MY16 Cracking internal Door handle trims

[Passat R36]

side topic, only newbie tinter needs to remove door trim to apply tint. Stop them right away when they need to remove door cards and find someone else.

[Wynnston]

side topic, only newbie tinter needs to remove door trim to apply tint. Stop them right away when they need to remove door cards and find someone else.

That's what I thought, but I remember one of my past dealers trying to tell me that I would void the warranty on my door trim on my Tiguan if I got someone else to tint it because they have to remove the door card to do it. Utter bull**** on both accounts of course.

[Wynnston]

An update on my case.

I went to the dealer a few weeks ago. They inspected it and ordered the parts (just the trim insert for the two front doors, not the whole card).

I took the car in yesterday and they replaced the trim inserts. It's a little fiddly so I left it with them for the day. The finished product looks like new and I'm happy that it was an easy straight forward fix that I didn't have to fight for.

The dealer I went to was a commercial dealer in WA called Southside. It's so far my best dealer experience with Volkswagen to date.

Bonus: I had a speaker rattle in the front left door prior to the warranty job, I didn't mention it as I figured it was through my own negligence of pushing the factory speakers to the limit with an aftermarket amplifier. Removing the card, fitting the new trim piece and putting it back together has somehow fixed it (maybe it was the brittle trim piece rattling). Anyway, I'm a happy chappy.

[Chad206]

Ive just purchased a 17 206tsi and noticed while looking at cars before i chose this one that 90% of them were all cracked in the same spot as photos.

I managed to find one that only had a tiny crack in passenger door.

By the looks of it they are made too thin for everyday use and start to crack, might see if vw wants to replace when i take in for service, although out of warranty 🤷🏽*♂️

[thomsogl]

My 2018 Passat wagon also had the same problem with the cracked piece breaking off the LHS door handle. A cracked line could be seen in RHS door handle. Definitely a manufacturing fault. Took it to a VW dealer in Ferntree Gully and they replaced both handle inserts under warranty with no questions asked.