Alhambra/Sharan electric sliding door motor problems
Discussion
One of the passenger doors of my 2016 Alhambra is getting lazy and sometimes won't open, with a feint whirring noise suggesting things aren't right. According to the garage the motor has given up the ghost, but the door control unit is also showing as faulty. No alternative but to get original VW/Seat parts, which come to a mere £3000. Ouch.
Double ouch as the other door is apparently also likely to go soon (showing low voltage and high current).
One other point, they advised the stop start battery is in need of replacement as it was only showing 11.5 V. If I replace that, I wonder if the other door would still show a problem? Any other suggestions? Apparently there is no facility to disable the motor and just open and shut the door entirely by hand on the motorised versions, and I've been stung too many times in the past buying used parts that don't last long.
Double ouch as the other door is apparently also likely to go soon (showing low voltage and high current).
One other point, they advised the stop start battery is in need of replacement as it was only showing 11.5 V. If I replace that, I wonder if the other door would still show a problem? Any other suggestions? Apparently there is no facility to disable the motor and just open and shut the door entirely by hand on the motorised versions, and I've been stung too many times in the past buying used parts that don't last long.
Hi. I saw your post and your door struggles. I've a 2017 Sharan and mine started playing up too this year. Took 3 or 4 goes for them to open properly. Both motors were shot according to my garage abd the replacement involved all the gear having to be replaced and was heading for a £2.5k bill.
However, my garage suggested they could disconnect them. They've dealt with a number of Transporters/Caravelles that had the same issue and disconnecting it all could solve the issue and make them manual doors.
It took two goes on my Sharan but we got there.
The garage took the cables out that actually move the doors and left the motors in but disconnected.
Upside - fairly easy to open doors manually
Downside - because the doors were held open by the mechanism, they didn't have a natural retention so could slide shut. 2 rubber door wedges have solved that.
The other issue, however, was that taking the gear out meant that the sliding doors wouldn't lock on the central locking. It was like the car didn't think they were there anymore so they were unlocked all the time.
The garage went back in and was able to reconnect the electricals so that the motors were live, thereby fooling the car into thinking the electric doors were working. The central locking worked and has continued to do so without problems. The separate motor for the door that pulls it tightly closed is also working (and wasn't before so I think that little motors might also be the lock).
The only other thing I have is that the buttons in the centre console and on the B pillar to open the doors flash yellow before pulling away and stay on fixed yellow after that. I put some black tape over the B pillar ones to remove the distraction for passengers.
I might suggest that if your garage can't help, either get them to talk to a VW van specialist or go to one yourself as it sounds like the VW electric door mechanisms have a certain maximum life and its an expensive thing to put right on a depreciating vehicle.
I wish you good luck.
However, my garage suggested they could disconnect them. They've dealt with a number of Transporters/Caravelles that had the same issue and disconnecting it all could solve the issue and make them manual doors.
It took two goes on my Sharan but we got there.
The garage took the cables out that actually move the doors and left the motors in but disconnected.
Upside - fairly easy to open doors manually
Downside - because the doors were held open by the mechanism, they didn't have a natural retention so could slide shut. 2 rubber door wedges have solved that.
The other issue, however, was that taking the gear out meant that the sliding doors wouldn't lock on the central locking. It was like the car didn't think they were there anymore so they were unlocked all the time.
The garage went back in and was able to reconnect the electricals so that the motors were live, thereby fooling the car into thinking the electric doors were working. The central locking worked and has continued to do so without problems. The separate motor for the door that pulls it tightly closed is also working (and wasn't before so I think that little motors might also be the lock).
The only other thing I have is that the buttons in the centre console and on the B pillar to open the doors flash yellow before pulling away and stay on fixed yellow after that. I put some black tape over the B pillar ones to remove the distraction for passengers.
I might suggest that if your garage can't help, either get them to talk to a VW van specialist or go to one yourself as it sounds like the VW electric door mechanisms have a certain maximum life and its an expensive thing to put right on a depreciating vehicle.
I wish you good luck.
6Stringer said:
Helpful advice though not was I was hoping to hear...
Many thanks. Did you take it to a VW garage, VW independent garage or elsewhere for that solution?I took the car to an auto electrician (who as you can guess, couldn't get the doors to fault and couldn't therefore find anything wrong with them). Guess next step is independent VW specialist to see what they say. The auto tech said that if he did find a fault then he'd have to replace the whole lot of motors, sensors and everything, though it's unclear if that's because VW won't honour the warranty unless you practically replace the entire door, or because they might be coded to only work with all the others in a set series. I suppose I could try risking second hand but sounds like another failure could be on the way and if they are chipped (only way to find out would be to try it) then it's money down the drain.
Disconnecting might be an option but seems a shame to lose the functionality. If anyone has other ideas do ping them, I've seen a few other forum posts with people with issues with the larger VW camper van doors but no idea if the parts are the same to go wrong.
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