Hi Twiggs
i think i have this problem with both my sliders. Do you have any clearer photos of the plastic cover you re-bonded. i have removed the lower strip from the window frame (the part removed in your picture) and can see the window channel drain just drains into this clip on trim and thus any water just runs inside the van.
any help would be greatly received as i have tried all the attempts at sorting the glazing seals but the leaks just returns after time as its now quite obvious water will always get by the seals but then the channel drains should drain outside the van whereas mine just drain into the lower clip on cover trim.

 

Hi Twiggs and others .... can anyone help me please.

Attached are photographs of the window frame with slider channel and drain hole on my van along with the underside cover for this. i cannot see where its meant to be sealed but can clearly see n0w why the water that gets by the glazing seal runs into the channel, down the drain hole then runs down the inside of the door as its not sealed at all.

In order to seal it does anyone know what the answer is please? thank you

 

Try a forum search - there have been lots of threads about this and a number of different solutions suggested (my favourite being to have the window cut out and an aftermarket replacement put in - which is what we had done).

What you see is not unusual. Our 2005 Kombi is exactly the same as yours - it never had anything installed from the factory to stop water from draining straight through and down the inside of the door.

 

Thanks Triffic. What aftermarket windows did you have fitted, how much did they cost and who fitted them please?

The fact that the drains have nothing attached to them is utter rubbish. I too have tried the cleaning of the seals, frames etc, additional bead of sikaflex behind the seal in the channel to push the seal forward, re-alignment of the pin but all to no avail. This has gone on for several years and its only now that i have realised that the drains are intentional and that they should have had drain pipes attached as the design of the window would never ever create a perfect seal so they were intended to leak slightly under different stresses and thus water had to go into the channels and then drain somewhere, its just that the lazy gits at the factory never fitted the drains!

 

someone else have suggested if windows are leaking, the locking mechanism/pins are worn out and replacement from ebay should sort this out. his pictures suggested that pind have become "D" shaped instead of "O" profile hence it does not push against the seals properly.
someone else has fitted a little hose and brought leak down to tthe bottom of the door drainage hole.

from your pictures however i can see the plastic and window itself being quite dirty, it is well known that few of us here we proper clean them with tooth brushes to assure proper uniform seal.

 

someone else have suggested if windows are leaking, the locking mechanism/pins are worn out and replacement from ebay should sort this out. his pictures suggested that pind have become "D" shaped instead of "O" profile hence it does not push against the seals properly.
someone else has fitted a little hose and brought leak down to tthe bottom of the door drainage hole.

from your pictures however i can see the plastic and window itself being quite dirty, it is well known that few of us here we proper clean them with tooth brushes to assure proper uniform seal.

thanks mjojom, as you can see in my reply to triffic, we have been down the road of meticulous cleaning and pin adjustment etc. there is actually virtually no wear on my pins as the windows have hardly been used. however, after years of trying they still blooming leak!

 

I've got to agree with triffic. After tying every solution known to man I have had aftermarket windows fitted. 200 quid a side. Far neater inside the van, better locks and superior in every way to the p*sspoticle things that VW thought up.
Roger.

 

rogd, thanks for your reply. Please can you let me know what make of windows and who fitted them please. Any pictures would be great too please as i can see we are probably going to have to bite the bullet on this one and do it.
Were just getting to the end of a re-fit of our van with new cupboards we have made ourselves and we are about to cut and router the corian top and fit a Wallas XC Duo hob/heater so now would be the time to fit the windows rather than after! cheers

 

Gents thank you so much for your advice. I have started another thread 'Replacement sliding windows choice?' as i feel i have been a bit out of order hijacking Twiggs396 original thread ...sorry Twiggs!

Your input on replacement windows would be greatly received please!

 

Ive got a small leak but i think stopping the leak in the first place will be my action. Im going to use Krytox ( 052.172.A1 ) to get the seal back in order.

 

Great. Finally found pictures of the bottom of the slider/drain being taken off. Is that hard. Do you break the clips. Do you have to use sealant to get it back?
i have the same problem of although having a clean drain hole, after air blowing out with a 12v tyre compressor pump to clean, water overflows out of it and also down the inside of the door with a little going outside, if you fill with water from syringe or water bottle.
10 yr old Bilbo 2.5 so no heavy use or excessive dirt.
now I see in the pics that there doesn`t seem to be a direct channel for the water but it is just directed to the bottom of the window. I must assume there is meant to be sealant around it to stop it flowing into the van, but this must have failed.
more pics and replies needed please. Am waiting for a dry day to prise the lower channel off to have a looksee.

 

Having now spoken with an auto glass specialist i understand the problem better. The early windows ...ours is 2006 kombi ...had drain holes in the slider channel but it doesn't go anywhere. The later models had drains that directed to the outside. The latter are hit n miss on whether they work or not. The windows remain fairly unchanged in design to this day on the t6.1 and they continue to leak on some and not others, so really a hit n miss game. The specialist i have spoken to (Andy at AAW - vehicle window fitting specialists || T4 side window - van window conversion || Bournemouth, Poole, Dorset ) said he often replaces genuine VW ones with dealer supplied new VW ones for the local dealer when they have warranty claims.
Our t5 2006 t30 kombi likewise has only been in private ownership with little use and abuse of the windows. the dirt you see in my photos is what's accumulated over the last 6 months. i have in the past however had the windows and catches dismantled fully, cleaned and lubricated and plumped the seals with specialist lubricant and re-adjusted the pin catches although they weren't worn. Although this worked for a short while the dam leaks would re-appear again at some point.
I have therefore today bitten the bullet and booked our van in with AAW to fit replacement sliders so we will now have a nice dry van!!. Were going with the recessed slider made by BTO as not only is it cheaper but its also more reliable than the flush fitting aftermarket slider. Andy reckons he has only had 2 in 1000 replacements that has leaked which is a pretty good track record.

 

N. Thanks for coming back so quick. But please can you answer my first bit. The removal and replacement of the lower part of the slider/drain part. Hard? Easy? Sealant required?

just so I can be prepared.

 

lots of info on how to remove them on the tech parts of the forum and all over the net. here's a video ;

 

THIS IS THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER to blocked drain hole.
This listing does not deal with leaking windows, wet door cards or whether you can claim for a taxi whilst the van is sorted at the dealers.
The windows will always leak & the water is meant to go down the channel, into the hole & out to the outside of the van under the window.
I carefully dug out some muck from the hole & blasted it with air from a 12v tyre compressor. Seemed to work, but then we had 2 weeks of rain & I had dribbles down the inside.
You will need
plastic tools to remove the bottom cover.
cocktail stick, thin plastic cable tie, Stanley knife blade & tissue to clean out below hole.
hair drier to warm it up & dry the area.
6 inches of Butyl panel/window sealant from 4m Catherine reel you can from our Chinese friends online. Stays sticky & waterproof.
scissors to cut butyl.
Torch. Essential.

no photos as the black bits hidden in my black van do not photo well.

warm up the bottom channel & carefully remove.
assume a position of sitting on the floor with feet out & door 1/2 shut. Bend head.
you will now see a flat ‘projection’ with rounded end under the hole facing you. This is not sealed & if you gently lever down a 1mm & shine torch in you will probably see some muck. Remove with appropriate ‘tool’ from selection.
inside & on top of this projection you will see a small circular raised lip which must be intended to divert water to the window.
I poured water in the hole whilst holding the projection up & all worked well. Let go & the water came into the van. EASY. Have to seal flap whilst keeping it pressed up.
First try. Used bathroom sealant to inject all around the projection. Messy as little room.
worked for 2 days of rain, but then sealant turned to mush, as in standing water.
took 2 days to dig all the mush out. Grrrh! Dried it with hair drier.
Second try. Cut Butyl into short lengths & press them well into the crevices around the projection, building up a waterproof, sticky mass, enclosing the flap.
keep looking at how the bottom cover goes back on to allow room for it.
give it a blast of heat & a final press.
left it to cool. Poured water into channel. SUCCESS! Water straight outside.
fit bottom cover.

In my research I saw a listing somewhere putting a washer bottle tube into the system by blocking the hole, drilling new 1 where channel bends. Then down through bottom channel ( make into slot so as to take it off later ) then drill into door. Make that hole bigger & fit grommet. Insert tube down to bottom of door to waste hole. This was for offside & said if doing sliding doorside then had to remove door lock. If you do this there is already a drain ‘cup’ behind the handle so only 6in of pipe needed.

 

After being plagued with this problem for 12months, my fix for leaking VW windows was:

Remove bottom cover from window slider. Clean all the factory applied (and general) gunk out of the drain hole channel bottom cover, then seal around each channel cover with a high quality sealant (I used KA Infinity Sealant - awesome stuff!). Once the sealant is dry, blast the drain holes through with a syringe full of water to clear them out - check for leaks inside and check the water is escaping/draining to the outside of the window.

Then with the sliding pane open (preferably removed), apply a thin bead of same sealant all along the inside of the window where it meets the window slider assembly - because on my van, water was running down the inside of the window in behind the slider assembly (as it was not sealed properly to the window) and then tracking into the bottom cover of the window slider before dripping into the van and not even making it to the drain hole.

Since this I have been 99.8% dry in some pretty heavy rain of late.

hope this makes sense and helps.

 

Back again.
all still well, but we have had weeks of heavy driven rain aimed at the passenger side. The driveway makes the van head down. I noticed a few drips from the front end of the channel. (Drain hole end).
some water gets in past the window seal system and lands on the top of the black channel. Some goes into the drain channel & out the drain hole. Good.
some collects, due to the slope, at the area between the drain hole & the window.
my Bilbo 2009 window is slightly different from the one in the picture at the top of these entries in that that channel stops at the drain hole, but mine carries on at 90 degrees towards the window but tapers to nothing.
this taper was collecting the water, but due to the meniscus effect it is trapped by the closed window above it and overflows out onto the van door.
bought a 30 piece pack of various shaped grinding drills £4.50 on e bay for my dremel.
basically increased the depth of the taper. Easy.
whilst there I put a small piece of butyl, 1mm thick, on end of channel which raised the height of the lower side of the taper and allowed the window to close snuggly.
Success!
no plans to open window til height of summer.

 

Wow. Surely some kind of class action needed here! We got fed up with the factory fitted ones and swapped to aftermarket ones. Still not sure they look better but after 4 years 100% dry inside. 1000s pounds of interior camper doesn’t need leaking water coming in. As you can tell I’m still ****** of about this. The response from VW was totally rubbish also. However I did manage to sell the two windows to someone who wanted them so almost got our money back.

 

Fair play if you managed to fix yours.. have double sliding doors with the window opening and both have the water pouring in cleared the drain holes etc etc and still leaked.. after much head scratching discovered the window seal gasket had been compressed for so long the fit between the 2 windows allowed so much water in it couldn't drain quick enough... was able to find a replacement gasket so added a 2mm seal to the inner of the outer window which has solved the issue for now.. Just ordered some camper glass replacements as truly got fed yup with the VW ones! Now to get them fitted some time...

 

Where did you find a replacement sliding window gasket? Any links?

 

All, back again with photos. All working well, but it has been sunny. Had to open window as part of my struggling to get sliding door to fit after renewing bottom slider. See my other listing. Door still not shutting. Grr. Maybe non Vw part is slightly different. Any comments? For other listing, please.

 

Anyone taken the sliding window seal/gasket out, I need a few photos of one so I can find a replacement seal?

 

This is the sliding window seal I'm after..