Hi Ho Hi Ho its to off the transmision shop I go.

[Sunny43.5]

Well its finally happened the T5, Triptronic nightmare has decided that Halloween has come early , thank you VW thank you my local dealer who happily made my wallet lighter to the tune of $600 . now it seems I will have to bite the bullet as after a service recently the tranny has gone KAPUTT how much more money should I pour into this Sh**t box of a van . I asked the dealers nicely to look into the fact that 3 years ago I wanted the tranny serviced and they wouldn,t now they have said yes we will do that for you and five kays down the road from their shop it fails . As far as I am concerned I expect better from a top European car maker , 135,000 kays out of an auto is not good enough !!!! Watch this space .

[BrianJ]

Can you clarify, are you saying that after 135,000km with no services, you did get the oil changed by the dealer, and 5k later it is playing up. I am in a similair position, mine has done 150,000km with no servicing and I am thinking of getting the oil changed, now I am a bit worried. I have a thing about leaving sleeping dogs lie, so I may just wait and see what happens.

Good luck with yours anyhow.
Brian

[IN2VWS]

I would be looking into the fact that 5 kilometers down the road it **** itself. That would concern me. Did they know how to service it? Did they put enough oil in it? IMO it should be their problem as it was working fine before it went in to them.

[Sunny43.5]

Yes correct Brian , with hindsight I should have pursued other options for servicing but at the time I was a VW owner who was told by the dealership that VW dealers were the best people to service ones purchase so what was I to do just fork out 7 grand and say aw well thats life ??? .
Yes IN2VWS before service it had a very rare occasions of slipping but a quick turn off and on sorted it out , after service it was much worse and more frequent and yes only 5 kays from the dealership it slipped at 3 consecutive intersections and then at my driveway , the thumping between changes was still the same , the dealer told me that the software "upgrade" would fix the slipping , and
whoop de do no charge for that little gem , which now has turned to an early Halloween Nightmare . It has been six weeks since the service but the van has only been driven by myself as the wife is just sh**t scared to drive it . The reason for the time delay was that I had contaced the dealer same day who 7 days later refused any form of help but suggested to ring VW Australia . This was done VWAust assured me that someone would contact me within 3 working days that was 5 weeks ago still waiting VW ????

[Cousin]

Shop around Sunny
My first rebuild less than two years ago was 7K, the one last month was $4,800
And this last one has turned out to be a much better job, as in the smoothness and operation of the auto
The technology to do the rebuilds is now more readily available
And by the sounds of it your clutches are stuffed and no amount of oil changes or software upgrades fixes those
Good luck with it

M

[Sunny43.5]

Well its booked with a local transmission shop who came highly recommended by a forum contributor who I place high respect for his knowledge . The repairer did not mince his words when I spoke with him he has rebuilt many of them and does not short cut any part . It looks like a $11000 rebuild as every thing will need to be replaced and remachined and computer reprogramming etc . I spent a lot of hours ringing many shops around Brisbane and the response was quite eye opening . Some actually refused to work on them as they know how difficult they are to get right , some admmited they had not touched one and could not give any indication on price or what they could do . So its in next week for a two to three week holiday while it is eviserated .

[bluefin321]

Don't let up on VW Aust, keep calling and emailing them till you get a response. If all your services were completed at VW dealerships, then i think you'd have a decent chance at getting a goodwill claim for 50% of the repair costs. They covered 50% of my repair bill, although i only had traveled 60k and VW performed the transplant.

[Seano]

Taken from the UK T4 Forum because I'd just seen it and it seemed appropriate here...

[Sunny43.5]

Very funny and I have to agree Kombi,s T3 ,s T4,s bullet proof nearly T5,s shot full of bullet holes . And as Blufin has suggested I have given VW many opportunities to reply but as yet complete silence . Watch this space .

[BrianJ]

Very funny and I have to agree Kombi,s T3 ,s T4,s bullet proof nearly T5,s shot full of bullet holes . And as Blufin has suggested I have given VW many opportunities to reply but as yet complete silence . Watch this space .

When my aircon compressor failed, the dealer asked VW if they would come to the party and pay some of the cost. Nothing happened for about 3 weeks, no feedback from the dealer, and I was scheduled to go on a trip around Australia, so I got another workshop to fix it and thought nothing more of the matter. About 2 months later a get a call from the dealer saying in a positive voice that VW have agreed to pay for some of the cost, to which I responded that I was half way around the country and they were about 3 months too late.

I was extremely underwhelmed to say the least and have never had any work done at that dealer since then. So don't expect anything in a reasonable amount of time from VW, they have all the time in the world to stuff you around.

Brian

[volksMuller]

sorry to hear of the trouble on the auto,I run a vw audi alternative service centre and have a few suggestions .I currently own a tdi t5 auto with over 225k on the same gearbox...this t5 mainly tows heavy laden car trailers all round the country. Oil changes are your best friend and many of them,the pre 07 model have a smaller trans cooler and suggest to change oil every 30-50k.60k for the later model is my suggestion. Its actually common for the auto to **** itself after new oil has been fitted once the customer has detected erratic shifts or thumping into gear [usually 2-3]. We outsource these repairs at an average cost of about 7k drive in drive out. cheers steve

[bluefin321]

So don't expect anything in a reasonable amount of time from VW, they have all the time in the world to stuff you around.

Brian

Took VW 3 weeks to approve my good will claim, pretty slack.

[Sunny43.5]

Thanks guys for the words of support , this particular van is used by our family my wife is the most frequent driver as we have two disabled kids in wheel chairs and without the van any medical emergency that was to occur would be a very serious issue as its the only one of our vans that has been converted to carry both kids . I pointed this out to VW as a priority as I in my own opinion believe they have a moral obligation to treat my inquire with haste , in saying that I do not expect them to pay for the whole thing as we obviously have had some use out of the auto before failure . But if you pay $50.000 plus for a car regardless you expect better from a major manufacturer who make billions of dollars profit from us their customers . Every one of us knows that VW have gone through 3 different transmissions since 2000 and they appear to still not get one that is totally reliable . You only have to read the posts on this forum from owners of different models that have to have "software" updates to fix their problems . In this day and age too much emphasis is being placed on technical interference from the car itself in how we drive . The motor car is a hostile enviroment for electronics and failure is always on the card . Read this article from China :- Despite Volkswagen’s DSG gearboxes being generally bulletproof, Chinese customers have had problems with their DSG-equipped cars since last year. VW officials have acknowledged the faults, have apologized for the inconvenience and have increased the warranty for the gearboxes to an unprecedented 10 years and 160,000Km (100,000miles).

In February, VW recalled the affected cars, in order to install a software update, however it was not a fully-fledged recall, as they deemed it not to be a safety issue. The software updated did fix problems at first, but the over 500,000 affected cars from VW and Skoda came back to the dealerships with even more problems than before. This very widespread problem may affect VW's credibility on the Chinese market, but they will definitely figure out a way to reinstate their image, with more than just a warranty extension.

Apparently, this DSG gearbox issue is the most complained-about problem among Chinese car buyers this year. Hopefully, the extended warranty will satisfy customers, but from what we can gather, nobody has actually fixed the problem, nor can we find out what the problem is, exactly.
Even in the US they have had problems with DSG boxes and the Triptronic as well and these were addressed but not here . Another story on the Chines issue makes an interesting read Aritcle

[jfoldbar]

i can totally relate to the picture. mine spent more than 3 years on that trailer

[IN2VWS]

Howard, I sympathize with your problems, particularly because of the fact that it is a wheelchair carrying vehicle, therefore the inconvenience that it is causing you and your family.

However, I would like to clarify your comments on the DSG. The DSG in passenger cars is a different animal than the DSG that is in the Transporters. To my knowledge There have not been failures of the DSG in Transporters. I do not see the software upgrade as being a failure.
So please, don't throw stats about passenger cars into the mix when you are talking about Transporter transmissions.

I hope you can get a satisfactory resolution with VW. If it were me, I would be calling them daily, due to the urgency you stated.