Just in case this topic has not been talked to death...
I have another data point in case it helps others to clarify what may or may not apply to your situation.
I have a 2017 R with the manual that I bought new. The car commuted from seattle to portland weekly for work (400 miles) so it was going to get a lot of highway miles on it. I was well aware the VW quality was pretty dismal, but the driving experience was great and I am no crazy kid that was going to be doing stupid things so I figured it was worth the risk.
At 90k miles the stock clutch started to slip and I replaced it with the South Bend KMK7-HD-OCE clutch. This is the stage 2 endurance clutch on their site. In the description "Recommended uses are daily and street with an emphasis on rally and endurance racing" that seemed ok as I wanted a daily driver with a better grip in the clutch. They have a good reputation and lots of folks are happy with them. Seemed like a good choice as the stock clutch is a vague mushy thing that has no pedal feel to speak of. Having driven a clutch all my life I was not impressed with it when I bought the car and when the problem with it started, the service guy at the dealership noted that most folks replaced it with an aftermarket one anyway when this happened.
Really like the new clutch! Was a great upgrade. Kept driving and hit 135k miles when the throwout bearing seemed to fail and I immediately figured out it had a big problem due to the grinding feel I got from the pedal. Parked it and then took it to the shop, maybe had 5 miles from the failure detected to the shop. Talked to the South Bend folks and asked what might have cause the clutch to fail after 45k miles. Seemed like a premature failure to me. They indicated that it may have had a installation problem and something went wrong due to that. OK, seemed possible and clutches wear out anyway so just replace it with another and pay more attention with the install.
Got another clutch sent to the shop and they installed it and did a quick test drive. Engine coded with a missing timing error. They did some research and found that code had to do with the thrust bearing being worn. They called me and I went to the shop and watched when they depressed the clutch and the crank pushed out 4 or 5 mm on the belt side! No micrometer needed to see there was a problem. Basically new short block needed. Bummer.
Now, I had not thought to actually check to see if this kind of thing would be a problem, when you think of it, it is really a stupid kind of failure. Having driven a 78 volvo 242 GT for 300k miles before rebuilding it and driving another 160k and not experiencing this kind of issue it was not something on my radar. Stupid me.
So just in case you're interested in what your options are at this point, you might find a used engine of uncertain condition and roll the dice. Given the general "enthusiastic" driving folks brag about and the stuff I have witnessed, not a viable option as the bad drivers are likely the ones to be in the junk yard for good reason.
If you want the short bock there is one advertised from Euro Sport:
https://www.eurosporttuning.com/ie-20t-tsi-gen-3-sport-short-block-fits-vw-audi-mqb-mk7-8v-8s.html
Basically 5k with exchange. Give them a call and you will find out that it is actually no longer available and they simply forgot to remove it from the site and it is not coming back. Bummer...
Of course, they don't actually fix the core engineering problem of a weak thrust bearing so the 500HP they claim they can support so that is really just a racing setup where you rebuild it all the time anyway, no help on the street.
So that leaves VW itself. They don't sell short blocks. Bummer again. They do sell rebuilt long blocks at $6,980 with a $2,225 core charge. Of course you can also get a new one for $8,852. Your choice! I went with the rebuilt one. As for the clutch, I am going to swap the friction plate for the KMK7F-HD-0 one after talking with the South Bend rep who had sympathy but no real options that were going to be any easier on the thrust bearing. All the Stage 2 clutches have exactly the same pressure plates. I am not going back to the stock one as it is just worthless. I hope to get the car back in a few weeks and I now have a new 12 month 12k mile warranty on the long block so I guess that is a good thing?
After spending a lot of time discussing this with my mechanic, there is simply no way to do preventative maintenance on this thrust bearing. If you detect a problem, it is already too late as the clearances are already causing problems in the rotating parts. If you think you want to join the exclusive club of people that do engine out of car maintenance (Ferrari) and want to replace it at some number of miles, say every 30k, you are asking for a full rebuild of the short block anyway as all the bearings should be replaced as well so it is about the same as that long block from VW. You can't maintain poor engineering choices.
So what have i learned? Well as I tell folks when they ask about the car, it is 9 out of 10 for driving and 2 out of 10 for quality. I have had a lot of failures on parts that are just stupid (Why does a steering rack fail as 60k?) so in reality the engine and a lot of the parts on the car are simply disposable at very few miles. The base warranty on the car sucked up about 6k worth of failures and the extended warranty another 6k. This mess is going to run around $10k when complete. I was actually hoping to have already dumped this one and get a new one but they were not yet available. Bummer again. The moral of the story, dump it before you run out of warranty!
Basically I did a real long term ownership test in a short time to see how miles impact the car and VW actually does deserve the poor quality rating.
BTW: If you have problems with the car eating the rear fuel pump, the problem turned out to be a bad vent in the fuel tank that caused the pump to get damaged when the fuel level gets low. One symptom is that a quick stop at the grocery store for 5 to 15 minutes caused the car to stumbled badly when you get get back and start it up again. That little gem cost 3 fuel rear pumps (every 30k miles) and one front high pressure setup on warranty when the dealer and the regional service reps could not figure out the cause but detected low pressure failure on the pump. The new tank is around $1,600 and yes, I also needed that 4th rear fuel pump. Go VW!
I have another data point in case it helps others to clarify what may or may not apply to your situation.
I have a 2017 R with the manual that I bought new. The car commuted from seattle to portland weekly for work (400 miles) so it was going to get a lot of highway miles on it. I was well aware the VW quality was pretty dismal, but the driving experience was great and I am no crazy kid that was going to be doing stupid things so I figured it was worth the risk.
At 90k miles the stock clutch started to slip and I replaced it with the South Bend KMK7-HD-OCE clutch. This is the stage 2 endurance clutch on their site. In the description "Recommended uses are daily and street with an emphasis on rally and endurance racing" that seemed ok as I wanted a daily driver with a better grip in the clutch. They have a good reputation and lots of folks are happy with them. Seemed like a good choice as the stock clutch is a vague mushy thing that has no pedal feel to speak of. Having driven a clutch all my life I was not impressed with it when I bought the car and when the problem with it started, the service guy at the dealership noted that most folks replaced it with an aftermarket one anyway when this happened.
Really like the new clutch! Was a great upgrade. Kept driving and hit 135k miles when the throwout bearing seemed to fail and I immediately figured out it had a big problem due to the grinding feel I got from the pedal. Parked it and then took it to the shop, maybe had 5 miles from the failure detected to the shop. Talked to the South Bend folks and asked what might have cause the clutch to fail after 45k miles. Seemed like a premature failure to me. They indicated that it may have had a installation problem and something went wrong due to that. OK, seemed possible and clutches wear out anyway so just replace it with another and pay more attention with the install.
Got another clutch sent to the shop and they installed it and did a quick test drive. Engine coded with a missing timing error. They did some research and found that code had to do with the thrust bearing being worn. They called me and I went to the shop and watched when they depressed the clutch and the crank pushed out 4 or 5 mm on the belt side! No micrometer needed to see there was a problem. Basically new short block needed. Bummer.
Now, I had not thought to actually check to see if this kind of thing would be a problem, when you think of it, it is really a stupid kind of failure. Having driven a 78 volvo 242 GT for 300k miles before rebuilding it and driving another 160k and not experiencing this kind of issue it was not something on my radar. Stupid me.
So just in case you're interested in what your options are at this point, you might find a used engine of uncertain condition and roll the dice. Given the general "enthusiastic" driving folks brag about and the stuff I have witnessed, not a viable option as the bad drivers are likely the ones to be in the junk yard for good reason.
If you want the short bock there is one advertised from Euro Sport:
https://www.eurosporttuning.com/ie-20t-tsi-gen-3-sport-short-block-fits-vw-audi-mqb-mk7-8v-8s.html
Basically 5k with exchange. Give them a call and you will find out that it is actually no longer available and they simply forgot to remove it from the site and it is not coming back. Bummer...
Of course, they don't actually fix the core engineering problem of a weak thrust bearing so the 500HP they claim they can support so that is really just a racing setup where you rebuild it all the time anyway, no help on the street.
So that leaves VW itself. They don't sell short blocks. Bummer again. They do sell rebuilt long blocks at $6,980 with a $2,225 core charge. Of course you can also get a new one for $8,852. Your choice! I went with the rebuilt one. As for the clutch, I am going to swap the friction plate for the KMK7F-HD-0 one after talking with the South Bend rep who had sympathy but no real options that were going to be any easier on the thrust bearing. All the Stage 2 clutches have exactly the same pressure plates. I am not going back to the stock one as it is just worthless. I hope to get the car back in a few weeks and I now have a new 12 month 12k mile warranty on the long block so I guess that is a good thing?
After spending a lot of time discussing this with my mechanic, there is simply no way to do preventative maintenance on this thrust bearing. If you detect a problem, it is already too late as the clearances are already causing problems in the rotating parts. If you think you want to join the exclusive club of people that do engine out of car maintenance (Ferrari) and want to replace it at some number of miles, say every 30k, you are asking for a full rebuild of the short block anyway as all the bearings should be replaced as well so it is about the same as that long block from VW. You can't maintain poor engineering choices.
So what have i learned? Well as I tell folks when they ask about the car, it is 9 out of 10 for driving and 2 out of 10 for quality. I have had a lot of failures on parts that are just stupid (Why does a steering rack fail as 60k?) so in reality the engine and a lot of the parts on the car are simply disposable at very few miles. The base warranty on the car sucked up about 6k worth of failures and the extended warranty another 6k. This mess is going to run around $10k when complete. I was actually hoping to have already dumped this one and get a new one but they were not yet available. Bummer again. The moral of the story, dump it before you run out of warranty!
Basically I did a real long term ownership test in a short time to see how miles impact the car and VW actually does deserve the poor quality rating.
BTW: If you have problems with the car eating the rear fuel pump, the problem turned out to be a bad vent in the fuel tank that caused the pump to get damaged when the fuel level gets low. One symptom is that a quick stop at the grocery store for 5 to 15 minutes caused the car to stumbled badly when you get get back and start it up again. That little gem cost 3 fuel rear pumps (every 30k miles) and one front high pressure setup on warranty when the dealer and the regional service reps could not figure out the cause but detected low pressure failure on the pump. The new tank is around $1,600 and yes, I also needed that 4th rear fuel pump. Go VW!
