'15 GTI 80k, stock, babied since new - engine locked up :(

[SAABTurboGuy]

To put some closure in here, I just sold the car with the bad engine for $5300. Full asking price.

Makes me wonder if I should have asked for more. I was overwhelmed by the interest and number of inquiries/offers I received in such a short time. The buyer couldn't believe it still had the new car smell. I guess even if I could have gotten 6000 or 6500, it wouldn't have made a huge difference in my life. Time to move on and try to forget about the car.

 

[avenali312]

To put some closure in here, I just sold the car with the bad engine for $5300. Full asking price.

Makes me wonder if I should have asked for more. I was overwhelmed by the interest and number of inquiries/offers I received in such a short time. The buyer couldn't believe it still had the new car smell. I guess even if I could have gotten 6000 or 6500, it wouldn't have made a huge difference in my life. Time to move on and try to forget about the car.

Definitely time to move on. Not worth second guessing over or anything. Good luck on your next one, whatever it ends up being!

 

[SAABTurboGuy]

Definitely time to move on. Not worth second guessing over or anything. Good luck on your next one, whatever it ends up being!

Thanks! Appreciate all the support in this forum!

 

[SAABTurboGuy]

If anyone wants to know what happened
...

The guy who bought the car from me tore the engine apart, and it turns out a valve spring had broken and the valve fell into the engine. He sent me pictures.

The cylinder head is toast.

Really bad luck?
Poor quality part/supplier?

 

[Diggs24]

Seems like just bad luck.

 

[hans611]

Wow, so another broken valve spring....

 

[Acadia18]

If anyone wants to know what happened
...

The guy who bought the car from me tore the engine apart, and it turns out a valve spring had broken and the valve fell into the engine. He sent me pictures.

The cylinder head is toast.

Really bad luck?
Poor quality part/supplier?

Well, where are they?

Some of us are sickos who like looking at nsfw stuff

 

[roundle1979]

Likely your last VW product. Pretty lame of VAG.

 

[SAABTurboGuy]

Well, where are they?

Some of us are sickos who like looking at nsfw stuff

Here are the pics!

 

[SAABTurboGuy]

Likely your last VW product. Pretty lame of VAG.

Absolutely is. Unless every other car brand screws me over in the same way over the course of my lifetime, then I guess I may give VW another try.

 

[The Fed]

One of those times there's something good to be said if you buy an extended warranty. Stuff happens, though. What's the most you revved it out to? I had a new '78 manual Trans Am with the "hipo" Pontiac big-block that I never beat on, and I sitting at light, idling. When I pushed the clutch in to shift into first, one of the inner springs in the clutch disk broke.

 

[GoatAutomotive]

To the OP, I feel for you. My stock LS2 (GM) s**t the bed sitting at a traffic light, by dropping a valve and grenading a (at the time) $6k engine. That same setup is $7-8k in today's inflated economy.

It was crushing to pull the head and see the carnage. Takes out every valuable component on the longblock.

That said, I haven't found this to be a common event on modern VAG motors (valvespring failure):

Any feedback you can offer us on the suspected cause of death, max RPM of your motor when driven, etc. would be helpful and constructive for the readers and lurkers on here.

If I missed the answer already, you can just quote it here in a response.

Thanks in advance,

-Michael
(idiosyncratic VW lover)

 

[SAABTurboGuy]

To the OP, I feel for you. My stock LS2 (GM) s**t the bed sitting at a traffic light, by dropping a valve and grenading a (at the time) $6k engine. That same setup is $7-8k in today's inflated economy.

It was crushing to pull the head and see the carnage. Takes out every valuable component on the longblock.

That said, I haven't found this to be a common event on modern VAG motors (valvespring failure):

Any feedback you can offer us on the suspected cause of death, max RPM of your motor when driven, etc. would be helpful and constructive for the readers and lurkers on here.

If I missed the answer already, you can just quote it here in a response.

Thanks in advance,

-Michael
(idiosyncratic VW lover)

As far as cause of death, really this car was as gently driven and well maintained as possible.

Complete stock.

Quality oil every 5k, everything done on time, plugs, etc.

Driven very gently. Got on it on rare occasions. Don't really specifically recall ever redlining it or even getting that close. Really probably one of the most gently driven GTIs you'd ever come across. Mature adult driven would be an understatement.

 

[HelloNewman]

WOW, this is almost exactly what happened to my car. Car is @ 108k miles right now. Original owner, bought it brand new in Dec 2014. (one of the first mk7s on the west coast) Car had rough idle, then would just either not start or die after starting. Turned out to be a broken valve spring. Car runs great now. I think I got lucky getting the heads rebuilt immediately. No codes stored other than SAIP (very odd)

Quick update: 120k miles now, car has been operating great since the valve springs were changed out. No oil burn issues, etc. Still on the stock clutch as well. I would strongly recommend considering replacing the valve springs as a preventative measure if you have an early build mk7.