What to do about this turbocharger debacle?

[BrianfCheng1]

I had an MK6 that was APR tuned for the life of the car. Zero issues.

Now, with all the horror stories about the turbochargers on the MK7, I find myself wondering what I should do with this car. I really want to get a tune but I don't want my daily driven car to fail without warning and causing headaches.
On the other hand if I leave it alone, the turbo still might fail on it's own. My worst fear is that I ultimately go without a tune, drive for 24k mile, right outside the warranty period and have my turbocharger fail.

I've clocked 35xx miles and don't know what to do?

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat, what would you do?

 

[TecklenburgVW]

I had an MK6 that was APR tuned for the life of the car. Zero issues.

Now, with all the horror stories about the turbochargers on the MK7, I find myself wondering what I should do with this car. I really want to get a tune but I don't want my daily driven car to fail without warning and causing headaches.
On the other hand if I leave it alone, the turbo still might fail on it's own. My worst fear is that I ultimately go without a tune, drive for 24k mile, right outside the warranty period and have my turbocharger fail.

I've clocked 35xx miles and don't know what to do?

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat, what would you do?

On all of the different forums regarding this subject, has anyone sent their failed Turbo to an independent expert for review and verification on how/why the turbo failed? Or is everyone taking their failed turbo into a VW dealership for servicing?

 

[SpeedieGTI]

Your warranty is only 24k miles?

 

[Nitsrik1976]

Well I actually attempted to contact the MD at VW U.K personally about this matter and he ignored my last email. P#ss poor is all I can say!

 

[Internexus]

On all of the different forums regarding this subject, has anyone sent their failed Turbo to an independent expert for review and verification on how/why the turbo failed? Or is everyone taking their failed turbo into a VW dealership for servicing?

Since it would be on the customers dime to have it removed, shipped, disassembled, and examined I would say no.

 

[CarlosCanizares]

As of now, I believe everyone on this forum whose turbo failed has been warrantied by VW REGARDLESS of the car being stock or modified (ECU, cbe, dp...etc).

I personally believe, if my turbo will fail, it will fail tuned or not. I just prefer to have tunes that I can remove myself so I won't be inconvenienced with towing and such.

I plan to get tuned once BMS releases Stage 1 and/or Unitronic releases UniConnect.

Regarding sending your turbo out top have it inspected. We don't even know if it's the turbo or something supporting the turbo.

 

[wlfpck]

I think the important thing may be that we need to take into account the actual failure rate.

Using forums is not an adequate representation of the turbo issue. Forums depend on registered users which is a very small percentage of GTI owners.

Second... you have to keep in mind that every thread about the blown turbo has referenced specific people. For instance, the turbo issues that KindiGTI had (no fault on his/her part) is 1 person. It is important to note that it is 1 person and not confuse it as more than 1 person. His/her situation has been brought up (and rightfully so) in pretty much every thread about a blown turbo.

Third... On forums, the users are car enthusiasts. Other GTI owners who are not on the forums don't post. At the same time... it is also important to keep in mind that people on the forums are very vocal about problems and things like that. Other people who are not on forums that have blown a turbo may simply just go through the warranty process and move on. No one outside of the people they talk to would even know because they don't talk about it on the forums and such.

So... this could be HUGE problem. Or it could be a batch of turbos that were bad. There are people tuned and running fine. There are also people that have gone through 2 or 3 turbos.

 

[BrianfCheng1]

I guess if we found out what the exact root of the problem is them I would be at ease.

 

[Stage2Sasquatch]

There hasn't been a single case of VW not replacing it (That I know of). VW which is a multi-billion dollar company has engineers that specifically deal with this kind of stuff working on solving this problem. I hate to break it to the forum warriors but the chances that a few guys messing around on the internet are going to find the solution faster than a multi-billion dollar company is slim to none. If it is going to fail, it will fail. There's nothing anyone has found that can stop it from happening so may as well carry on as normal...

 

[Sandman GTI]

Good comment!

There hasn't been a single case of VW not replacing it (That I know of). VW which is a multi-billion dollar company has engineers that specifically deal with this kind of stuff working on solving this problem. I hate to break it to the forum warriors but the chances that a few guys messing around on the internet are going to find the solution faster than a multi-billion dollar company is slim to none. If it is going to fail, it will fail. There's nothing anyone has found that can stop it from happening so may as well carry on as normal...

Companies do not want to hide issue (most). In today's world the word of mouth works fast on spreading the word. Companies want to fix the problem so customers are happy and inform others. This is how you build a customer base.
But, it is your right to question and I am sure VW monitors this site. If hard core VW owners are unhappy they will be much faster to let others know about issue and this will hurt sales. If they are happy, they will also tell others. I am sure they are working on it, or have made adjustments already. If you have issue, take it back and get it documented and fixed. If it breaks outside of warranty you will have records of past issues.

 

[jeffkro]

Companies do not want to hide issue (most). In today's world the word of mouth works fast on spreading the word. Companies want to fix the problem so customers are happy and inform others. This is how you build a customer base.
But, it is your right to question and I am sure VW monitors this site. If hard core VW owners are unhappy they will be much faster to let others know about issue and this will hurt sales. If they are happy, they will also tell others. I am sure they are working on it, or have made adjustments already. If you have issue, take it back and get it documented and fixed. If it breaks outside of warranty you will have records of past issues.

Yup, I love my GTI and want to keep on loving it. I hope my long term experience with it leaves me with a positive feeling for VW.