Check your overcab roof light

Going on from the cleaning and polishing thread, I decided to give our Broadway EB a thorough clean with silky before polishing it with colonite wax.

When I wound the over cab roof light fully open I was flabbergasted to see 3 pieces of the black gel coat had blown showing glass fibre mat, now this must have come from the factory like this and I have had the van from new 17 months ago. So rain water has been running on the fibre glass matting all this time.

On further investigation I found that the blown gel coat is where the roof light is screwed to the coachwork exactly where the screws are fitted, I have had enough of travelling down to A/S factory and I have bitten the bullet and filled the holes with body filler and painted the damaged area's with black enamel which can't be seen  unless you get up a ladder and wind the window full open.

Anyone with these front lights I would wind them fully open get up a ladder or tall steps and check yours.

I have had a long catalogue of faults with this van but Pat and I still love it.

John.

John,
Can you describe exactly where to look please?

Hello Pete, wind the over cab roof light fully open, at the sides of the weather seal approx. 4inches down and approx. 12inches below that on mine the black gel coat had blown . If you look on the inside you will see where they have covered the screw heads with plastic caps and the blown gel coat was exactly opposite the screw heads.

Also where it has blown the water runs off the roof and down the sides where the damage is.

John.

artheytrate, can you email me some photo's of the problem and we can take it up with Auto Sleeper for you.

Mark

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Motor Plus wrote:artheytrate, can you email me some photo's of the problem and we can take it up with Auto Sleeper for you.

Mark

Sorry our email is [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Hi Mark, thanks for your reply, I've  sent you an Email but as I said above I've already filled the holes and touched them up with some black enamel paint.

John.

John, 
 A couple of weeks ago I too added some Colinite wax to the black shiny GRP areas on the roof, following various threads on this forum regarding the signs of ripples in this material. I also opened the over cab roof light to make the process easier, and like you found a break in the GRP. It is only one area, and it is in a half moon shape the size of my thumb nail and has lifted up showing the fibreglass underneath. This too is about 4 inches down from the top (nearside) and about an inch from the sealant near the edge of the window. Although it is covered by the acrylic window, it takes a lot of the water draining off the roof underneath it and could well have seeped inside under the skin of the GRP.

I decided that the next time I was down at AS for possible other work in the future, I would draw their attention to it. That is why I haven't filled it but just covered it with several strips of black insulating tape to prevent any further possible seepage. I was horrified when I saw it and thought just another issue to add to the increasing long list of repairs we have had done by MotorPlus, AS and which I have done myself. But like you, surprisingly, we still love our van despite these problems. 

We purchased our Broadway from a dealer in the south (March 2014) but were assured that Motorplus at Derby would be there for us if we needed them. So far we have mainly used AS. Does it sound like the same blown area as yours? I took photos of the lifted area when I spotted it a few weeks ago, just before I covered it. I will email these to Mark at MotorPlus as soon as I can, and also inform the dealer we bought the van from and see what can be done.
Pete

Hi Pete exactly the same area as mine, but ours had 3 blown pieces 2 at the top  and  1 at the bottom.
I wish I had known that motorplus at Derby could have done warranty work for us as it would have saved us miles of travelling down to Auto Sleepers, as our dealer was rubbish.

I've also sent Mark some photo's of damage before I repaired it.

John.

Hi John, this was a verbal arrangement agreed at the NEC show, at our request before we ordered the van. This was due to the long distance from our home in the Midlands to the dealer on the south coast. Our dealer was/is very good. In the morning I will check other areas of possible damage and send some photos to Mark.

I will keep in touch.

Pete

John,

I have just checked whether there are any other blown areas in the black GRP under the roof window above the cab, and I have found as well as the one broken through already mentioned, two other areas where the plastic is stessed and raised around possible screws underneath. Fortunately these both look and feel unbroken. It is possible to detect any issues within the cab, without initially using a ladder outside. Just open the window enough to put your fingers out onto the GRP and feel for any roughness or small raised spots where the position of the window frame fixings match on inside.

I sent an email to my dealer and Mark at MotorPlus last night. I have had a confirmation reply from my dealer, but nothing as yet from MotorPlus.

Pete

I've got one too! Just checked from inside the van, using a small mirror, and exactly in line with one of the six screw-covers in the frame was a small crack where the gel coat has been broken by (presumably) the screw being too long/overtightened.
I've put a blob of clear silicone sealant over it to keep the water out (the threatened downpour has not started here, yet!).

Hi Pete, interesting that it is the same year as John's and our motorhome. Do you intend to follow it up with your dealer and ultimately AS, as we all need to get this acknowledged and sorted by AS? Still  no reply from MotorPlus.

Pete

Just received an email from Mark at MotorPlus.

He has submitted the photos to AS and is awaiting their response.

Pete

Thank you for the heads up on this. Our Broadway is March 2014 as well. We can' t go out to see it until Saturday at the earliest but have fingers crossed.

We've just got back from the Malvern show and Mark as also sent me an email saying that he's sent my pictures to A/S also, and he's not even the dealer that I bought my motorhome from. I think that Mark is a genuine dealer to go out of his way to do this for us.

John.

Oh flippin' heck boys and girls, thanks to the messages above I checked my Winnie's overcab this evening! Guess who's another victim of A/S build quality? No prizes for guessing!

I'm hanging in there though.

Sorry if you don't hear from me for a while, we're all off for a while, touring via Roscoff.

Regards, Barry.

Oh dear, that's four of us so far! 

I think it's a good idea for others to check their overcab roof lights, as there seems to be a pattern emerging particularly with recent 2014 AS models. My area of damage has been open to the elements, undiscovered for 16 months, so who knows how far water has seeped into the over cab area! I have temporarily covered the hole with black insulating tape which is very effective. I hope AS respond soon as it is a serious quality control issue that you would think they would want to resolve ASAP.

Pete

Can someone post a photo to give us newbies (or even just me) a clear indication of what to look for. Thanks for the heads up though.

Askit wrote:Can someone post a photo to give us newbies (or even just me) a clear indication of what to look for. Thanks for the heads up though.

We  checked ours at the weekend (  March 2014 Broadway) and yes, it looks like we have the same problem. We have a photo and it has gone to AS. If someone can talk me through the process of putting photos onto this forum I will do it. We've opened an account with the external source as per instructions but the photo has not appeared.

We could not put up a ladder at the weekend to get large scale photos so the one we have is taken via the opened roof light, from inside.

The crack is close to the lip round the opening of the rooflight. The rooflight itself closes about 1 cm approx away from the crack which therefore, in our case, does not seem to be wet. The crack itself is about 5 mm across and full of " frassy" dirt.   If you open your rooflight and peer out then, if you have the problem, it will be very clear.

Quilter wrote:

Askit wrote:Can someone post a photo to give us newbies (or even just me) a clear indication of what to look for. Thanks for the heads up though.

If someone can talk me through the process of putting photos onto this forum I will do it.

Hi. Meanchris posted some very easy to follow instructions here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thank you Brian, we' ll have a go this evening.

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Hopefully this is the image.   The crack is about 5mm from side to side.

I hope that this works but it is the first time that I have tried this.

Mine were not cracks but 3 lumps of gel coat disappeared where the cracks would have originally been. I feel the same as masai warrior mine's 17 month old and I don't know how much rain water might have leaked through.

I've also received an email from Mark at Derby motor plus, he as sent the pictures to Auto Sleeper and they have given the go ahead for him to repair my Broadway roof. This will save me over 100 miles round trip down to Willersley.

I can't thank Mark enough over the outcome and I think that he as gone above and beyond as he wasn't my original dealer who we bought our Broadway from.

John.

I got above roof level today, I found 3 chips out of the gel coat and can see dirt and fibreglass beneath. Not having time to contact A/S (as mentioned we're off to France tomorrow) I've followed Masai Warrier's advice above - I used black Gorilla tape (an American product) at the moment, it's super sticky and weatherproof! I cleaned one of the areas - err.. spit and a cleaning rag and a chip 8mm across fell off! I've no idea what degree of water ingress has happened.

Great piccy above safariboy, well done mate!

For me to get a repair done it would be to ask Marquis, Plymouth (80 miles round trip), West Country Motorhomes - the dealer who sold it to me ((110 miles round trip), or A/S Willersey, (275 miles round trip)! That's what you face when you live down here.

Hopefully, someone can post advice here as to what A/S propose to do to get these vehicles repaired so I can follow it up when we get back in 6 weeks.

Best wishes, Barry

Hope you have (had) a good holiday Barry. Only 275m round trip to A/S, try a 650m round trip from my house . The good news is my dealership is only a mere 120m round journey away.  As my van is in storage I've not had a chance to check it yet but I did wonder if every dealership would have the folk with appropriate skills to make a lasting repair?

I've been in touch with Mark this morning, and Motor Plus of Derby are going to book our Broadway in for the roof repair. We're really pleased with Mark's response with this as we didn't buy our van from them in the first place.  Our original dealer who refused to repair our original faults have made all the profit on our van, and I think Mark has gone far beyond what anyone would expect with this.

John.