Anyone With a Mk7 Gti PP had it tuned?

[Dam355]

Yeah I saw that R as well. What I have heard is that there has been more R's than GTI's.

[Mikey1]

I'm quoting the mechanics from a VW dealership I go to, plus he's my friend. He said in WA alone there has been at least 10 cases where the turbo blew, tuned or stock. In the drags 2 months back an R blew his turbo right in front of my eyes (he was tuned with APR stage 1) VW has fixed this issue by tweaking the turbo's propeller shaft which was causing the failure. the change started with cars made from November 2014.

Regarding the GTI turbos failing, yes I've heard that they too also fail, but not as many as the R

While these posts are probably off-topic, the blown turbo issue is far too important to just ignore.

Thanks wazabiz for the info. Having a mate on the front line is invaluable. I have lots of questions, a number of which you and/or your friend must have an informed opinion on:

Do you have the part number of the revised turbo unit?
Is VW supplying the revised part for all warranty repairs?
Is VW Australia replacing all blown turbos and repairing any associated damage under warranty?
Are they exluding tuned engines which customers have declared?
Are they checking for evidence of engines previously tuned and exluding these from warranty claims.
Are all pre-November build Golf R's subject to turbo failure at some point in time or distance covered?
Is driving style a factor to the failure ocurring sooner or later?

Thanks for whatever info you can provide.

[wasabiz]

Do you have the part number of the revised turbo unit?
I'll try and ask him if he can provide me with the updated turbo's part number

Is VW supplying the revised part for all warranty repairs?
Yes

Is VW Australia replacing all blown turbos and repairing any associated damage under warranty?
I would guess so but if I know anything more I'll let you know

Are they exluding tuned engines which customers have declared?
I am not too sure about this one, but I did declare I have the APR tune on my car upon servicing (I do have the APR badge smiling at them at the hatch door) but since I'm associated with the dealer they didn't send my codes to VWA, so my warranty is "still there".
This one depends on your dealer, at any time they can decide to send your logs to VWA and will void your warranty.
The golf R that was tuned had his repairs done under warranty, but he had to go through plenty of arguments to do so.

Are they checking for evidence of engines previously tuned and exluding these from warranty claims.
Yes they do check for evidence, APR actually resets the counter upon deleting it when getting the car serviced, VWA found out about the blown Golf R because he blew it on a VW night on the drag strip. No matter how hard he tried to fight the cause of the blown turbo they had photo evidence that his car was indeed blown at the strip and some sneaky beaky like person from VW was there to chat with us on the night and found out that his car was tuned at stage one. They couldn't prove to him that his car was tuned at the dealer but visual evidence was there. In the end, I don't know what he pulled out of the magic hat, but he managed to fix his car under warranty, free of charge. $6000 job.

Are all pre-November build Golf R's subject to turbo failure at some point in time or distance covered?
That is still in the grey area, but the turbo pre-November are using some sort of metal ball bearing (God knows why) as chemistry and physics say, metal expands when heated, it has no where to go but break the seal, hence, the blown turbo. The updated turbos are now using ceramic turbo bearing.

Is driving style a factor to the failure ocurring sooner or later?
Nope, from what I heard, they can blow even while cruising, take a good listen at the turbo for whistling sound.

Hope this somewhat gives you more info. If I am wrong in any of what I said, please correct me.

[Mikey1]

Thanks wasabiz for your detailed reply. It's quite sobering to think that all pre-November built Golf R's with metal bearing turbos have what seems a basic materials design flaw, which could lead to failure at any time. I wonder if there is any responsibility or obligation from VW AG head office or VW Australia to voluntarily implement a service campaign to retrofit the revised part to all pre-November built Golf R's. Some might argue a full recall be implemented, but that hardly seems likely without a big push from regulatory authorities.

[nat225]

I'm quoting the mechanics from a VW dealership I go to, plus he's my friend. He said in WA alone there has been at least 10 cases where the turbo blew, tuned or stock. In the drags 2 months back an R blew his turbo right in front of my eyes (he was tuned with APR stage 1) VW has fixed this issue by tweaking the turbo's propeller shaft which was causing the failure. the change started with cars made from November 2014.

Regarding the GTI turbos failing, yes I've heard that they too also fail, but not as many as the R

ouch...

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

[AdamD]

Are all pre-November build Golf R's subject to turbo failure at some point in time or distance covered?
That is still in the grey area, but the turbo pre-November are using some sort of metal ball bearing (God knows why) as chemistry and physics say, metal expands when heated, it has no where to go but break the seal, hence, the blown turbo. The updated turbos are now using ceramic turbo bearing.

The turbo failures issue has been very widely covered all over the net and I've not yet seen another claim of another revised turbocharger for the Golf R (there have already been at least 5 revisions to the turbo and its turbine shaft). My mid-January 2015 build S3 uses exactly the same model of turbocharger as my father's S3 built in July 2014 - and that's the 722H revision turbo that is still being fitted to all Rs and S3s at the factory AFAIK (happy to be corrected if anyone has any concrete details?). (See this post to determine your turbo part number.)

Is driving style a factor to the failure ocurring sooner or later?
Nope, from what I heard, they can blow even while cruising, take a good listen at the turbo for whistling sound.

Guy Harding (the importer of APR products in Australia) claims that he was informally told by a fairly senior executive within Volkswagen in the UK that the primary cause of the turbo failures was attributed to the stop/start system switching things off before the oil had been sufficiently cooled, which would lead to internal scoring within the turbo and subsequent failure. That's all hearsay thus far.

Are they exluding tuned engines which customers have declared?
Are they checking for evidence of engines previously tuned and exluding these from warranty claims.

The only responsible answer to the above questions is this: if you tune your car, be prepared for VW to not honour the warranty should it fail. There are instances of warranty claims being denied, and it is VWA's official policy to scan the car for the presence of a tune before approving a warranty replacement. It is not - and never will be - a foregone conclusion that a turbo will be replaced under warranty should you modify. The specifics of each case are different (e.g. some have taken their tuned vehicles to their tuner on a flatbed to be returned to a stock tune before being taken in to VW for repairs, in the hope of concealing their mods), but you can't generalise in these cases - all bets are off.

If you're not prepared to forego your warranty, don't tune. I know of at least a couple of guys who've bought 722N turbos from overseas sellers as an 'insurance policy' should their factory-fitted turbos fail.

[sillyboy]

I'm quoting the mechanics from a VW dealership I go to, plus he's my friend. He said in WA alone there has been at least 10 cases where the turbo blew, tuned or stock. In the drags 2 months back an R blew his turbo right in front of my eyes (he was tuned with APR stage 1) VW has fixed this issue by tweaking the turbo's propeller shaft which was causing the failure. the change started with cars made from November 2014.

Regarding the GTI turbos failing, yes I've heard that they too also fail, but not as many as the R

Thank you wasabiz,

That is some very valuable information.

[Guy_H]

There is a bunch of threads over on Ozaudi.com with all the part numbers etc.

S3 (8V) | Tuning Box or ECU Remap? - Page 101

ozAudi - AUSTRALIAS LEADING AUDI FORUM

I switched my own turbo out as it was being driven by magazines / journalists / pro drivers & I didn't want it to fail during this test. They are a couple of grand delivered from the US.

The latest version compared to my version "1" had a different wastegate mechanism, and electronic controller. Visibly different.

[Mikey1]

My mid-January 2015 build S3 uses exactly the same model of turbocharger as my father's S3 built in July 2014 - and that's the 722N revision turbo that is still being fitted to all Rs and S3s at the factory AFAIK. (See this post to determine your turbo part number.)

My Golf R was built in July 2014 and has the 702N - Revision 2 turbocharger. You have quoted the part number as 722N. Is that a typo? If it is, then it doesn't make much sense than your S3 sedan built in January 2015 still uses the same part number when 722 H - Revision 4 should have been available since October 2014.

I know of at least a couple of guys who've bought 722N turbos from overseas sellers as an 'insurance policy' should their factory-fitted turbos fail.

Purchase of 722N (or 702N) units doesn't seem like a good insurance policy to me given the history of this unit.

Overall, where does the average Golf R owner stand, who doesn't have a turbocharger of at least Revision 4 standard? It seems to me there is a ticking time bomb under the hood, and nobody knows when, if ever, it will trigger a catastrophic failure. Sure, during the warranty period, you're covered if you have left the ECU stock, but after that you are probably on your own. One thing is for sure, resale values are set to plummet.

[jrathgen]

Guy Harding (the importer of APR products in Australia) claims that he was informally told by a fairly senior executive within Volkswagen in the UK that the primary cause of the turbo failures was attributed to the stop/start system switching things off before the oil had been sufficiently cooled, which would lead to internal scoring within the turbo and subsequent failure. That's all hearsay thus far.

I disable top/Start to avoid this exact issue, and usually do not thrash my car within about 0.5 - 1km before shutting off
Also let it warm down for at least a minute if my driving is spirited before shutdown - simple really, but I do remember what a turbo timer was used for.