The turbo issue!

[russiankid]

You are missing the point.
I just want to know if there still is a real problem even with the never turbos.
I can keep the car stock even if I dont like it.
And as you can see there has been 2016- cars in the US as well that has a problem.
Then a few cars going bad isnt a big problem so we will see...

It must be better for all of us knowing the truth than dipping the head in the sand and pretending all is fine. Or?

And I so do hope that you are correct and Im wrong. We will see...

I am not missing the point. You want a concrete answer on whether or not there is still a problem with these turbos. There is no concrete answer because too many factors play into the failure rate of a turbo.

 

[Yamdan1]

I am not missing the point. You want a concrete answer on whether or not there is still a problem with these turbos. There is no concrete answer because too many factors play into the failure rate of a turbo.

Not if its the same thing that makes them go bad!

Well we will see.

 

[r12rex]

I am not missing the point. You want a concrete answer on whether or not there is still a problem with these turbos. There is no concrete answer because too many factors play into the failure rate of a turbo.

This. Every turbo failure could be looked at as a case by case basis. If VW had turbo problems, we would see this issue far more frequently.

Yamdan, if your paranoia/anxiety about turbo failure is as bad as you are portraying it to be via this thread, then do yourself a favor and don't mod the car. Drive it stock, keep the factory warranty, if the turbo goes, have it replaced and sell the car. Cars aren't built to be perfect. No manufacturer has a perfect 100% reliability rate. VW is no less. Again, if you are worried then keep the car stock. Without concrete evidence with each turbo failure, there's no way to say whether it is still an issue or not.

Happy motoring!!!

Kind Regards,
Ryan

 

[wlfpck]

I've mentioned before already...

The problem that you are describing is NOT a frequent issue. If you look at the user names that keep posting on every thread about a turbo failure, you'll start to see that the usernames are the same every time.

There was a small issue with the turbos on the first batch of MK7 GTIs and maybe even the R's. However, those were fixed by several revisions later.

I had a 2015 pretty much within 2 months of the MK7 being available in the states and my turbo had no problem till I traded it in for another mk7 to get Carplay and the color I wanted.

The issue is NOT a frequent occurrence or else, VW would have issued a recall like with the early batches of fuel pumps.

The handful of people who have blown their turbo on THIS forum and VWVortex is a handful. On the other side of things... there are HUGE amounts of people who have tuned and have NO issues. There are also a HUGE group of people who have NOT tuned and have NO issues. There is also a HUGE population of people who bought a GTI that are NOT on forums and have no issues.

If you are super worried about your turbo blowing up, don't tune. That way if it blows up on the stock tune, you can get a free turbo.

Additional note:

The turbo blowing up is no different than Subarus frying the ringlands or XXXX make car having YYYYY part break. There are errors/mistakes made when the cars are created. Some have no issues. Some will have issues. These issues can range from, "Windshield fluid reservoir was empty" to "transmission exploded".

 

[Yamdan1]

Hey guys Inthink I need to explain where I come from and that Im not just a hysterical 20 year old boy.

Ive been in the autoindustry from the last 15 years dealing with motorcycles and cars. I do chiptune for the motorcycles and this is how I get some more info from theses other company that do cars.
I have friend in both VW and more important also know one of the guys at Borgwarner Haldex that developed our belowed R transmission. He knows hell of a lot about this car.
I have him asking a bit more about this turbo and hope I can have some more input from him soon.

Why I got this started is be cause a VERY respected tuner told me that I shouldnt tune this platform of cars.
He told me about all these cars standed at VW Sweden that has a bad turbo. Im waiting to get this confirmed today (hopefully) from a guy at VW.

Please dont get me wrong. Im NOT here to make a mess and make you guys feel bad.
Id like to know if there is a truth about the info I got.
I have had and tuned a lot of my cars for ex 700hp GT-R , 420hp Focus RS, 420hp AMG A45, 440hp M3, 540hp AMG C63 so no Im not new at this game.

If our turbos are that good how come there are 9 versions in just a couple of years?
This made me a bit curious and one of the things that made me consider that the info I got has some truth in it.

Well anyway it seems like Ive just stir things up here so might be better I end this here and now.

Have a nice week guys
Cheers

 

[Chronic]

Hey guys Inthink I need to explain where I come from and that Im not just a hysterical 20 year old boy.

Ive been in the autoindustry from the last 15 years dealing with motorcycles and cars. I do chiptune for the motorcycles and this is how I get some more info from theses other company that do cars.
I have friend in both VW and more important also know one of the guys at Borgwarner Haldex that developed our belowed R transmission. He knows hell of a lot about this car.
I have him asking a bit more about this turbo and hope I can have some more input from him soon.

Why I got this started is be cause a VERY respected tuner told me that I shouldnt tune this platform of cars.
He told me about all these cars standed at VW Sweden that has a bad turbo. Im waiting to get this confirmed today (hopefully) from a guy at VW.

Please dont get me wrong. Im NOT here to make a mess and make you guys feel bad.
Id like to know if there is a truth about the info I got.
I have had and tuned a lot of my cars for ex 700hp GT-R , 420hp Focus RS, 420hp AMG A45, 440hp M3, 540hp AMG C63 so no Im not new at this game.

If our turbos are that good how come there are 9 versions in just a couple of years?
This made me a bit curious and one of the things that made me consider that the info I got has some truth in it.

Well anyway it seems like Ive just stir things up here so might be better I end this here and now.

Have a nice week guys
Cheers

Wondering why I haven't heard of any turbos blowing in Canada very few in the US

My question is why so many where you live??

My R is a 2016 with the build date of Mar 16/16

Tuned and drive the car like it's suppose to

Warm car up and take the time to let it cool down change oil more frequently than suppose to try and follow what I think is right and that's all you can do

Like everything else I own pay to play
When it breaks build it better lol[emoji41]

 

[wlfpck]

If our turbos are that good how come there are 9 versions in just a couple of years?
This made me a bit curious and one of the things that made me consider that the info I got has some truth in it.

If this statement is indicative of a HUGE issue (i.e. 30% failure rate or something along those lines), then as long as you have a later revision you should be fine then.

I don't think anyone is taking offense to your concern. At least I'm not.

But... you can't just claim that there is a HUGE issue when there is NOT.

Why I got this started is be cause a VERY respected tuner told me that I shouldnt tune this platform of cars.
He told me about all these cars standed at VW Sweden that has a bad turbo. Im waiting to get this confirmed today (hopefully) from a guy at VW.

You're working with limited data. Let's say this tuning shop tuned 100 golf R's and 10 GTIs and had 10 of them fail. That's a 10% failure rate. If you look at ALL the cars tuned by Unitronic, revo, cobb, apr, UM, Eurodyne, JB1, JB4, GIAC, etc etc... You are well into the tens of thousands. While that shop may be reputable... Big name shops such as HPA, HS Tuning, AMS, etc. are all well known tuning, reputable tuning companies. They have tuned tons of MK7 GTIs and Rs and they haven't blown up every single one.

Honestly... if VW were to release their information, it shouldn't be near 10% failure rate. Or else someone at VW has some explaining to do as to why this isn't a recall issue.


To be super conservative...

If you look at the very bottom of the forum, we can see that there are 21,494 users on this forum. If we assume that say a measly 5% is tuned... so... 1074 users are tuned either stage 1 or higher.

Let's then assume that 10% of the 1074 users are vocal and very active on the forum. so... 107 users.

If you look through the Turbo failure threads... you'll find that there are about 5 or 6 people that have failures. This results in a 5-6% failure rate.

Not to mention that these 5 to 6 people that have had turbo failures had the early revisions.

That's conservative math and assumptions. It honestly is probably not that bad.

Please dont get me wrong. Im NOT here to make a mess and make you guys feel bad.
Id like to know if there is a truth about the info I got.
I have had and tuned a lot of my cars for ex 700hp GT-R , 420hp Focus RS, 420hp AMG A45, 440hp M3, 540hp AMG C63 so no Im not new at this game.

No one is feeling bad. Everyone here is trying to tell you that if you REALLY want to tune, then just do it or go for the JB1/4. We're TRYING to give you information.

Your past history of cars is great but... one shop with a sample size of 100 cars is not indicative to the Golf R population and GTI population for the world.

Ultimately, it's up to you whether or not you want to tune. Your car so no one else has a say in it... but you may want to research other Tuning companies. Maybe it's just an issue with this one shop and they're overdoing it on their tune.

 

[Yamdan1]

Ok I have got info from my contact at VW and they admit that this turbo is working on the limit BUT no one can confirm or have ssen all of these breakdowns that the Swedish tuner is talking about.
A friend has checked with 4 differnt VW places in Sweden that he know and none of them has any info or have seen this amount of issues.

I have talked with one other tuner that Stertman said had called them to talk about this Turbo problem but the have never talked with them according to the guy I talked with and they havent seen any breakdowns either.

One tuner i Europe has had 2 cars of over 1oo cars that has had turbo breakdown.

So conclusion of all this so far that I can figuer out is that this issue do exist BUT in VERY small numbers!

Next BUT is why the h-ll Stertman is having so much issues and is he just covering his back cause their tune is making this issue?

So here we go, today my VW workshop is uppgrading all the oem softwares and do a service then its time to find a good tune

 

[LeoA86]

GLAD you found some resolution to this. I was very skeptical on this before I bought my r last year. I was reading through the forums etc, and got kind of scared when I saw multiple threads on blown turbos. But then again I knew that It must be a very small percentage and they had gone through some revisions already. I think as long as you maintain your car, don't rag the shit out of it, warm it up and cool it down after spirited driving, you should be ok. By the way I have a jb1, to maintain warranty just incase, love it.

 

[tonipepperoni77]

Ok I have got info from my contact at VW and they admit that this turbo is working on the limit BUT no one can confirm or have ssen all of these breakdowns that the Swedish tuner is talking about.
A friend has checked with 4 differnt VW places in Sweden that he know and none of them has any info or have seen this amount of issues.

I have talked with one other tuner that Stertman said had called them to talk about this Turbo problem but the have never talked with them according to the guy I talked with and they havent seen any breakdowns either.

One tuner i Europe has had 2 cars of over 1oo cars that has had turbo breakdown.

So conclusion of all this so far that I can figuer out is that this issue do exist BUT in VERY small numbers!

Next BUT is why the h-ll Stertman is having so much issues and is he just covering his back cause their tune is making this issue?

So here we go, today my VW workshop is uppgrading all the oem softwares and do a service then its time to find a good tune

I'm sorry but your first statement is fully incorrect from your "VW" contact. These engines are far less under powered than what they can hold. Proof from the hundreds of thousands of hours tested by all different tuners. The is38 can easily hold more power as you can see from all the tunes. If the turbo is going to break it's gonna break but it's not gonna be from the tune. Cars always have issues especially within the first year of so of production. But adding another 45-75hp from a stage 1 and or 2 tune is not going to cause them to all of a sudden blow up. If the turbo is gonna go it's gonna go cause something was wrong from the factory

 

[wlfpck]

Ok I have got info from my contact at VW and they admit that this turbo is working on the limit BUT no one can confirm or have ssen all of these breakdowns that the Swedish tuner is talking about.
A friend has checked with 4 differnt VW places in Sweden that he know and none of them has any info or have seen this amount of issues.

I have talked with one other tuner that Stertman said had called them to talk about this Turbo problem but the have never talked with them according to the guy I talked with and they havent seen any breakdowns either.

One tuner i Europe has had 2 cars of over 1oo cars that has had turbo breakdown.

So conclusion of all this so far that I can figuer out is that this issue do exist BUT in VERY small numbers!

Next BUT is why the h-ll Stertman is having so much issues and is he just covering his back cause their tune is making this issue?

So here we go, today my VW workshop is uppgrading all the oem softwares and do a service then its time to find a good tune

That tuning shop as I said before... seemed to be the issue. While they may be great at tuning other vehicles, that does not mean they're the best at tuning the GTI.

When modifying the ECU on your car, you want a company that specializes and has done EXTENSIVE research. That's why you always see the same names pop up for tuning.

For instance, if you say Subaru WRX, the big name tuning software company is Cobb.

If you mention ford, it's Cobb or SCT.

There's a reason these companies have a reputation and dominate the market.

Best example would be the fact that OFT makes a tune for the golf R, but I don't think anyone on this forum uses OFT. OFT is a player in the subaru BRZ tuning world.

As for the turbo being maxed out from the factory...

If you have a friend at VW, ask him for the IS38 compressor curve. This will tell you exactly how close it is to being maxed out.

 

[Aussie R]

GLAD you found some resolution to this. I was very skeptical on this before I bought my r last year. I was reading through the forums etc, and got kind of scared when I saw multiple threads on blown turbos. But then again I knew that It must be a very small percentage and they had gone through some revisions already. I think as long as you maintain your car, don't rag the shit out of it, warm it up and cool it down after spirited driving, you should be ok. By the way I have a jb1, to maintain warranty just incase, love it.

I think you summed it up perfectly. I was going to say JB4 would prob be best option for him now.

I got the APR tune released in first week in Aust in 2014 and drive in manner you state and so far so good. Now stage 2 OEM+ tune and couldn;t be happier with way car performs.

 

[LeoA86]

I think you summed it up perfectly. I was going to say JB4 would prob be best option for him now.

I got the APR tune released in first week in Aust in 2014 and drive in manner you state and so far so good. Now stage 2 OEM+ tune and couldn;t be happier with way car performs.

Thanks man, btw, how many miles on your car? dsg or 6spd manual?

 

[LeoA86]

That tuning shop as I said before... seemed to be the issue. While they may be great at tuning other vehicles, that does not mean they're the best at tuning the GTI.

When modifying the ECU on your car, you want a company that specializes and has done EXTENSIVE research. That's why you always see the same names pop up for tuning.

For instance, if you say Subaru WRX, the big name tuning software company is Cobb.

If you mention ford, it's Cobb or SCT.

There's a reason these companies have a reputation and dominate the market.

Best example would be the fact that OFT makes a tune for the golf R, but I don't think anyone on this forum uses OFT. OFT is a player in the subaru BRZ tuning world.

As for the turbo being maxed out from the factory...

If you have a friend at VW, ask him for the IS38 compressor curve. This will tell you exactly how close it is to being maxed out.

I'm curious to this "turbo" being at the limit. More information on this would also help. What exactly is the compressor curve you speak of? Like a hp/tq curve on a dyno?

 

[Aussie R]

Thanks man, btw, how many miles on your car? dsg or 6spd manual?

I'm DSG with 30k km on it. I have DSG tune which is great too.