Shutlines

[Mr Savage]

Afternoon all!

I was washing my Golf the other day (while being very cold) and I noticed that the boot shutlines aren't exactly symetrical. The gap between the boot and the brake light is definitely slightly wider on the left side than the right side. The boot opens and closes fine so it seems like a silly thing to complain about but since it is my little precious!

I heard that this can occur from rear impacts. I've looked down the sides of the car and inside the boot (under the mat) and can't see any ripples or damage. How is it on your guys Golfs?

It's a Golf MK V GT TDI if that helps at all.

Good day!

[2007GTI]

have you tried playing with the rubber rests inside the car that the boot closes on to, I think they adjust to get a better fit.

[Mr Savage]

have you tried playing with the rubber rests inside the car that the boot closes on to, I think they adjust to get a better fit.

Thanks for the reply, I had no idea these could be adjusted. Is this easily done?

[2007GTI]

from memory they have flats for a spanner I think, or that could be just the bonnet ones, but check it out, if they move, they move for a reason!

[SRGTD]

Afternoon all!

I was washing my Golf the other day (while being very cold) and I noticed that the boot shutlines aren't exactly symetrical. The gap between the boot and the brake light is definitely slightly wider on the left side than the right side. The boot opens and closes fine so it seems like a silly thing to complain about but since it is my little precious!

I heard that this can occur from rear impacts. I've looked down the sides of the car and inside the boot (under the mat) and can't see any ripples or damage. How is it on your guys Golfs?

It's a Golf MK V GT TDI if that helps at all.

Good day!

I had the same problem on my previous Golf, also a mk5 GT TDI, bought new in 2007. The panel gaps either side of the tailgate and bonnet were uneven. I checked out a number of new and nearly new Golfs at the time, and was surprised to see this was a fairly common issue, and not necessarily an indication of accident damage. A work colleague also had the same problem with a misaligned bonnet on their new Scirocco.

It's disappointing that issues such as this aren't picked up as part of quality control checks at the factory or during PDI.

The dealer adjusted the tailgate and bonnet on my car and it was fine after that. If you Google 'uneven panel gaps' or do a search on this and other forums, you'll see you're not alone.

Hope you get it sorted.

[Mr Savage]

Thanks for the replies guys, greatly appreciated.

Puts my mind at rest that the uneven shut lines are a common thing on the Golf, thank you! Was quite concerning with it being a used car you see. But it is indeed very surprising and disappointing that a company like Volkswagen usually with fantastic build quality would let simple things like these slip through quality control.

A real shame but I guess these things happen in todays world of mass production!

I'll have it checked out and see if I can get it realigned when I have the time.

Cheers.