Sliding door not soft-closing

[sibot]

Hi,

Have owned a bongo with high-top conversion for a couple of weeks now, all seemed to be going fine until this morning when the soft-close function on the sliding door stopped working.

I've checked the fuse, which is fine, and cleaned all the contacts on the b-post and the door so they are nice and shiny. The door closes to the first latch, but the motor fails to engage and pull the door shut, so it is sitting proud of the rear panel at the back and has a slight gap at the front. I've tried slamming it just to get it shut, but it won't close any more than where the soft-close should kick in.

We have an 80 mile drive home tommorrow, and ideally it would be working properly by then. If I can't get it working properly, is it safe enough to drive with it shut as far as it will go and the lock activated manually (obv. central locking won't work since the CL contacts aren't meeting)?

Thanks for any advice! I should probably note I don't have any tools, but I do have cutlery , and I've already checked that the door handle will come off if necessary (appears to be missing a circlip).

Simon.

[alant54]

If you stand with your back resting against the rear edge of the door....then try to touch your toes...and if your bum is as big as mine the door will click fully shut thus making it safe for your drive home..... ...then you can await some technical advice from the lovely people on here......

Alan

PS....try not to fall over when touching your toes....

[wonkanoby]

Try disconnecting the battery

[alant54]

With the battery disconnected then the only way to get the door closed is by the touching toes method......but it may work properly when the battery is reconnected.....funny things these Bongos.....

Alan

[jaylee]

In the short term. Just give it a good long fast roll along the runners towards the B pillar & slamming it shut! Transit style..

Having said that, i keep forgetting Trannys don't have soft closure & have to give the side doors a second go.?

[alant54]

In the short term. Just give it a good long fast roll along the runners towards the B pillar & slamming it shut! Transit style..

Having said that, i keep forgetting Trannys don't have soft closure & have to give the side doors a second go.?

Don't you mean VW style....noisy buggers on campsites....

[sibot]

Thanks guys, I'll try touching my toes and see what happens . Not able to disconnect the battery, don't have any cutlery with me that is suitable for removing the connector from the battery post. I've tried slamming it previously but it didn't work too well (I initially thought there was something preventing the connections from meeting, but there doesn't appear to be. Cleaned all the runners etc and problem still persisted).

[westonwarrior]

if it wont close even by slamming, has the door catch moved any ?

If the circlip is missing from the door handle it tells me that some one has had the door apart in the past, maybe for the same reason maybe not but I would be inclined to take the card off and have a look and check the catch. it may need moving out a bit as its not gripping the door or it may ned moving in a little depending on wether the door is caught on the first or second catch.

the motor may have not been able to close it properly and decided to stop trying so needs a reset

[sibot]

Ok, touching toes didnt work (not enough pies possibly?), and slamming it VW-style it gives a bit of a rebound when hitting the latches but doesn't appear to close any further.

I don't think the latches have moved - they appear to be pretty tightly fastened and i can't see any evidence of marking. I'll have a go at taking the card off and see what's going on though - is there any way to reset it if i can't disconnect the battery? Poking about a bit from the outside, I'm wondering if the latch at the back is possibly stuck - it's moving slightly, but not as much as the front one moves (although i have nothing to compare to, having not checked all this beforehand).

[sibot]

Ok, next step - got the door card off, and it looks like the ratcheting mechanism is stuck half-way round it's circle. Which I guess means it's not triggering the close because it thinks it's already closed?

Can anyone confirm that the large cog should have the top, un-toothed part, almost horizontal when the door is open (this is what it looks like from the japanese translation site that's been referred to in other threads)? And can i reset the cog to the correct position by forcing it to rotate, or is this likely to damage the motor?

Thanks for all the help so far!

[westonwarrior]

I have never done it so I just dont know however

there should be a microswitch some where near the bottom try flicking that and see it has been know to release a door stuck closed. and this sounds similar

[westonwarrior]

this may help
http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

[sibot]

Fixed

Seems my messing about trying to work out how the mechanism worked was sufficient to free it up and make it work properly - it was stuck part-way through it's cycle (no idea how it got like that) but it's now working.

(what is with that glue around the door-liner though - how much of a mess does that make!)

[westonwarrior]

Fixed

Seems my messing about trying to work out how the mechanism worked was sufficient to free it up and make it work properly - it was stuck part-way through it's cycle (no idea how it got like that) but it's now working.

(what is with that glue around the door-liner though - how much of a mess does that make!)

great stuff the glue is a common source of warnings on here