Polo GTi 1.8 Mechatronic Failure

[Sydneykid]

Last Monday on my way to work my GTi flashed up the "Reverse Gear not Available" warning. Which also means 2nd, 4th or 6th gears weren't available either. Very interesting watching it shift from 1st to 3rd to 5th and occasionally to 7th. It also flashes the Engine Check Light and goes into limp home mode. But when I stopped and restarted it the ECL went out and the engine was back to normal. The combination of missing gears and limp home isn't pleasant, so if it happens to you try stopping and restarting.

Prior to this it showed no symptoms whatsoever, other than maybe a handful of times being slow into 4th gear when it was cold. Highly intermittent and rare, hence maybe totally unrelated.

Dropped it off at the Sutherland VW on the way home and Tuesday morning they called me and confirmed that it was the mechatronic unit for R,2,4,6 which would need replacing. They had one in stock (interesting) but they had no "VW hydraulic fluid" and it was out of stock at VW for 10 days. So a loan car was requested from VW, which took until Friday to show up after I blasted VW Customer Care a couple of times.

Magically the "VW hydraulic fluid" showed up Monday afternoon and I got my GTi back on Tuesday. Top service by Sutherland VW, not so impressed with having to chase VW Australia however.


Cheers
Gary

[BenT]

How many kms have you done and how old is the car?


Ben
Current: ‘18 Golf GTI Original
Past: ‘05 RS 225 Cup

[Sydneykid]

How many kms have you done and how old is the car?
Ben
Current: ‘18 Golf GTI Original
Past: ‘05 RS 225 Cup

23,000 k's
Bought in October '17 so 19 months old
No mods except led interior lights, daily driven in heavy traffic, don't use the paddles much, always serviced at Sutherland VW.

"Mechatronic unit" sounds complex but it's basically an electronic solenoid that opens and closes to allow hydraulic fluid to flow (or not flow). Not really a "wearing" part, unless we are taking about oil seals, other than that it's just an electric switch.

Cheers
Gary

[BenT]

Mechatronic units do fail fairy often though. I don’t see VW DSGs as being a cheap thing to maintain long term due to the fairly high failure rate, but they’re improving with each model. Hoping my next car is a Golf R (for the power and AWD mainly) so I won’t be able to choose a manual any more.


Ben
Current: ‘18 Golf GTI Original
Past: ‘05 RS 225 Cup

[Sydneykid]

It has 3 years plus 2 years extended warranty, so I'll keep it for ~4 years and then sell/trade it in with ~1 year left on the warranty. We have had 6 x VW DSG's in the family over almost 10 years and this is the only one that has ever had an issue. Also it was an electronics issue not a mechanical issue. As a result I'm not overly concerned at this time.

Cheers
Gary