Door card bubbling, quality issue?

[dephead2004]

Mine appeared early doors, maybe within the first 4 months, wondered to myself at first if it was in my head but it got progressively worse to the level it's at now, it's looked like that for a while. No doubt at some point it'll look like a burst sofa. A warranty visit to a dealer is long overdue

My warranty list as it stands today...

• Door Card - Bubbling on O/S/F door card trim

• Centre Armrest - collapses, times it holds time it doesn't, used to work every time without fail.

• Handbrake - applying/releasing feels rough whereas before it had a slick ratchet motion

• Headlights - growth/mould in the corners

• AirCon - was never cold. warmer than the 5yr old golf I traded-in that never saw re-gassing. Think I'll be out of luck with this one due to time.

I feel the handbrake and Centre Armrest are connected, ie; somethings went amiss with whatever mechanism is housed within that centre tunnel/console.

Is there a Haynes Manual out for these yet? last I looked there wasn't, mind you that was a wee while back.




Feel free, lmk how you get on, lock & load

I had the same problem with the handbrake. Required a replacement cable. Done under warranty on the third time of asking. Went to try a new one to be sure. Smooth. Mine was gritty. Lubricating the mechanism didn't work , neither did fiddling with the brake end of the cable.

 

[Mr Pig]

It shouldn't make any difference if you rest your elbow there, a few drips of water get in, it is exposed to daylight or any of other things experienced by products that live outside of your livingroom. That's all bollocks! Basic quality failures like this were common in the seventies but not today.

They've screwed up, end off.

 

[Fmxvxx]

Mine appeared early doors, maybe within the first 4 months, wondered to myself at first if it was in my head but it got progressively worse to the level it's at now, it's looked like that for a while. No doubt at some point it'll look like a burst sofa. A warranty visit to a dealer is long overdue

My warranty list as it stands today...

• Door Card - Bubbling on O/S/F door card trim

• Centre Armrest - collapses, times it holds time it doesn't, used to work every time without fail.

• Handbrake - applying/releasing feels rough whereas before it had a slick ratchet motion

• Headlights - growth/mould in the corners

• AirCon - was never cold. warmer than the 5yr old golf I traded-in that never saw re-gassing. Think I'll be out of luck with this one due to time.

I feel the handbrake and Centre Armrest are connected, ie; somethings went amiss with whatever mechanism is housed within that centre tunnel/console.

Is there a Haynes Manual out for these yet? last I looked there wasn't, mind you that was a wee while back.



Feel free, lmk how you get on, lock & load

I'm quite intreiged by the bubbling on the door card Not had a car come through the workshop presenting this problem before so please keep us updated about how that goes.

Center arm rests tend to fail through to much weight being applied to them.

The handbrake tends to feel gritty when bits of debris get stuck into the handbrake cable assembly this can normally be fixed by a clean and grease but on some occasions it can cause damage to the cable which will then be replaced.

The air con from the factory does not come fully topped up same as all new cars when they arrive for PDI at the dealership they need all there fluids topping up Oil coolant screenwash AC the factory do this to save costs and some dealerships Do not regass the vehicles before they go out for sale.

 

[NBSmith78]

In my opinion unless you've been doing something very weird to your door this has to be a manufacturing defect and therefore covered under warranty.

I used to work as a design engineer for an automotive company of a similar size to the VAG group, making similar classes of vehicle to SEATs, VWs, etc. When designing door trim components just like these ones, the door trims went through an enormous range of fairly nasty tests to ensure they survived intact and that the vinyl "leather" material remained glued to the plastic substrate underneath. As I recall, prolonged heat, UV, loads (simulating an arm resting on the door) and exposure to various liquids such as sunblock were part of the normal tests.

Seeing the vinyl finish bubbling up like this looks like the adhesive hasn't bonded correctly - maybe something contaminated the surfaces during assembly. It seems really unlikely to be something you could easily cause yourself, since you'd expect to see damage to the outer surface if that was the case.

 

[JACUPRA280]

In my opinion unless you've been doing something very weird to your door this has to be a manufacturing defect and therefore covered under warranty.

I used to work as a design engineer for an automotive company of a similar size to the VAG group, making similar classes of vehicle to SEATs, VWs, etc. When designing door trim components just like these ones, the door trims went through an enormous range of fairly nasty tests to ensure they survived intact and that the vinyl "leather" material remained glued to the plastic substrate underneath. As I recall, prolonged heat, UV, loads (simulating an arm resting on the door) and exposure to various liquids such as sunblock were part of the normal tests.

Seeing the vinyl finish bubbling up like this looks like the adhesive hasn't bonded correctly - maybe something contaminated the surfaces during assembly. It seems really unlikely to be something you could easily cause yourself, since you'd expect to see damage to the outer surface if that was the case.

Thank you for your input into this - very insightful.

I agree that this should be covered under warranty. As you say, it isn't normal wear and tear. It is a quality issue. The fact that another member of this forum has the exact same issue shows that mine is not an isolated case.

My car is booked in for the 22nd of July - I will of course update everybody on the outcome.

 

[Andy]

In my opinion unless you've been doing something very weird to your door this has to be a manufacturing defect and therefore covered under warranty.

I used to work as a design engineer for an automotive company of a similar size to the VAG group, making similar classes of vehicle to SEATs, VWs, etc. When designing door trim components just like these ones, the door trims went through an enormous range of fairly nasty tests to ensure they survived intact and that the vinyl "leather" material remained glued to the plastic substrate underneath. As I recall, prolonged heat, UV, loads (simulating an arm resting on the door) and exposure to various liquids such as sunblock were part of the normal tests.

Seeing the vinyl finish bubbling up like this looks like the adhesive hasn't bonded correctly - maybe something contaminated the surfaces during assembly. It seems really unlikely to be something you could easily cause yourself, since you'd expect to see damage to the outer surface if that was the case.

Thanks for the nfo

My car is booked in for the 22nd of July - I will of course update everybody on the outcome.

Ditto, going on holiday soon but I'll contact the nearest dealer on my return.

 

[JACUPRA280]

Update!

Update!

Took the car down to Seat today and Seat HQ have authorised the replacement of the door card .

Unfortunately, these are on back order so I suspect it'll be a few weeks until I finally get it replaced. Whilst I was at the stealers I had my annoying speedo rattle fixed aswell.

Hopefully the dealership will order the right colourway!

 

[JACUPRA280]

UPDATE!

I finally got the bubbling sorted on the door card by Seat.

Unfortunately, they cheaped out and didn't replace the whole card. They appear to have simply peeled off the old bubbled leather and applied some new leather to it. A bit disappointed to be honest but it looks as good as new, so I can't complain.

On another note, the washed my car when I asked them not to! They also took an age doing the job so I'm going to choose a different dealer for future work.

 

[GrahamFR]

any pics?

 

[Mr Pig]

any pics?

It'll just look cleaner than it did yesterday.

 

[JACUPRA280]

any pics?

Yes mate, I'll take some tomorrow and update this thread. The 'repair' (which is what I'm calling it) basically makes the card look like it should without the bubbling.

 

[JACUPRA280]

Here's a photo of the repair:

In case that doesn't work, here's the URL:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpo5utcyn9ao5q7/2015-08-17%2019.12.37.jpg?dl=0

It looks as good as new. Happy days! If anybody else has bubbling on their door card Seat should do a similar repair for you

 

[Curtly]

Looks as good as new!