The Mega Mk7 Golf GTI/GTD/R thread

Indy garage (not the same asshole I used the last time), quoted me €410 for parts and labour to just replace the pump, genuine VW parts. He said he'd take a look at the thermostat at the same time and another €70 or so to replace that if needs be. That's a bit easier to take.

Paddy@CIRL

I'm not sure where you're based Royale with Cheese, but Daltons in Port Laoise were excellent when it came time to do my timing chain and tensioner. I think George is a member around these parts as well.

Whatever way you go about it, replace the thermostat housing while it's out, looking at it won't tell you if its knackered and they are almost a given component to fail, particularly after being upset during a water pump change. We've had several where we've had to strip the car a second time to do the thermostat housing, so now it's part of the quote every time.

It sounds like those figures are made up though, so i'd confirm it with him. There's no way he'll replace the thermostat housing for an additional €70, it's like a €200 part. Sounds like he's pricing for a traditional thermostat swap, which this is not.

You should also check for coolant or corrosion on the pins of the block connector for the temp sensor at the thermostat housing, if there is a leak, coolant can pass the seal on this connector and capillary action will draw the coolant into and up along the cable core which will corrode it internally. This can lead to electrical gremlins down the line. It's non popular, but it can happen.

Unfortunately you're right. I was quoted €350 for thermostat replacement, so the total quote wasn't that far off the dealer price in the end as I'd have owed the dealer €113 for the diagnostic if I didn't go with them. I just bit the bullet and went with them in the end, a real kick in the balls but I don't want to have to have this done twice. Thanks for your advice.

I won't be taking it to the dealer for any more diagnostics anyway, I just assumed it would be something small enough given the age and mileage. Is it not completely ridiculous to have these plastic parts that need to be replaced (expensively) after only a few years?

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I won't be taking it to the dealer for any more diagnostics anyway, I just assumed it would be something small enough given the age and mileage. Is it not completely ridiculous to have these plastic parts that need to be replaced (expensively) after only a few years?

To be fair, the dealer got your diagnosis spot on and weren't even that much dearer than an independent so really, they had your back here IMO :pac: I'd still put them through the wringer for goodwill of some sort, particularly if you've been servicing with them, just gone 4 years old, 30k kms etc.

Yeah, the plastic stuff is a bit silly. They have a plastic sump too which is asking for trouble IMO, the aluminium ones were bad enough!

I bought the car second hand about 10 months ago off an independent dealership, was given a 6 month engine and gearbox warranty. I don't think it'd be covered even if it was still inside the 6 months. The place is actually directly behind the dealer service centre that's doing the repair though, and the previous owner lived in the same area so the car was serviced exclusively there since new.

drunkmonkey

Is it worth swapping out the plastic oil pan for a steel one..do VW sell one?

Hard to believe it failed after 30k kms. Maybe it's true that sometimes the lowest mileage cars aren't always the best option.

Edit: Just did a quick bit of research on this and seems like a common failure on the TSi engines, R owners reporting a lot of failures

Yeah I found the same when I did some digging myself. I was planning to upgrade to a facelift R in 2 years but this has knocked my confidence in them a bit now. I picked the car up this morning and actually had the official VW service centre tell me that the thermostat definitely needs replacing because it's made of plastic and will start to leak. On a 4 year old car with that mileage that's just fairly piss poor.

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

Mickiemcfist

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

Well its fairly shocking that this has been an issue since at least Mk5's, two generations ago & still not sorted. However I'd imagine they've kept it weak intentionally.

Ron Burgundy II

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

How do the 1.4tsi fair with this issue?

OSI wrote: »

Lasts long enough to get them past the warranty period, all that counts to the finance department really.

I've a two year warranty on this repair, I might go in and sabotage the pump myself in about 22 months so.

To be fair it's on the cards for almost every VAG unit, be it petrol or diesel from the last 20 years seems. With most though it's a lot cheaper and easier to replace, like on say the 1.6 or 2.0d engines and can be changed in around 2 hours by someone used to doing them.

The problem with the 2.0tsi is the pump is absolutely buried and there's a lot of stripping of boost pipes etc to get to it, then when you do get to it, the pump and silly stat housing are very expensive, compared to, again, say a 1.6tdi pump which is less than €100.

Muppet Man

What I dont get are the inconsistency of failures. Some do and some dont... you would think they ALL would???

Are there any symptoms that its about to go tits up?

Muppet Man wrote: »

Are there any symptoms that its about to go tits up?

The badge on the bonnet

[Deleted User]

Muppet Man wrote: »

What I dont get are the inconsistency of failures. Some do and some dont... you would think they ALL would??? ............

............... similar to anything else really

This particular component seems to have a higher percentage of failure than what most would expect.

[Deleted User]

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Yeah I found the same when I did some digging myself. I was planning to upgrade to a facelift R in 2 years but this has knocked my confidence in them a bit now. I picked the car up this morning and actually had the official VW service centre tell me that the thermostat definitely needs replacing because it's made of plastic and will start to leak. On a 4 year old car with that mileage that's just fairly piss poor.

Unless it’s changed since the mk5 the timing belt interval in time is 5 years on the 2.0tsi engine so in reality regardless of the leak the water pump would be getting changed soon anyway. You should really have done the timing belt too while they were at it I’m very surprised it wasn’t suggested by the dealer (again unless they have pushed out the time interval between changes).

Edit: or changed to a chain as mentioned below. Hadn’t realized they made the change, thought it was pretty much the same engine since the mk5.

Mk7 has a chain I believe.

Yeah TSi engine is chain driven. The GTD still has a belt driven engine.

Sneak

Anyone ever have any problems with the radio/infontainment system? Mine died a slow death over the last 2 days. It won't power on now.

GustavoFring

If you hold the power button for a good 10 seconds it can do a reset. Might help.

Could be lose wiring.

Otherwise it gets awkward as the main brains of the radio is coded to the chassis and you need to get around component protection to throw a replacement in if it's not covered by warranty.

Reckless Abandonment

Sneak wrote: »

Anyone ever have any problems with the radio/infontainment system? Mine died a slow death over the last 2 days. It won't power on now.

Yep had it on my mk7 2016. Parts stopped working ie. Sat nav and app connect wouldn't work. Radio worked. They tried to run update (which might fix your problem) they changed the unit on warranty. Would of been a 1500 job other wise. With Frank kean anyway..

TheBazman

Reckless Abandonment wrote: »

Yep had it on my mk7 2016. Parts stopped working ie. Sat nav and app connect wouldn't work. Radio worked. They tried to run update (which might fix your problem) they changed the unit on warranty. Would of been a 1500 job other wise. With Frank kean anyway..

Same here - radio starting acting up - taking on a life of its' own, changing stations, volume etc. Software update didnt work, radio replaced under warranty.

The earlier cars are getting on in the years now so it's inevitable they would start showing a few issues. I've been lucky with mine so far. Has anyone heard about cars with climate control having problems with their heater matrix? There's a bag of silica gel in the coolant expansion tank which can burst and block the heater matrix. Apparently it's a £1,500 fix in the UK. It comes up very often on the GTD owners forum on Facebook, I'm not sure if it is a GTD specific problem or if it affects all mk7s. The preventative solution it seems is just to remove the silica gel from the tank, I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the first place though. My car is going in for a service in two weeks so I'm tempted to ask them to remove it altogether.

Any one else come across this issue?

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

The earlier cars are getting on in the years now so it's inevitable they would start showing a few issues. I've been lucky with mine so far. Has anyone heard about cars with climate control having problems with their heater matrix? There's a bag of silica gel in the coolant expansion tank which can burst and block the heater matrix. Apparently it's a £1,500 fix in the UK. It comes up very often on the GTD owners forum on Facebook, I'm not sure if it is a GTD specific problem or if it affects all mk7s. The preventative solution it seems is just to remove the silica gel from the tank, I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the first place though. My car is going in for a service in two weeks so I'm tempted to ask them to remove it altogether.

Any one else come across this issue?

I've seen it come up a lot on searches too, it definitely effects other variants of the MK7 also. Apparently a symptom of the bag having burst is the dash vents not blowing hot air through all the vents. I'm tempted to have it removed also.

Yeah I think it might be the way the to go alright. They are the symptoms alright. Did you buy a mk7?

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

Yeah I think it might be the way the to go alright. They are the symptoms alright. Did you buy a mk7?

I did indeed.