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The turbo issue!

Yamdan1

New member
Location
Sweden
Hey guys.

Just bought a 2016 R and was thinking of at least do the stage 1 tune on it.
BUT after talking to a very good VW tuner in Sweden I got really scared.
http://www.stertman.se/

They have actually stoped tuning these car since its just a matter of time before the turbo blows. According to them is the turboshaft that is to small/weak and will break. They have tuned 100cars but already 10 has blowned the turbo and even a few completely stock cars thats they know of.

So he really recomended me to not do ANYTHING with this car due to this.

And ALL of the different turbo versions on the Mk7 R are bad!

Is there anyway to find out how big issue this really is?

He (the tuner) earn money selling tunes so was quite surpriced of his answer and if he really dont recomend me getting a tune I got scared!!

So what to do? Is the only way just keeping it stock and just use the warrant in case this happens or what?
 

Chronic

Go Kart Champion
Lots of us are tuned with zero issues
10000kms on tune drive hard everyday
Warm car up properly meaning make sure your oil temp is up to operating temp
Use the best fuel you can get and enjoy [emoji41]
 

tonipepperoni77

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Mass
Hahahahah seems like that tuner doesn't know what he doing. Prob pushing way to much boost. Like chronic said there are many on here with out a single problem


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Finglonga

Drag Racing Champion
As said sounds like a bad tuner. Simple would be avoid and go to a decent one that knows what they are doing.
 

Mk72015

Ready to race!
Location
N/A
8K miles on a tune, like chronic said make sure all temps are good before you start having so that means warmed up properly and cooled properly, don't be driving hard when your oil temp is up at 220 degrees F
 

wlfpck

Ready to race!
Location
United States
Hey guys.

Just bought a 2016 R and was thinking of at least do the stage 1 tune on it.
BUT after talking to a very good VW tuner in Sweden I got really scared.
http://www.stertman.se/

They have actually stoped tuning these car since its just a matter of time before the turbo blows. According to them is the turboshaft that is to small/weak and will break. They have tuned 100cars but already 10 has blowned the turbo and even a few completely stock cars thats they know of.

So he really recomended me to not do ANYTHING with this car due to this.

And ALL of the different turbo versions on the Mk7 R are bad!

Is there anyway to find out how big issue this really is?

He (the tuner) earn money selling tunes so was quite surpriced of his answer and if he really dont recomend me getting a tune I got scared!!

So what to do? Is the only way just keeping it stock and just use the warrant in case this happens or what?

Went to the site and looked around. They are still offering the tune for sale on their website.

From the description, they're tuning with STM Software. So I'm assuming that it is their own Tuning Program/Software.

Not gonna lie... if they've blown 10 motors in 100... something is wrong here.

If you have the IS38, that is a much stronger than the IS20 turbo found in the GTI.

Even with the GTI, the turbo failures were more an issue with the earlier models. Later revisions were less prone to failure.

May want to check with other shops and see what they say. And like others have stated... they've been tuned and are running fine.
 

Yamdan1

New member
Location
Sweden
Well here in Sweden they a really respected tuner.

And after reading all the stories about the blown turbos on this engine I got a bit worried.

I have tuned all of my cars and lately I had GT-R , C63, M3 , A45 AMG, Focus RS Mk2 and all of them has some horror storie of cause but the amount of forum threads about this R engine Turbo is a bit worring.

And I though of using the tuningbox instead since normally they wont void the warranty or rather wont be seen if removed BUT according to the tuner from 2014 they can see even if this has been used.

What to do! What to do! Lol :)
 

Aussie R

Ready to race!
Location
Australia
There have been reported issues as we all know but in reality more likely less than 1% failing. Being in a MY2016 model you will have the latest turbo revision, least likely to fail.

I have the earlier turbo I think second revision. I've been stage 1 and stage 2 tunes since December 14. 30k km on clock now (25 of those tuned) no issues so far.

Like others said I agree warming car up well before going hard on boost and cooling down at end. Also having stop/start turned off.

I know it's a possibility that turbo might go but it's just as likely to go stock as tuned from what I've heard and again still unlikely.

If my turbo goes I'll replace with new latest revision and move on.
 

Yamdan1

New member
Location
Sweden
Well known issue for the first batch of 2014 cars.... But after that...no...?

I have found that even with the latest turbo 722H there are failure.
But cant understand why there have been so many here in Sweden and at Stertman??!! They are know to be a good tuner over here.

Ill dig a bit deeper and see what I can find about this....

Problem is that when this happens its not just changing the turbo since it will go parts from the turbo in the engine and most cases Ive seen its an change of engine :-(
 
Last edited:

wlfpck

Ready to race!
Location
United States
Are you looking at the GTI and not the R? The failure rates on the IS38 turbo is less than that of the IS20.

Where are you looking that you found the numerous threads? Reason I ask is this:

When someone has a turbo that fails, they will literally chime in to pretty much any thread that has to do with Turbo Failure and such and post their 2 cents. This is not necessarily a bad thing... but it can make it seem like the issue is bigger/more common than it actually is.

If you read through some of the turbo failure threads on this forum (if you haven't already), you'll see the same usernames pop up repeatedly in each of the threads.

Again, it's not a bad thing that people are posting about their experience with turbo failure, but every time someone chimes in and says that they had a turbo fail... you have to look at the username too.
 

russiankid

Drag Race Newbie
Location
PA
I have found that even with the latest turbo 722H there are failure.
But cant understand why there have been so many here in Sweden and at Stertman??!! They are know to be a good tuner over here.

Ill dig a bit deeper and see what I can find about this....

Problem is that when this happens its not just changing the turbo since it will go parts from the turbo in the engine and most cases Ive seen its an change of engine :-(

Not true. It depends what failed in the turbo. I have not ready many cases of the revision turbos failing, some do fail but those are horribly treated turbos.
 
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