Golf 118 TSI Engine Failures and Service Campaign 24S4

[brad]

mine started to shudder a little last tuesday, it was due for a service so i brought it into VW village at Kensington. asked them to check the engine whilst servicing. get a call from them, the guy on the other end sounded like he'd seen this a few times. told me engine was misfiring, and that it was best to bring it back to the dealer and hope for a fix under goodwill (car's warranty ran out in Feb). really worried about it atm, car's not even paid off yet and if they decide to reject the goodwill, i dont know what i will do. plus the last 2 services werent done at a dealer.

Statutory warranty.
There is a reasonable expectation that a motor vehicle engine will last more than XXX,000km when serviced IAW the manufacturers guidelines. If you'd known that the engine would require an engine rebuild just outside of warranty, would you have bought the vehicle? No, because your expectation is that you'd get ~10 years/250,000km without requiring major work.

Suggest you check out both the NSW & Federal consumer websites for your rights.

[Feng]

It might be wishful thinking but does anyone here work for VW or might have inside knowledge on this problem? I'm looking for reassurance that the problem won't come back after it has been fixed (I think I read someone had it happen to them four times though!). It really does take the joy out of owning the car and I'd rather not feel like I'm driving a disaster waiting to happen every time I'm behind the wheel!

[kaanage]

Given the post below (from another thread) I'd say the problem is inherent in the design of the piston and rings and it would a really major revision to fix it properly. It's talking about the higher output version fitted to the 6R Polo GTi but that's basically a slightly tuned up version of the 118 twincharger (the comparison CAVD engine is the twincharger used in the Mk 5 Golf GT frpm which the 118 twincharger was developed)

My friend for me is dead simple what is going on here. The twincharger engine was, in euro4 format, an excellent unit with the only criticism from rivals being its high emissions. Here in Europe emissions are of high importance since we are getting taxed based on them. Also note that the last cavd engine could not go to production (being marginally euro 5 on the scirocco).

60 per cent of the mechanical losses of internal combustion engines are due to cylinder piston ring contact. What to you do to reduce emissions ? You reduce tension between the two. Well in theory that produced the perfect engine with 138grams/ almost 200 hp stock and consumption only up by 10% when compared with cavd units ( still very sensible). In practice though they failed to accommodate for the rapid boost build up of the compressor with the new piston/piston rings setup, thus the screw up.
Can they sort the problem? Of course it is dead simple: just change the piston and piston rings back to CAVD specs, there! Problem sorted.

Can they solve the problem and meet emissions standards as advertised? NOT A CHANCE. Thus they are pretending nothing is wrong as a strategic decision. The VAG group would not admit to such a major engineering screw up. They will happily change as many engines as you want while in warranty until they produce the mk6 polo/mk6 ibiza with a new engine line up.

This is accordance to their first attempted fix of installing thicker piston rings ( i.e higher tension) but obviously that was not well thought out either, or not well executed by dealers.

So if you like the car and want to keep it, find a good local garage buy 4 piston and piston ring sets from a CAVD engine and off you go. A lot of guys down here have done just that and solved their consumption issues. Some even tried aftermarket piston ring sets and that solved the problem. Of course you need to re-hone the cylinder walls before installation.

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Is it time to start a thread devoted solely to documenting the number of 118TSI engine failures?

I see numbers round 500 on the threads here, and comments such as 'Dropping like flies', but not hard numbers. So, is a thread listing Year/Month build, delivery date, kilometers driven, date of failure, dealer, VW response, (what have I missed) worth while? The mutterings about Class Actions need this sort of stats, I'd think.

An engine failure register thread could be a good idea as you wouldn't get the clutter of discussion about DSG failures and denials from VAG fans - see the diesel section for how they did one for the 2.0l 125kW PD engines

[jamesw85]

Hi all, I was looking for some advice on my rough idle problem in my manual 118tsi. It's been doing it for over a year (in fact it started when the software update campaign update was done on it). The car has not failed and apart from some fairly serious shaking when idling and lesser surging when cruising it's fine. Vw have cleared it at the last 2 services saying there's no problem. Unfortunately I'm now trying to sell it and the idle is death for prospective buyers so I'm keen to see if it can be fixed.

I'm working on the basis it's not going to blow up since it hasn't yet and vw have found no issues. And so it's probably not the issue that's caused chaos for others in this thread. But I'd like to get it fixed so I don't have to worry some buyer is getting a timebomb.

The symptoms are: only emerges after a period of stop start but reasonably high rev driving; often will only emerge after half an hour or so of normal driving but can also start earlier when driven hard, does not happen when cold; no metallic noises, no bangs or rattles; a quite severe low frequency shaking that affects the whole car; no associated noise, just the feeling of a deep shake, almost like a weight on a shaft is badly balanced; is most noticeable idling at the lights but also occurs when cruising; no increase in fuel consumption etc; occasional black smoke bursts when changing gears; feeling of surging when moving slowly in 1st and 2nd after being parked and off for 30-90mins.

The car is a my10 manual 118tsi golf built dec 09 with 34.5k kms on the clock. No other issues in its history.

[jayjay]

@jamesw85 - I would take it back to the dealership and ensure that they hear/see the problem.


Further to my engine failure: just received a phone call saying the car is repaired and ready to be picked up. The dealership I dealt with were extremely helpful. I assumed it was some sort of misfiring causing the rough idle, however, the official diagnosis was a cracked piston ringland. The dealer organised a courtesy hire car through VW Australia (next day). Everything was covered under warranty, even though the car is approximately 3.5 years old.

The motor wasn't replaced, as upon inspection, the bores were not deemed to have suffered any damage (special coating apparently prevents resurfacing/machining/reconditioning). They consequently replaced all pistons and injectors. According to the technician, there have been revisions of the piston material, and these ones are supposedly significantly stronger than the broken ones.

Will let you guys know how it drives etc. after i pick it up.

[scuba185]

Hi all, I was looking for some advice on my rough idle problem in my manual 118tsi. It's been doing it for over a year (in fact it started when the software update campaign update was done on it). The car has not failed and apart from some fairly serious shaking when idling and lesser surging when cruising it's fine. Vw have cleared it at the last 2 services saying there's no problem. Unfortunately I'm now trying to sell it and the idle is death for prospective buyers so I'm keen to see if it can be fixed.

I'm working on the basis it's not going to blow up since it hasn't yet and vw have found no issues. And so it's probably not the issue that's caused chaos for others in this thread. But I'd like to get it fixed so I don't have to worry some buyer is getting a timebomb.

The symptoms are: only emerges after a period of stop start but reasonably high rev driving; often will only emerge after half an hour or so of normal driving but can also start earlier when driven hard, does not happen when cold; no metallic noises, no bangs or rattles; a quite severe low frequency shaking that affects the whole car; no associated noise, just the feeling of a deep shake, almost like a weight on a shaft is badly balanced; is most noticeable idling at the lights but also occurs when cruising; no increase in fuel consumption etc; occasional black smoke bursts when changing gears; feeling of surging when moving slowly in 1st and 2nd after being parked and off for 30-90mins.

The car is a my10 manual 118tsi golf built dec 09 with 34.5k kms on the clock. No other issues in its history.

Hi james, my 2011 118 manual has the same prob, since before its first service at 15k kms. Its now just before 40k kms. It started with the shudder at idle exactly how you described it. The 15k and 30k services I complained to 2 different dealers and they couldnt find it and did nothing. In the last 5 thou it started coughing and losing power under acceleration and while cruising, and while following it in our diesel jetta heard the click clack of the chargers as it blew smoke out the back. The saviour for me was that the cat converter light came on briefly one day. Took it to a third dealer and cos it actually logged a fault they checked it out properly. Turns out cyl 3 is losing compression. It's a fleet car so gets caltex 98 every time. I now have a loan 118 dsg for a month while they pull my engine apart - thank god this happened in my final year of warranty. I hope this helps you and others get theirs sorted, will update when they tell me whats wrong with it. My 103tdi manual jetta however is bulletproof and gets 4.1l/100km on my syd-act trips. Def would get another diesel but not sure about dsg unless its got 3yr warranty!

[fully]

This makes me nervous, cause my 2011 manual 118tsi golf has been showing the odd rough idle at traffic lights for some time now, no other issues at this stage though.

[ziggyboy]

Sell before warranty ends, guys!

Still got a couple of years but really looking forward to a new non-VW car! I would sell now but got no cash to top up for another car

[fully]

Sell before warranty ends, guys!

Still got a couple of years but really looking forward to a new non-VW car! I would sell now but got no cash to top up for another car

Yeah sadly it's not that simple.

[scuba185]

This makes me nervous, cause my 2011 manual 118tsi golf has been showing the odd rough idle at traffic lights for some time now, no other issues at this stage though.

How many Ks have you done? Mine was just the shuddering up until about 35,000, then the coughing and smoking started.

Do you ever hear the click-clacking of the chargers when the revs are too low? That might be a sign too.

Having said all that - the loan 118 dsg we have has the shudder too, and it's done less than 3000ks!