with a 180ps T5 last March whilst away from home. VW Assist came to site and diagnosed EGR valve, he reset the fault and told me to continue driving even if the fault returned unless performance was affected contact my local Van Centre. This I did and although the fault reappeared there was no other indication. When I contacted my local Van Centre they immediately said they would order a new unit and let me know when it was available. At that time there was a world wide shortage of EGR valves for 180ps T5s so I had to wait for a further time for a new valve to arrive. All in all I waited from 28th March to 30th April to get the valve changed but continued driving the vehicle with the blessing of Volkswagen.

By the way it takes an experienced VW Van Centre a around a day to change the valve on a 180ps due to the need to dismantle all of the front of the vehicle to access the part.

I would suggest that you talk to VW Assist and get Technical to do a proper assessment of the fault to find out if yours is like mine and can be driven until you can get it into a van centre at your convenience for the EGR to be changed.

Rod

 

[GrannyJen]

I am intrigued as to why the garage did not tell you to continue using the Cali unless performance was affected.

I suffered exactly the same problem with a 180ps T5 last March whilst away from home. VW Assist came to site and diagnosed EGR valve, he reset the fault and told me to continue driving even if the fault returned unless performance was affected contact my local Van Centre. This I did and although the fault reappeared there was no other indication. When I contacted my local Van Centre they immediately said they would order a new unit and let me know when it was available. At that time there was a world wide shortage of EGR valves for 180ps T5s so I had to wait for a further time for a new valve to arrive. All in all I waited from 28th March to 30th April to get the valve changed but continued driving the vehicle with the blessing of Volkswagen.

By the way it takes an experienced VW Van Centre a around a day to change the valve on a 180ps due to the need to dismantle all of the front of the vehicle to access the part.

I would suggest that you talk to VW Assist and get Technical to do a proper assessment of the fault to find out if yours is like mine and can be driven until you can get it into a van centre at your convenience for the EGR to be changed.

Rod

I did wonder that.

I always was under the impression that an amber warning light was "drive with caution".

 

[Toot-toot]

Hi Guys, we met at Minnows a few months back, so sorry you have had this problem, its awful but please don't let it put you off - its just a horrid one off! Once he is all fixed up he'll be fine........ share the full devastating story with vw care and although your break has been crap they'll cover the costs.... maybe we can meet up on our travels again? keep smiling