Slave cylinder failure, how many people have had it?

[DuckinFouglas]

My wife and I both have 6spd Mk7s. Hers is a 2015 TDI sportwagen buyback, mine is a 2018 GTI. I am currently into a week of back and forth trying to get her slave cylinder failure covered by VW Care, it was 4-5 days out of the 2yr bumper to bumper warranty. Days. Only 49k miles. Her last car, a 2006 beetle 5spd, had 210k on it from the 70k when she bought it used, and it never took a clutch. So its obvious its not her.

Basically, I making this post to see if its an overwhelming amount of MT folks that experience this failure, and at what mileage? Also, does anyone know if the mk7.5 has the same crappy plastic slave? I fear my car will suffer the same fate soon, I am not far behind her in miles and I wonder if they will say the same "wear item" tag on me, regardless of the people's warranty. Her car has been denied twice, but I keep trying and it is still in process. This issue is beyond acceptable without at least a TSB out there. We have 6 cars in the VW database and I just can't believe it's this hard to get it covered.

 

[Blueballs]

Just saw this today.

I will say that the TOB/slave cylinder failure on the MK7’s is a common thing. Not so common to where everyone is having them fail, but common enough that there have been many people who have had them fail. Just about every write up I’ve read about a MK7 owners TOB/slave cylinder failing is from the plastic TOB/slave cylinder. I haven’t heard or read of anyone with the upgraded metal TOB/slave cylinder failing.

I’m on my second DKM Stage 2 MB clutch on my MK7 GTI, and my first kit came wi the plastic TOB/slave cylinder, and my second kit came with the metal TOB/slave cylinder. I did not have any issues with the plastic one, nor have I had any with the metal one. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m on my second DKM clutch kit only because my first kit started slipping after 50k miles on it. Other than that, it was a great clutch, and my new one is great too.

It sounds like you are definitely getting close to a failed TOB/slave cylinder on your wife’s MK7 TDI. I 100% agree that this is such a crap item that VW decided to use for this car. Just cheap. Why would a company choose to use a plastic bodied TOB when they know it also plays the role of the slave cylinder? It’s all about “cost” to them. They could care less how weak the component is.

To be only 4-5 days past your warranty, as wel as having been on record of owning 6 different VW cars, and VW NOT honor your wife’s warranty is such a joke! So wrong in my eyes. This is my first VW I’ve ever owned, and probably my last for this specific reason, as I personally have been very i satisfied with VW customer service. It’s like nobody knows anything about the cars they’re selling/fixing. If you’re modified, they don’t want to even look at the car because their knowledge level is so low. Plus not honoring warranty’s 4-5 days out of it is just another reason for me to RUN away from owning another VW. Awesome car. Love my GTI. But I won’t ever buy another new VW, ever!!

 

[DuckinFouglas]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I am done with new VWs, MQB specifically. After a month, they decided to pay half. Still an unacceptable situation in my eyes but it was better than nothing. All these companies that want to virtue signal on the news and help essential workers, this was one of those times. A teacher with multiple VWs in their system, days out of warranty, and they couldn't just fix it and had to get something out of us. I was so mad I traded my GTI a few weeks later. The VW care worker said the warranty on her TDI wouldn't have mattered anyway because it's a wear item., and there was no service history on the car because i did all the maintenance myself. I said well what about my GTI when it goes, are you going to ignore the people's warranty too and tell me its wear?? No no, it'll be different she said. Yeah right, they will hassle me the same way. So I traded for a used 2012 S4, solid service history. Loving it so far. Still the VW umbrella I know, but at least I can tune it guilt free and not have to worry about a warranty or blowing a clutch early, and it was made before they started going to too far with cost cutting I feel. The AWD has been great with all the snow this year.

Anyway, she is keeping her TDI since we have money into it now and she commutes far, so the diesel is ideal. But get this, they insisted on putting VW parts back in since VW was paying for half. So unless they improved the part with the same number, we will be right back into this situation 50k later and they definitely won't be helping us at all then.

 

[pooneej]

Sorry to bump an older thread but I've been digging through to find what is causing my leak. I have a 2015 TDI S wagon with 60k miles. No longer under warranty (bought with 28k March 2019) It's looking like it might be slave cylinder as suggested by an independent shop (not yet confirmed, just via a phone call).

I am almost tempted to sell it to carvana or trade it in and let them deal with the repair but I do love the car and this is a bad time to be car shopping.

Probably dumb question but I've seen some people dump 'stop leak' into their brake reservoir to patch up leaks. Should I even bother to temporarily repair it?