Re: VW warranty@uboc.com

[deecee@exit109.com]

At 03:22 PM 7/28/97 -0700, you wrote:
>The door panels on our cars suck!  After getting no where with my local 
>area dealers, I finally forked $200 to a competent third-party shop to 
>have them fixed (post 2/24k warranty, of course...).  The problem (at 
>least mine) stemmed from lousy (and cheap) VW engineering.  The door 
>panels on the car are held on by cheap plastic fastners that are good for 
>(at most) two removal cycles.  Thereafter, the fasteners get stripped and 
>you pretty much have to replace them.  In addition, on pre-1996 models 
>like mine, VW left out the insulation tape btw. its door panels and the 
>door frames.  Consequently, my loose doors made that much more noise.
>
>My third party guys were aware of the VW fix (ie - apply tape...).  But, 
>as Chris pointed out, that works for about one hot summer...  So, my guys 
>replaced all the mounting hardware and then applied a silicon jelly to 
>the door frame where it meets the panel.  Viola - no more door panel 
>rattles - in fact my panels seem tighter than when the car was new...  
>They really don't make any noise, period... (Plus the jelly isn't nearly 
>as ugly as the tape, because it can be applied more precisely.)  Of 
>course, the silicon might run if the car gets really hot, but it hasn't 
>yet and in the meantime my doors are rattle free...
>
>You might be able to do all this yourself for at less cash...  The 
>mounting hardware for all four doors is roughly $80.  Just pull 'em off 
>and apply tape or jelly and replace...
>
>Anyway, good luck - hope you dealers are better than mine...
>
>- JC
>
>James, As a VW tech I agree with you that our trim parts are terrible. It
seems to me that everything is made to go together and not come apart.
Henceforth "one way clips" Whenever I take off a door panel I will replace
all the clips and the vapo barrier. If you think the A3 is bad try taking a
door panel off a Fox without having the clips break. Next to impossible.

Don