Golf 118 TSI Engine Failures and Service Campaign 24S4

[Stelex]

My engine blew up yesterday while driving to work. Golf VI 118 TSI DSG, Nov 2009, 15,200 km. Damn!

[Corey_R]

That's a shame man.

When you say 'blew up' you mean? Do you want to expand on that to give the members some useful information.
Also, have you had the updated ECU installed already?

Let us know what the dealer says and how things progress.

[Maverick]

So why did they ever cancel shell optimax 100 (forgot the full name)? I liked and used it! And whenever I went to get some it was always sold out. I thought it was successful judhing by avaiability when it came out.

Because it was rubbish. Do you really think Ethanol is good for your car? And work out the actual energy output of their 100RON and it was no different to 98RON without ethanol. It was good for ricers to fuel their wrx's and civic's.

[Stelex]

That's a shame man.

When you say 'blew up' you mean? Do you want to expand on that to give the members some useful information.
Also, have you had the updated ECU installed already?

Let us know what the dealer says and how things progress.

Yeah, it's a shame, indeed.

I was driving to work, taking off a traffic light, slowly accelerating and noticed a bit of jitter when going from 4th to 5th gear. Then the same jitter happened 5/6. I thought "That's interesting" Then it happened again at the 6/7 switch, but it kept rattling, the amber light came on (exhaust system light) and the engine ran very very rough. I pulled over straight away and switched off the engine. Left it for 2-3 minutes, turned on - same thing. Left it for another 15 minutes while I called to work and bought some breakfast at the nearby bakery, then turned it on - same rattle. Completely out of sync. Also the car was struggling to pull even for the 20m from the main road into the side street.

Phoned VW road assistance, got the tow truck and towed it to the nearest service centre. They even offered me a taxi to work or home, but I already have arranged a lift.

The mechanic looked at the car and agreed it's possible engine failure. The next day he caleld and confirmed the bad news. It will be about 4 weeks before it's fixed. The entire engine will be replaced. They organised a loan car for me, brand new Jetta (2500 km on odo) to drive around while waiting for my car. I also needed to pick up some stuff from my Golf and saw it sadly sitting in the corner of the workshop with half of the car missing - the front bumper, grille and everything that's under the bonnet

VW have been great, apart from selling me the car that died. Seriously though, they've been great and have organised everything and really looked after me, so no complaints there.

If I rewind some weeks ago, I had a problem with the water pump and air-con, so they ordered some parts and they just notified me that parts have arrived on Monday. We have booked the repairs and 15.000 km service for the next wednesday, which would include software upgrade. Then two days ago - kaboom! Damn!

But, I'm sort of very happy that this has happened, considering situation. My engine has certainly suffered quite a bit of strain with the software problem so far and had quite a bit of undetected damage already. If we did the upgrade next wednesday I could have been driving it in half-dead state for quite a while. Imagine going out of warranty and then this happens, phew! This way I know the engine is new and the software is updated from day one.

A few people who had the s/w upgraded reported that the engine runs smoother and the jitter between the first and second gear when taking off is no longer an issue. I suffered with it quite a bit. The Jetta that I'm driving now runs very nicely from the take off so I hope that my Golf will do the same, after all, it'll be a Golf 6.1

[jj77]

I am sorry to hear about the bad news, Stelex.
Though, it's good that VW has been looking after you and your car well, and able to put a positive spin on less than pleasant situation.
I hope everything goes well with the upgrade and good luck with your Golf v. 6.1

J

[hoi polloi]

I'm genuinely sorry to hear of these engine failures - nothing could be worse than having a new or near new car off the road for something like this...

I am curious though - have any of these recent failed engines have sc24S4 done? Even of so I guess it would be too early to tell if this was a successful fix of not...



Regards,
Anthony.

[Corey_R]

Thanks for the update Stelex. Sorry again to hear that it happened, but great to hear that VW are looking after you so well.

Don't stress too much about your car sitting in the corner half in pieces, the guys will know how to put it back as new! Anyone who has had their car upgraded or seen pictures of a car upgraded with a Stage III kit (like Guy_H's red S3) will know that they do this to take out the engine even when doing that!

[MaccaTSI]

Sorry to hear about the car Stelex..

I'm starting to worry that my car is going the same way. I had it back at the dealer cos it was a bit rough and there was sometimes a loud creaking/clicking noise from the back, before some brown smoke came out the exhaust. They did the software update and said see how it goes, because they couldn't find anything.

The car felt good for a about a week after the update, but now it's rough again and the noise/smoke has come back.

The problem is, it happens really sporadically, I'll be driving around everything feeling fine and I'll press the accelerator and the noise happens followed by smoke. Then I can't make it happen again no matter how hard I try.

Anyone have any advice on how I can get the dealer to fix this/try to find out what is wrong when I can't even properly demonstrate it?

My wife is about to come off work on maternity leave and I don't want the car screwing up on her. The whole point of buying a new car was to have something safe and reliable for my wife to be driving around in with our baby.

[Cossor]

Gee Stelex
That does take the fun out of it!
Happy to hear of good VW service. (Hope my dealer gives good service, mechanics have to deal also with Holden, Mitsubishi, and Nissen!)
BUT much better to happen now. AND you start fresh, with an unstressed engine. Stress to VW the warranty for engine to be extended.
And possibly problems ahead for Macca also? must be costing VW a motza, let alone their reputation.
(I assume you were using R98 fuel?)
My real worry is driving to Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra in case of problem. OK, will finally yeild to Kids demands and get basic mobile phone.
HOWEVER, can't wait for delivery. My 2002 Corolla Conquest seems so agriculture after driving Golf.

[265coupe]

This situation is bad, very bad. Discount the VW apoligists on this forum and look at the facts of VW recent history.

DSGs in the States with free extended (10year) warranties cos they blow up. No such offer in Oz though. Seems a little bad PR isn't enough to make VWA look after buyers. And don't think that just because you intend to flick you DSG eqipped Golf in 2 years it won't hurt you. Who would pay good money for a grenade ($15000 rebuild just waiting).

Now we have the most popular model with the potential to also grenade. Requires a new crate engine to at least get back to where we were when we bought the car just a few short months ago. Not to mention 4-6 weeks off the road and the concerted repair efforts of a bunch of mechanics that some of you won't even trust with doing an oil change on your own pride and joy.

Plenty of mention that no ones perfect, recalls happen all the time blah, blah. Bullshix! these aren't floor mats that foul the pedals or mufflers too close to the exhaust or power steering lines rubbing or headlights misting up. Engines and gearboxes are fundamentals. They must be completely right before production can commence.

Oh, and I asked my mother about the petrol for her Golf. She said see just read the book. If the book said 95 then that's what pump she filled from. She's prudent. Always buys name brand Baked Beans and throws out deli meats after 2 days in fridge, just to be sure. But start talking Sulfer ppm or BPs better than Caltex and she laughed. 'They're all the same' she says. And you gueseed it, she doesn't subscribe to internet forums. Hasn't quite got a handle on the whole www thing.

She'll be mightily pissed off if the Golf starts the death rattle. I can hear her now. "But they said it was [World]Car of the Year"

[cameronp]

Oh, and I asked my mother about the petrol for her Golf. She said see just read the book. If the book said 95 then that's what pump she filled from. She's prudent. Always buys name brand Baked Beans and throws out deli meats after 2 days in fridge, just to be sure. But start talking Sulfer ppm or BPs better than Caltex and she laughed. 'They're all the same' she says. And you gueseed it, she doesn't subscribe to internet forums. Hasn't quite got a handle on the whole www thing.

So I don't know what your book says, but mine says "follow the instructions on the fuel filler flap". And when you open up the fuel cap, it has written in very large letters "98" and "super premium unleaded" with a much smaller "(min 95 ron)" underneath it. My interpretation of that is "use 98 whenever you possibly can, or 95 if you can't get it". Hopefully that's how other people would read it, too.

While BP advertise a low sulfur content for their Ultimate 98 fuel, that 50 ppm that they quote is actually what's required by law for all 95RON and 98RON fuels in Australia. Personally I've had no problem taking an "all fuel brands are the same" approach here in Western Australia; but all of our fuel comes from the local BP refinery and I haven't seen anybody selling petrol diluted with ethanol here yet.

[Corey_R]

265coupe, this is what warranties are for.
What car company HASN'T had an engine and/or gearbox fail and have had to replace it?

Toyota and Honda are well known for their very reliable engines... and if you like their current product, then go and buy them. I personally had a toyota gearbox fail, and have a friend with a Honda gearbox fail. Subaru had many engines fail in Australia in the recent years... they did the same as VW have done - replace the entire engine. That's what warranties are for.

[golftsi]

This whole episode with the failed engines is very unfortunate. I've had my car reflashed with the supposed fix. Once that is rolled out completely to all TSI cars here in AU, I hope it puts an end to the issue. It wont help with resale if the real story gets out to the public. I only keep my cars (daily drivers) for no more than a year or two max so resale is important to me.

This will be my first and only VW - moving to an Audi S5 at the end of the year. Whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth, although my car has been fine, it only has 4000km on it. I had the squeeky water pump fixed a month ago - two days after the fix, I noticed that car was down on power big time. Lifting the bonnet, I found the boost pipe coming off the turbo loose. Turns out, a bolt had fallen out holding the boost pipe to the turbo and most of the air was being vented to atmosphere.

Mark

[PassatB6]

This situation is bad, very bad. Discount the VW apoligists on this forum and look at the facts of VW recent history.

DSGs in the States with free extended (10year) warranties cos they blow up. No such offer in Oz though. Seems a little bad PR isn't enough to make VWA look after buyers. And don't think that just because you intend to flick you DSG eqipped Golf in 2 years it won't hurt you. Who would pay good money for a grenade ($15000 rebuild just waiting).

Now we have the most popular model with the potential to also grenade. Requires a new crate engine to at least get back to where we were when we bought the car just a few short months ago. Not to mention 4-6 weeks off the road and the concerted repair efforts of a bunch of mechanics that some of you won't even trust with doing an oil change on your own pride and joy.

Plenty of mention that no ones perfect, recalls happen all the time blah, blah. Bullshix! these aren't floor mats that foul the pedals or mufflers too close to the exhaust or power steering lines rubbing or headlights misting up. Engines and gearboxes are fundamentals. They must be completely right before production can commence.

Oh, and I asked my mother about the petrol for her Golf. She said see just read the book. If the book said 95 then that's what pump she filled from. She's prudent. Always buys name brand Baked Beans and throws out deli meats after 2 days in fridge, just to be sure. But start talking Sulfer ppm or BPs better than Caltex and she laughed. 'They're all the same' she says. And you gueseed it, she doesn't subscribe to internet forums. Hasn't quite got a handle on the whole www thing.

She'll be mightily pissed off if the Golf starts the death rattle. I can hear her now. "But they said it was [World]Car of the Year"

This is a way over the rant top especially from someone whose car is OK.

[Cossor]

Please keep in mind the new POLO GTI, using the same TSI motor, but power output now (From memory) about 132KW
So VW have faith in the design.
Just have to compensate for Australia 'Dirty Fuel??
OR, was there a mistake not correcting for possible use of 92RON?
Wonder how much problems are caused by dirty fuel affecting Lambda probes?
Apparently was an issue, reported by Daily Telegraph two or three months ago.
Hope any corrections take place before my car is built!