Service Campaign 37E8 - DSG issues Letter from VWA

[apom]

I received a letter today about a safety cheque that needs to be carried out by my dealer about a possible issue with the DSG Gearbox and the clutch.

Anyone else get this?

[Umai Naa!!]

Anyone with a car with the same transmission and age as yours will have got one.

It's only a software upgrade of the transmission control module, and is nothing to be majorly concerned about.

[Wolfman_36]

I received a letter today about a safety cheque that needs to be carried out by my dealer about a possible issue with the DSG Gearbox and the clutch.

Anyone else get this?

Yup Early 09 build R36 and got it too. Booked in for tomorrow.

It may only be a "software upgrade", but the quoted symptoms that initiated the recall were enough to get me a teensy bit worried.

[Pana]

Yeah, got this letter a couple of days ago - called up service and they weren't too concerned about it, so will get it done at next service which is coming up in a couple of months. If you read the symptoms the gearbox just goes into protection mode unecessarily if it happens so its not as if the DSG is going to blow up on you...

[Wolfman_36]

Yeah, got this letter a couple of days ago - called up service and they weren't too concerned about it, so will get it done at next service which is coming up in a couple of months. If you read the symptoms the gearbox just goes into protection mode unecessarily if it happens so its not as if the DSG is going to blow up on you...

Fair comment, but the symptoms are quoted to be ".. a flashing gear display, juddering of the vehicle, reduction of engine torque and opening of the clutch (no drive)...."

The thought of that happening half way through a turn against oncoming traffic or during overtaking just unsettles me a bit. Will be doing lots of country kms over xmas.

[Rocket36]

Got my letter on Wednesday...

Pretty much the worst that can happen is the car slows down. Since it doesn't affect braking and steering I'm not overly worried about it. Will get them to do it at the 15,000km service (my next one due).

With the amount of spirited driving I've done and the hot weather I've driven in, the temp sensor that they say could think the gearbox is overheating, causing the gearbox to go into "self preservation mode" seems to be working fine.

[V6Passat]

Fair comment, but the symptoms are quoted to be ".. a flashing gear display, juddering of the vehicle, reduction of engine torque and opening of the clutch (no drive)...."

The thought of that happening half way through a turn against oncoming traffic or during overtaking just unsettles me a bit. Will be doing lots of country kms over xmas.

yep, have two cousings who have both got the letter both late 08 builds one an R36 and one V6 CC. The cousing with the V6 CC had it happen to him a couple of weeks ago on a busy road. Once car engine switched off and restarted all appears ok...suffice to say he was quite shocked at the time. i rang up and check re my July build V6 Highline and not included in the recall.

[Pana]

Fair comment, but the symptoms are quoted to be ".. a flashing gear display, juddering of the vehicle, reduction of engine torque and opening of the clutch (no drive)...."

The thought of that happening half way through a turn against oncoming traffic or during overtaking just unsettles me a bit. Will be doing lots of country kms over xmas.

Yeah thought of that too - unfortunately at this time of year I just dont have the time to be going to dealers especially when the next service is due so soon - so am just taking it easy (no revving it out, no launch control, no sports mode) until I get it there which will hopefully keep the DSG temp as low as possible - and we'll use the wife's car if we go anywhere until I get the software update.

[gregozedobe]

....hopefully keep the DSG temp as low as possible

AFAIK the problem is a software bug that in cetain (unspecified) circumstances thinks the DSG is too hot when it isn't. So driving gently probably won't make any difference.

[Wolfman_36]

AFAIK the problem is a software bug that in cetain (unspecified) circumstances thinks the DSG is too hot when it isn't. So driving gently probably won't make any difference.

The fix was a sofware update.

Curiously, the gearbox is behaving a bit differently now, seems more willing to downshift on overrun with the cruise control on. Suits me.

[Rocket36]

AFAIK the problem is a software bug that in cetain (unspecified) circumstances thinks the DSG is too hot when it isn't. So driving gently probably won't make any difference.

Exactly!

[Malthius]

I didn't buy mine new, its a 2007 model (late 06 build). I doubt I'll get a letter... will the dealer let me know next time I take it in if this affects me?

I had a scheduled service (45K) last week, and they told me that I'll have to come back for a battery cable replacement. Guess I'll have to remember to ask them at that point if the DSG software needs to be updated.

Thinking of that - is it worth asking them to do it anyway? The car is still under warranty (and I've got an extended new car warranty on top of the normal one which runs out in March next year).

[Pana]

AFAIK the problem is a software bug that in cetain (unspecified) circumstances thinks the DSG is too hot when it isn't. So driving gently probably won't make any difference.

do you know the exact details of the software issue?

The letter didn't specify the nature of the bug - I'm just guessing it could be something like the sensor sends back a reading of x degrees - but the software interprets it as y degrees - which is above the DSG protection cut off of z degrees..

So driving gently and not putting any undue stress on the DSG and keeping the temp down could more than likely prevent this issue occuring.

[Rocket36]

It states exactly what the problem *could* be: "a wrong interpretation of the clutch temperature by the gearbox control unit is possible, and as a result the clutch protection is activated."

Pretty straight forward really. Means it could happen any time. But it goes on to say: "The protective function works as follows: a flashing gear display, juddering of vehicle, reduction of engine torque and opening of the clutch (no drive)."

Which shouldn't really be of any concern as it's never going to cause you to lose control of the car in a bad way. Worst that happens is you lose drive in which case you just slow down and pull over. Since I've had no issues in 11,800km I'm more than happy to get this addressed at the 15,000km service. If a software falt (which is what this is as it's fixed with software) is there, it wouldn't have run perfectly for so long.

[gregozedobe]

Which shouldn't really be of any concern as it's never going to cause you to lose control of the car in a bad way. Worst that happens is you lose drive in which case you just slow down and pull over. Since I've had no issues in 11,800km I'm more than happy to get this addressed at the 15,000km service.

If it happens to cause you to lose all power/drive just as you've entered a freeway from a slip road then it could definitely cause some concern !

From what I've read not all cars that have been recalled actually have the software fault, but VW are being conservative and checking on all cars that might be affected. Considering this is their second attempt to fix the problem I can see why they are being a bit more cautious this time around (last time they thought the problem was only a batch of faulty temp sensors, then they discovered the software fault as well).