side molding

[Marc Gallagher <mgallagher@Langan.com>]

Hi all.  I was washing my car yesterday (gotta love 55 degrees in February)
and found that the molding on the passenger door is loose/peeling off.

First, I am more than annoyed that a 2 year old car has parts falling off so
has anyone had any luck in dealing with VW customer support for these type
items?  I would like to have them own up to a production flaw.

Second, has anyone had a similar problem and put the molding back on
themselves?  If so any recommendations?  Materials?  Methods?

On another topic, I finally got replacement e-brake cables, made some mods
so they won't rip again (hopefully) and had them installed at the dealer.
Why do I rag on dealerships?  Well......the "it will take about 1.5 hours to
do (about $115)" estimate turned into a bill of $175 (52% increase) and I
asked them to rotate the tires (since they had 2 off already) and was
charged another $30 (which works out to about 1/2 hour of labor!  a half
hour to pull two more wheels!)  I am waiting for a call back to explain the
increase and 1/2 labor to pull two wheels.  I am not saying everyone has
these experiences but I seem to have many.

As far as the mods to the brake cables I will try to explain.  Since the
problem is the stretching of the rubber gaskets when the cable is released,
I attempted to install "arresting cables" to keep the rubber from feeling
the load when the brake is released.  I took two short lengths of stainless
wire and made loops around both ends of the gasket (one at the tip and one
around the metal ring at the base).  I then connected these rings with two
short lengths of wire running parallel to the brake cable.  So when the
brake is released and the gasket has to slide back into position, the wire
keeps the rubber from stretching.  That was probably a horrible description
but w/o a picture it is hard to explain.  Anyway it seems to work in the
living room.  Ask me in two years and I'll tell you if it made a difference.

Thanks in advance for any help with the molding thing.

Marc
97' Jetta GLX - Red/Black