Golf 118 TSI Engine Failures and Service Campaign 24S4

[Ryan_R]

At $12k they clearly do not want the repair job.

[brad]

Contact VW direct. Quote directly from the ACCC website about statutory warranty.

Many of the service advisors are full of BS and don't actually do what they say they will.

Start sending and requesting written documentation of the process.

[Sosotired]

Apparently can't be repaired needs a new engine. Cracked piston has damaged boaring in the cylinder. Hubby asked about reconditioned engine and was told they couldn't use recon due to piston issue (which to me is indicating there IS a problem with the 118tsi engine of VW denies this)

[Umai Naa!!]

Cheapest way out of this would be to fit a second hand engine, and sell the car. If you can find a good one, most wreckers will offer some sort of warranty on it, and will have performed a basic check-over on it. I.e. unusual noises, compression test, etc.

Unfortunately, the 118TSI motors are a bit of a dog. Great thing when running, but too failure prone.

[tigger73]

Dealers will never use second-hand parts where brand new are available. They have to warrant the parts and workmanship and they can't do this on second-hand parts they get from a wreckers. Also VW wouldn't like the dealers supplying second-hand parts when they make good margin on spares.

That is where a good independent workshop can offer a number of options including using second-hand or reconditioned parts that a dealer will not.

[Umai Naa!!]

Not entirely true.

Dealers buy from wreckers all the time. They'll still turn a profit on the parts and labour. Warranty on the part is whatever is offered by the wrecker, and the workmanship will come with a guarantee.

[blower]

Not entirely true.

Dealers buy from wreckers all the time. They'll still turn a profit on the parts and labour. Warranty on the part is whatever is offered by the wrecker, and the workmanship will come with a guarantee.

I know here in the UK at least, all VW dealerships will never use second hand parts or non genuine parts - all parts must come from VW parts department.

The other thing VW dealership mechanics don't do, is what most mechanics can and would do. VW dealerships for instance can never rebore a cylinder block, they not allowed to send it off somewhere to be rebored. If the cylinder is damaged their only course of action is replace the engine - which is why they say you must have a new engine.

Even if they could send it off to be rebored that means a slightly bigger piston will be needed - which VW don't sell, and again they cant get third party as its not permitted.

The overwhelming majority don't even have the equipment for or even know how to do, some basic diagnostic techniques.

For example as the VW official workshop guides make no mention how to test for vacuum leaks with a smoke leak detector, and VW tools department don't sell a smoke vacuum leak detector, then they don't do this if you come in with symptoms of a vacuum leak. They basically plug it in and then follow some donkey fault finding procedure based on an error code and what their guided fault finding says to do.

If computer says everything ok then they say its all in your head and no fault. Despite you having a vacuum hose with a giant split in it, that was not enough to trigger a logged fault code, but enough to cause driveability issues.

This is how it works in dealerships.

On the other side of the coin, you have non dealerships who may have these basic diagnostic techniques but no access to the workshop guides or parts database - so now they don't know the correct way to disassemble or assemble something, or realise that a part has been superseded. They commonly break things as they dismantle stuff or put things back together incorrectly for them to fail sometime later (like leaking water pumps on GTI's or bolts not torqued in correct sequence, or certain parts put on the incorrect way round when its hard to tell etc)

I've also seen many non VW guides with all the wrong torque specs for things - a good one is axle bolts for this. There's 3 types of axle bolts out there and each one is torqued in a different way...yet many guides have only info for 1 or maybe 2 types and you end up over or under torqueing the bolt - a dangerous situation that I have seen lead to the bolt coming loose whilst driving or snapping sometime later.

Welcome to the wonderful world of car repair - since dealerships have locked down all their information many years ago, this is what you get....you get shafted by the dealership who don't have basic diagnostic or component level repair capability or shafted by the indie guys who just doesn't have all the required info to do the job properly.

One things for sure - you are getting shafted!.....unless you do what I did and become your own mechanic, buy tonnes of equipment, study all the in's and outs from a mechanics and engineering perspective. Then rip off all the VW software so you have the parts database and workshop guides to be able to do jobs properly

[Intensive]

Very sad to see this forum is still going. I was "fortunate" enough to get two new engines and a new DSG under warranty. Basically the 2009/10 build 118tsi engines were lemons. A number of us approached laywers in 2011 ; however lets say the balance between success and degree of compensation didn't spark enough interest.
These engines have failed worldwide but principally in hot climates including the Middle East, Portugal and of course Australia. Regrettably the chance of VW repairing any more of these cars at no or reduced cost is eight years after release is extremely low. Yes you can agitate but in the end how much of your time effort and indeed money are you prepared to invest in a car whose resale value is less now than 10k?

Drive the bloody thing until it dies ( I couldn't trade it knowing how unreliable it was and it's history), scrap it and move on!

Thats what I did and I feel so much better!

[night_flight]

is this campaign related to a potentially faulty tensioner? or is it something else...

[Umai Naa!!]

Uncontrolled combustion due to incorrect air/fuel ratios, or incorrect fuel used (I.e. not using 98RON).