MK6 GTI - Rattle upon acceleration - Resolved via TPI: 2021062/7

[Corey_R]

It's Dutch77's opinion reaction, and he's entitled to it as much as you are of yours. There are plenty of people who are not fussed about the rattle.

[Dutch77]

It's Dutch77's opinion reaction, and he's entitled to it as much as you are of yours. There are plenty of people who are not fussed about the rattle.

Precisely.. I guess my point wasn't to rubbish the people who are upset over it.. just my own view that:

a) It doesn't bother me; and

b) Buyer beware in my case as this sound was present on all GTIs I had driven.

Certainly if someone had driven a car minus this sound and it then turned up on their delivery and/or developed over time then I'd probably be asking questions too.

Either way does seem like a good reason to consider the APR system

[MurphyTheElf]

The APR exhaust with the RSC is even quieter when just cruising, yet when you put your foot down it's raspier. Sounds great. NSW's local APR dealership has a GTI with the full TBE RSC exhaust installed so we can hear. Unfortunately the WA dealer doesn't have one...

Raspier? It's downright insane! I took a Stage2 for a short spin on the weekend thanks to a very nice bloke who had the exhaust fitted here in Perth. Up-changing at 4000rpm almost broke the windows on a few houses in my suburb. It's very aggressive, in my opinion and I don't think it's for me. It is still sedate-ish while crawling around, but it's louder than stock for sure. It's very easy to make it sing and I'm not sure I'm after that much attention.

For the record, I can't be 100% sure that the rattle sound has gone from that car. Since it had a new exhaust and the Carbonio intake, all I could hear at the required conditions was the intake sucking and the exhaust burbling. Now, it's a great car if that's what you want, but I like my vehicles to sound a bit more sedate. Diagnosis: inconclusive! Damn it!

I think the best course is for a few of us to go through some troubleshooting as stated in the 2nd VWoA bulletin. Attach a tyre weight to the wastegate actuator and see if the noise changes/stops. If so, it's the wastegate. If not, it's probably the downpipe heat shielding/flexi-joint. Perhaps the shielding could be wrapped in some way to test that theory as well.

I asked my dealer for a copy of the VWA bulletin but they said any correspondence between VWA and the dealer is confidential and would violate their agreement. Contacting VWA customer care simply results in a terse suggestion to speak to one's dealer. Way to treat your customers like mushrooms.

[hooba]

Precisely.. I guess my point wasn't to rubbish the people who are upset over it.. just my own view that:

a) It doesn't bother me; and

b) Buyer beware in my case as this sound was present on all GTIs I had driven.

Certainly if someone had driven a car minus this sound and it then turned up on their delivery and/or developed over time then I'd probably be asking questions too.

Either way does seem like a good reason to consider the APR system

Today I heard it for the first time as I had the radio down, and I agree with you.

The noise doesn't bother me, and I've taken it as part of the "character" of the car. TAKE THAT YOU BORING PIECES OF RELIABLE JAPANESE MADE MACHINERY!

That said, I can see how it would tick some people off.

[rs73]

well when you think about it, vw golf, even gti, are considered cheap car for the posh people... (as one of my friend said - he who has owned many euros like porsche cayman, audi s4, cooper s, and etc).

it may be like $50k with options here and there in A$ but unfortunately that was a byproduct of economy, import duty, and our location being so far off with the rest of european/american continents (and buying power). but IMHO in a euro car sense of scale, golfs are just like corolla/pulsar/lancer/civic/323/swift and similar level if compared to a japanese scale. (and perhaps only as level as Lanos/Elantra in a korean scale).

so when I bought the car, i don't expect it to be of rattle free quality - as long as it's fun to drive that's why it don't bother me...
but that's just me, you're welcome to disagree strongly and move the gauge scale around... but that is how I personally view the scale.
it's an entry point into euro car market, really.

[REXman]

But a top spec corolla is $30K and a pulsar is less than that by far. A fully optioned golf gti is $60k.. That's double the price, more in the cases of a car lesser than a fully specced corolla..

I have a few friends who have heated garages so there paint won't ruin? Who cares. A golf is a premium hatch here in aus and compared to the competition.

You should be proud to own and enjoy the car as being one that is of a higher position from an engineering standpoint, and you have every right to be upset if the car is behaving like a hyundai excel, even in just "some" aspects, particularly when so many people who have experience with much cheaper cars, have not experienced this.

And i might add, Regardless of other things being done well.

[rs73]

true, golfs are definitely ahead if you cross compare against japanese or european scale, in terms of finish etc.
but if you compare within the european scale itself, they're not the most super duper thing ever.

that said it's not about not being proud to have a golf to drive around, but it's about managing my expectations so if things do fall apart, i know where it stands in a scale...

there was a case study at work in regards to managing expectation, a reputable road assist company had taken approach to quote time of technician to arrive at customer's broken down car in 1 hour blocks, say if their nearest car is 15 mins away they will say they'll have someone be there in 1 hour, if it's 1:05 away, they'll say 2 hours. what happened is they've set the expectation baseline to those and in most cases the mechs managed to get to the customer in LESS than the quoted time and majority of customers are happy...

had they done differently, promising mechanics to arrive in 15mins but constantly late even by 1 minute customers experience may not be as great.
Our team have applied this approach at work, setting a baseline of completing peer requests by 2 days for minor and 5 working days for larger piece of work, and at 99% of the time we managed to exceed their expectations, as well as allowing ourselves ample of time to juggle and prioritise between work.

ok, enough management course.
that said - my way of setting the scale, if my gti don't rattle like a rattle snake after 3 years, I will be a happy customer, kept my sanity, kept my blood pressure low, and remove stress. if my gti does end up rattle like a snake, I can tell myself, it's an entry level euro car anyway, as I expected when I bought it. no harm done to my sanity

[mfl]

as being one that is of a higher position from an engineering standpoint,

When I bought the GTI I did actually expect a slightly higher build quality than the cheaper Australian and Japanese cars I have owned, especially when the interior trim of the car gives the feel that puts it a class above everything else I owned. In fact it was the quality of the interior which in the end, meant I bought the GTI instead of the XR5, which was cheaper and had more options for the price (leather and blue-tooth).

so far on my 9 month old GTI, the ac compressor and water pump have had to be replaced. The water pump took 2 days and the dealer didn't offer a loan car. the dealer hasn't fixed the squeaks in the front doors yet and after our disagreement over oil 'sweat' on the turbo, it probably means I will have to see another dealer for another opinion. - but I still actually really enjoy driving the GTI. - as for the exhaust rattle, maybe if VW tuned a few more pops and crackle into the engine note, you wouldn't hear it.

[G-rig]

Raspier? It's downright insane! I took a Stage2 for a short spin on the weekend thanks to a very nice bloke who had the exhaust fitted here in Perth. Up-changing at 4000rpm almost broke the windows on a few houses in my suburb. It's very aggressive, in my opinion and I don't think it's for me. It is still sedate-ish while crawling around, but it's louder than stock for sure. It's very easy to make it sing and I'm not sure I'm after that much attention.

You may be better off just going for the downpipe setup for stage 2 (and get most of the power). However i think you need some extra burble/exhaust note to get your mind of the 'rattle'. I don't even think it's nearly as bad as people make out or don't notice it much myself. The door rubbers make more noise J.

Depends how much people want to worry about trivial nonsense things I guess.

[ddre78]

b) Buyer beware in my case as this sound was present on all GTIs I had driven.

Certainly if someone had driven a car minus this sound and it then turned up on their delivery and/or developed over time then I'd probably be asking questions too.

Neither of the two cars I test drove had the rattle! Mine does. Not acceptable.