DSG woes in The Age

[spikeyboy22]

Well so far, I've seen 2 useful comments in this thread.

Those of you who have commented about how those of us with the dsg must be making up stories etc, let me point something out here. NONE OF YOU HAVE BEEN IN A VW WHEN A DSG FAILS.

I have.

Nomadx38 was behind me at the time, all he knew is the overwhelming stink of fried clutch engulfed his nostrils, for me it was very different. I sh*t myself. I was accelerating when I lost everything, all drive, all gears, all brakes except the handbrake which in the 3-4 seconds of nothing, I didn't reach for. Now before any of you get on your high horses about 'I would have slowly applied the handbrake...' Well I say bullsh*t to you because in 3 seconds, you can't even think about what to do, your still trying to work out what the hell is going on, when suddenly your engine revs to redline, there is an almighty 'CLUNK' and you are driving with an intermittent flash between 4 and a spanner on your mfd.

3-4 seconds is a sizeable gap in traffic at 110kph, a bit over call it 110m. When you have a 40 tonne truck coming the other way, your approaching each other at 220m a second. If you pull out and start accelerating to overtake someone on a country highway, you might be at 130kph when suddenly you lose everything. That truck which was a close gap away is now very close and probably has already slammed their brakes on because they will need about 400m to come to a complete stop if fully loaded.
Even if you hit at 30kph each, you're not walking away. The inertia of 40 tonnes will mix you up on the insides. If you hit at 60kph, fair chance that you will be carted back home in a big garbage bag.

My point? Don't comment on sh*t you don't know about. This is why I am (bombshell alert) considering selling my polo. I take a deep breath every time I start the car because I don't know I the car is going to bring me home or end up on a flat bed or worse.

Too many torched pistons, to many replaced engines, too many clutch packs, too many mechatronics units, too many whole gearboxes, too many stretched timing chains, too many faulty coilpacks and spark plugs, too many creaking seats.

I've already had 6 warranty jobs in 2 years. My parents have had a grand total of 1 warranty job carried out across 3 Holdens in the past 10 years and so many of us are more than happy to get on here and slag off the locals. Will I buy a holden or ford? No. Will I ever buy another Volkswagen (other than an early 70's karmann ghia)? No chance.

I have to agree with here, bought a Polo Gti three months ago after owning a mark 6 golf gti which I love and still have...

My car has not been right, the seven speed dsg is nothing on h six speed, it looses gears, is slow a react and the car is nothing on a German made 6 speed, I drive every day for work and after 8,000km I hav lost all confidence .... I don't want to deal with dumb dealers with attuide, so last week end traded on a golf seven with six speed dsg,

I love vw cars but there service and the way you get treated as a customer... Glad I traded last week the car would be worth a lot less today.

I don't know if he article has helped or made it worse because it mixes issues, the have not researched we'll and I think because of that we have list credibility.

Thank you th age and smh to bringing it to the main stream media, but I think your ****ty job as always has stuffed it right up...

These cars have big problems some bigger for some people more then others...

[Creniac]

WOW!! Go Gavs!! that is a top explanation and I agree.... I HAD a 7DSG in my (now well gone) 118 TSI Jetta.... But now I'm in with love my manual Tiggy..... No G'box issues any more.

[Golf7]

I was so appalled at the lack of professionalism in the article written by Fairfax. The car in question over the death didn't even have a DSG transmission, nor was it a diesel. It really made my blood boil. Just because they make the best cars in the world... Now in breaking news, a Golf MK. 5 in White with 15 inch alloys has had to make an emergency stop in Wodonga, on the shoulder after a tyre was punctured. VW Australia has declined to comment and The Age understands that the driver HIT the emergency flasher button in response to the near-death experience. Witnesses say the car pulled over to the side, stopped and the driver proceeded to get out. We have unconfirmed reports that the driver has said that they thought that they were going to die, praying that they would not.

[VWDSGissue]

I am delighted that Fairfax are willing to publish an article, which is so critical of one of their advertisers. I have a 2008 Passat with a rubbish DSG.

If you read the comments in the article, you will see that many people have had near misses in their VWs. I have concerns about safety but I am frustrated by VW selling a crap DSG gearbox and then ignoring their customers.

I hope this article will push them towards fixing the faulty DSGs. Ideally, a Government body would investigate and force them to.

I will be dumping my VW as soon as I get my DSG issue resolved.

[spikeyboy22]

I was so appalled at the lack of professionalism in the article written by Fairfax. The car in question over the death didn't even have a DSG transmission, nor was it a diesel. It really made my blood boil. Just because they make the best cars in the world... Now in breaking news, a Golf MK. 5 in White with 15 inch alloys has had to make an emergency stop in Wodonga, on the shoulder after a tyre was punctured. VW Australia has declined to comment and The Age understands that the driver HIT the emergency flasher button in response to the near-death experience. Witnesses say the car pulled over to the side, stopped and the driver proceeded to get out. We have unconfirmed reports that the driver has said that they thought that they were going to die, praying that they would not.

I do agree that the reporting was ****house Golf7 but be carful as your reporting of the new Golf 7 around here has been less then perfect and changes on a daily basis.....

Not having a go just pointing out the fact...

[Diesel_vert]

On the face of it, it would appear there is very little to link this particular incident with the issues experienced by owners of vehicles equipped with a DSG.

However, notwithstanding how the article was written, it wouldn't be fair to say that it diminishes the experiences people have had with their vehicles, because there have just been too many posts and instances on this forum (let alone worldwide) to dismiss the DSG issue as insignificant.

[RoknRob]

I am delighted that Fairfax are willing to publish an article, which is so critical of one of their advertisers. I have a 2008 Passat with a rubbish DSG.

If you read the comments in the article, you will see that many people have had near misses in their VWs. I have concerns about safety but I am frustrated by VW selling a crap DSG gearbox and then ignoring their customers.

I hope this article will push them towards fixing the faulty DSGs. Ideally, a Government body would investigate and force them to.

I will be dumping my VW as soon as I get my DSG issue resolved.

Hear, hear.

Regardless of the quality of reporting, the fact that it was front page news, and the sheer number of comments... I doubt VAG can ignore it. This appears to be a big PR disaster.

For the record, I am over 40, a family man, drive sensibly, and, sadly, prefer NOT to have my kids in my car, because I too have had "false neutrals" with complete loss of power. In two separate cars, I might add.

[spikeyboy22]

We have a update people news just in...

Government orders probe on VW 'faults'

[JonP01]

Well so far, I've seen 2 useful comments in this thread....

My point? Don't comment on sh*t you don't know about...

I can't speak for others, but in my opinion, the manner in which you conduct yourself on these forums is unbefitting of any member, let alone one with super moderator status.

[cappuccino]

I have a Polo 77TSI 7SPD DSG 2012.5 (manufactured Aug 2012) and within the first 3000km I had two cases where limp mode kicked in at the lights but not while at speed. error codes was misfirein cyl 4.

VW Denlo Parramatta did a software update TPI 2031645/3 and I have since not had any issues, currently at 7,500km
I'm actually having my 7,500km health check 1st june at 8.30am, i'm going to bring this news up with them, not sure what to say, any ideas?
I'd like to know what this software update actually does?

Apart from getting rid of the car, which i'm not considering, realistically, not viable option financially and not enough information is out about what is going on. People have died in Totoya, Honda etc faults and all of the sorts, just sadly the risk of driving. Frankly, its because of the computers, which is in all cars these days, unless I get a 1990's car with all mechical controls i dont see how you can avoid. i upgraded from such a car and just as likely to die from the lack of modern crash equipment, im sure it would be a zero encap rated car today!

id like to hear from non VW mechanics who can explain technically what the issue is and the cause rather than consumer reports. I feel understanding an issue provides logical ways to deal with it and make decisions.

other than that, the drive has been perfect, no issues with DSG or anything else, im just hoping the software update has resolved the issued permanently, which is why id like to know what causes the limp mode and what the update does.

as a programmer, my thinking is:
1) the software was written to put car into limp mode on any detection of a misfire (2 misfires in my case)
2) misfires happen in engines all the time as normal functioning, you cant get 100% denotation 100% of the time, unless it is misfiring on every cycle. one or two misfire out of a million denotations is not a problem (from what i read)... btw, my old non computerized car, you can tell when there was a misfire or knock back, drove fine, but not pesky computer to force limp mode.
3) the software update increases the amount of misfires that can occur in a row before going into limp mode, more tolerance in other words

pure speculation, but would like insider knowledge? there must be a mechanic somewhere who has an idea

on ipad forgive the typos btw