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Looking at changing the van to a T6.1 Kombi
Narrowed it down a bit and have a few options .
One of them has electric side doors.
If anyone has a Transporter with these doors, how have they been ? Reliable? Obviously it’s something else to go wrong but would be under warranty for most of my ownership.
In the event of an electrical problem , can they be manually opened and closed ?
The electric doors are powered open/closing. I've a T5.1 with conventional sliders and they're not especially awkward, though smaller/weaker people may find them heavy to open. The elctric opening adds another layer of complexity that could go wrong, adds more weight and also do not open (slide) as far. and cost more as an option. I'd rather have aux heating.
Are they full electric or electric closing/last touch or something I forget the name. The latter are really pointless as they can be damaged/confused if you do shut the door properly by hand (even if accidentally on a slope etc) so I'd definitely avoid those.
Beyond that they're quite slow and noisy (warning beeps) so something I'd avoid but vans are in short supply right now so your choices are limited!
They are the full electric type, with buttons in the dash (and the remote I think)
We have them in our Caravelle its getting on now and they were good at first but they don't really work very well now both are inconstant and the drivers side is getting really difficult to close. I'll probably get the mod where you can remove all the electric gubbins soon.
I would actually love the electric final close option but ours is a camper. It just saves the slamming on a campsite late at night.
It would put me off if buying second hand. So although they may be under warranty for your ownership they may put off some people when it comes to selling (might attract others?).
Anything that stops that whiirrr thump whilst camping somewhere quiet is fine by me! Oh yes the chuffing noisy diesel heaters too, oh eck I can feel myself going onto a negative thread…
And, I read somewhere that if you leave a window open slightly that it’s easier to close the sliding door quietly when you and your children go to the toilet. Every thirty minutes?
Sorry, that’s not positive, it’s born from experience but please, do your thing and ignore a crotchety owd man!
No personal experience as mine you have to close them yourself, like the doors in your house etc (!) but around Transporters a lot and not really heard anything positive about the electric sliders. On the older Transporters it seems like its just a question of when, not if they'll go wrong.
No experience personally, but I do recall a colleague mentioning a large bill (ISTR ~£2000 or more) to fix faulty ones on his California. While I can see the attraction for keeping quiet after lights-out, I think I'd avoid...
Does crack me up that these seem to cause such an issue on nearly new VWs and are 'something else to go wrong' where as on a 15 year old Nissan they're just 'the doors' 😉
Remote electric side doors are mega, especially when you have kids. They're nearly silent so great for camping and getting kids in and out quickly/without having to get out of the van to open doors for them.
T6 Caravelle here with electric side doors.
No issues (yet) but now out of warranty so I wonder just how long its going to be before they become an expensive problem.
You can turn the electrics off and close them manually (which removes the annoying beeping) but they are very, very heavy to close.
What I do know is whenever I've got in/out of a taxi/minibus with electric doors they're a PITA because no one (except the driver) knows the right way to open/shut them.
And the driver never has a chance to warn folk before they do the wrong thing.
Avoid is my view....we have experience
9 years with an electric door on a T5.1 California and now 6 months with a T6 California
Its the one option , I would avoid if possible.
- Prone to not always closing properly
- Safety beeping on closure is annoying whilst camping especially during the night
- You can turn them off, but then you are left with a very heavy door which requires some effort to close
- Runners on underside wear out and cause judder, of course they can be replaced.
5 years with electric sliding doors on our T6, no issues at all and wouldn't be without them. Especially opening / closing from the key remote or opening doors from the button on the dash when in the driving seat.
You can press a button on the dash to disable the electrics, then they just slide open / closed as normal.
They do make an annoying 'safety' beep when closing though so you will still keep the campsite up at night.
I’ve taken the plunge and gone with the electric doors. Ooh it’s got electric boot as well 😀
After a bit more research it would appear the T6.1 ones are a bit more refined. Time will tell I guess. This one had a few more toys than the other too that made it more appealing and a better colour IMO.
Better PX as well, which means I have only lost £250 on what I paid for my 20 month Transit Custom 👍