2019 Compass Casita leaking - where from?
Hi All,
Just after a bit of advice. I'm currently away in my 2019 Compass Castia 860 and gutted. We have some heavy rain and found there is water ingress along both sides of the van where the wall meets the ceiling. I thought it might be the awning rail but then that's probably too low for this. I'm thinking a roof light or 2 might be leaking and spreading the water throughout the roof and coming in at the edges. Anyone had any similar experience?
I'm gutted because I had 2009 Bailey Pageant a few years back and that had a small leak on the end of the front roof strap. A previous owner put a wall panel on top of the existing rotten panel to hide it. When stripped the inside of the wall was soaking and all the wood at the front quarter was rotten. I'm worried now with the Compass, that even if the leak is fixed, the water is now in there and it will rot.
So much for solid construction.
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Sorry to hear about your problem. Can't help with your question. But if you can live with it until you get home an immediate trip to the dealer you bought the caravan from is required to get it sorted under warranty. Assume you have a 10 yr warranty.
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Hi. Sorry you have problems, if Elddis try to get out of doing anything when really they should (either by way of 10yr warranty or Consumer Rights Act 2015 - ie not fit for purpose etc) it may be worth your while getting an expert report from a Caravan Expert to prove that the problem lies with the construction and so the dealer/manufacturer are responsible. I know this is an outlay, but this focusses minds - and in our case was well worth the money (around £350). We now we have a very damning report for serious defects on our Elddis. The report also serves as an important "benchmark" as to what work needs to be done to fix the issue - so if, say, we have issues with the repair failing further down the line (which hopefully would not be the case) , this first report can easily prove that the "repair work" was inadequate too.
In other words our report is serving two functions (i) to get the work done (ii) to make sure that the repair lasts - if not this report would be instrumental in proving that the remedial work was not of satisfactory quality and again we would have a case under CRA2015 and/or our 10yr warranty. Elddis try to make out that they do things as "good will gestures" - our expert report disproves this "big time."
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Well said longtailtit..!
Our 2016 Elddis Affinity 550 caused us nothing but worry. We had awful leaks and were not at all happy with the quality of the repairs. We stuck with it for 2 years then finally traded it in for a German caravan, at a huge financial loss.
It is just not worth the mental anguish. But we are so pleased with our Knaus after 4 years of ownership.
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Thanks for the replies. Forgot I posted this and only just seen them all now. For some reason I'm not getting any notifications telling me when people have responded. Anyways, I don't have the benefit of the 10 year warranty as the previous owner had no service record. However the dealer I bought it from had it in their workshop in January and tested it for days with water running over it but found no leaks. They suggested condensation too, but for me it was too wet for that. The clothes in the wardrobe were very wet. They're adamant they can't find any leaks but they have given me a another 12 months water ingress warranty and done and overseal everywhere. So far so good, no more water as yet.
I've had a few issues with this van but have to say the dealer has been straight on it when things have gone wrong, no quibbling.
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I have an Elddis 860 Supreme. Year 2 it was being serviced and damp discovered in the front offside locker. Small crack in the bodywork above which was properly repaired. Luckily it dried out.
This January on checking the van I found water in the front offside locker and evidence of damp along the front at roof level and damp stains in the offside front lockers and down the wall.
took it to my service dealership who reckoned it was the worst they had seen and estimated over £12k to fix.
Took it to and authorised Elddis repairer who said it was bad and not a job he would want to do.
Spoke to supplier dealer who agreed my service history was compliant with Elddis warranty requirements and I am taking it to them next week for an assessment appointment.
I believe I have stopped the leak. It was a leak, as in I was finding drips of water on the open door of the locker and puddles on the shelf. I stuck duck tape along the gap between the plastic edge of the front curved skylight and the roof and down both sides. Plenty of rain since but no more water ingress.
Local repairer was not surprised, he had quite a few leaks due to poor seals in that joint.
I suspect also there may be leakage around the front offside window seal.
Hopefully there will not be an issue with the dealer sorting out a warranty repair as it has to be a seal. No cracks in the bodywork.
Likely there was a tiny failure in the mastic seal with some water in it and then in December there was rain and very low below freezing temperatures which were followed by a quick thaw and then snow and another quick thaw.
Frozen water expanded the failure and the snow and rain piled in.
Collecting van tomorrow from service which had to be done to keep warranty intact. Has a split water heater now. Service chap reckons freezing water damage problems 15 time normal this year.
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Update from my previous post.
Van came back from service with an additional leak discovered, damp at 60% in the area of the door catch.
Took van to supplying dealer in the North West, travelled solo and split the journey into two days.
Dealer's repairer/technician gave the van a good look over and diagnosed the new door leak as a failed seal on the external caravan awning light above the door. ( I checked later and seal was missing and i could get a finger nail between the bodywork and the light.
He finished with a comment that he would get the report off to Elddis and I should hear back in about six weeks. I replied that presumably this should be a warranty job , to which he relied, 'It should be'.
I chased the repairer after six weeks and the helpful lady tried to log into the Elddis system to view my van but could not access it. She said this was because someone at Elddis was accessing it and only one at a time could do so.
Two days later I received an email from the repairer stating Elddis had authorised all the repairs under warranty.
It will be circa late October at the earliest the parts will arrive at the repairer and then I have to take the van there for the repair.
Well 2023 is effectively written off as a caravanning year but ''hopefully'' it will all be fixed and be ready to rock and roll for spring 2024.
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