The Mega Mk7 Golf GTI/GTD/R thread

Toyotafanboi

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

Mickiemcfist

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

Well its fairly shocking that this has been an issue since at least Mk5's, two generations ago & still not sorted. However I'd imagine they've kept it weak intentionally.

Ron Burgundy II

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Historically though, VW coolant pumps have always had a tendency to leak so we shouldn't be too shocked :pac: it's just unfortunate that these pumps are mated to a plastic component, doubling the likelihood of a repeat failure.

That is their Achilles heel though, the 2.0tsi aren't too bad reliability wise other than that.

How do the 1.4tsi fair with this issue?

Royale with Cheese

OSI wrote: »

Lasts long enough to get them past the warranty period, all that counts to the finance department really.

I've a two year warranty on this repair, I might go in and sabotage the pump myself in about 22 months so.

Toyotafanboi

To be fair it's on the cards for almost every VAG unit, be it petrol or diesel from the last 20 years seems. With most though it's a lot cheaper and easier to replace, like on say the 1.6 or 2.0d engines and can be changed in around 2 hours by someone used to doing them.

The problem with the 2.0tsi is the pump is absolutely buried and there's a lot of stripping of boost pipes etc to get to it, then when you do get to it, the pump and silly stat housing are very expensive, compared to, again, say a 1.6tdi pump which is less than €100.

Muppet Man

What I dont get are the inconsistency of failures. Some do and some dont... you would think they ALL would???

Are there any symptoms that its about to go tits up?

Toyotafanboi

Muppet Man wrote: »

Are there any symptoms that its about to go tits up?

The badge on the bonnet

Muppet Man

Muppet Man wrote: »

What I dont get are the inconsistency of failures. Some do and some dont... you would think they ALL would??? ............

............... similar to anything else really
This particular component seems to have a higher percentage of failure than what most would expect.

Royale with Cheese

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Yeah I found the same when I did some digging myself. I was planning to upgrade to a facelift R in 2 years but this has knocked my confidence in them a bit now. I picked the car up this morning and actually had the official VW service centre tell me that the thermostat definitely needs replacing because it's made of plastic and will start to leak. On a 4 year old car with that mileage that's just fairly piss poor.

Unless it’s changed since the mk5 the timing belt interval in time is 5 years on the 2.0tsi engine so in reality regardless of the leak the water pump would be getting changed soon anyway. You should really have done the timing belt too while they were at it I’m very surprised it wasn’t suggested by the dealer (again unless they have pushed out the time interval between changes).

Edit: or changed to a chain as mentioned below. Hadn’t realized they made the change, thought it was pretty much the same engine since the mk5.

Royale with Cheese

Mk7 has a chain I believe.

hooch-85

Yeah TSi engine is chain driven. The GTD still has a belt driven engine.

Sneak

Anyone ever have any problems with the radio/infontainment system? Mine died a slow death over the last 2 days. It won't power on now.

GustavoFring

If you hold the power button for a good 10 seconds it can do a reset. Might help.

Could be lose wiring.

Otherwise it gets awkward as the main brains of the radio is coded to the chassis and you need to get around component protection to throw a replacement in if it's not covered by warranty.

Reckless Abandonment

Sneak wrote: »

Anyone ever have any problems with the radio/infontainment system? Mine died a slow death over the last 2 days. It won't power on now.

Yep had it on my mk7 2016. Parts stopped working ie. Sat nav and app connect wouldn't work. Radio worked. They tried to run update (which might fix your problem) they changed the unit on warranty. Would of been a 1500 job other wise. With Frank kean anyway..

TheBazman

Reckless Abandonment wrote: »

Yep had it on my mk7 2016. Parts stopped working ie. Sat nav and app connect wouldn't work. Radio worked. They tried to run update (which might fix your problem) they changed the unit on warranty. Would of been a 1500 job other wise. With Frank kean anyway..

Same here - radio starting acting up - taking on a life of its' own, changing stations, volume etc. Software update didnt work, radio replaced under warranty.

hooch-85

The earlier cars are getting on in the years now so it's inevitable they would start showing a few issues. I've been lucky with mine so far. Has anyone heard about cars with climate control having problems with their heater matrix? There's a bag of silica gel in the coolant expansion tank which can burst and block the heater matrix. Apparently it's a £1,500 fix in the UK. It comes up very often on the GTD owners forum on Facebook, I'm not sure if it is a GTD specific problem or if it affects all mk7s. The preventative solution it seems is just to remove the silica gel from the tank, I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the first place though. My car is going in for a service in two weeks so I'm tempted to ask them to remove it altogether.

Any one else come across this issue?

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

The earlier cars are getting on in the years now so it's inevitable they would start showing a few issues. I've been lucky with mine so far. Has anyone heard about cars with climate control having problems with their heater matrix? There's a bag of silica gel in the coolant expansion tank which can burst and block the heater matrix. Apparently it's a £1,500 fix in the UK. It comes up very often on the GTD owners forum on Facebook, I'm not sure if it is a GTD specific problem or if it affects all mk7s. The preventative solution it seems is just to remove the silica gel from the tank, I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the first place though. My car is going in for a service in two weeks so I'm tempted to ask them to remove it altogether.

Any one else come across this issue?

I've seen it come up a lot on searches too, it definitely effects other variants of the MK7 also. Apparently a symptom of the bag having burst is the dash vents not blowing hot air through all the vents. I'm tempted to have it removed also.

hooch-85

Yeah I think it might be the way the to go alright. They are the symptoms alright. Did you buy a mk7?

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

Yeah I think it might be the way the to go alright. They are the symptoms alright. Did you buy a mk7?

I did indeed.

hooch-85

tossy wrote: »

I did indeed.

You kept that quiet you sneaky Russian:D

I can nearly guess what variant, trade the S3?

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

You kept that quiet you sneaky Russian:D

I can nearly guess what variant, trade the S3?

you're on the right track i'd say Only have it less than a week.

hooch-85

Fair play, the best of luck with it

tossy

hooch-85 wrote: »

Fair play, the best of luck with it

Thanks , we can discuss bags of Silica at the next get together

JoeA3

tossy wrote: »

you're on the right track i'd say Only have it less than a week.

Did Neil do ya a good deal?

Truckermal

Well wear Tossy! Is she a 1.6 with sphorty bits on it?:p

tossy

Cheers Mal, yeah it has the sphorty bits stuck on

JoeA3 wrote: »

Did Neil do ya a good deal?

It was the only one to buy really.

JoeA3

tossy wrote: »

Cheers Mal, yeah it has the sphorty bits stuck on




It was the only one to buy really.

My spidey senses reckoned it had to be that car. Well wear!

hooch-85

I had an idea it was that car too. Got a spin with Neil once in it. Some boo outta her lad:D

vintagevrs

Nice one, congrats tossy

Neilw

hooch-85 wrote: »

I had an idea it was that car too. Got a spin with Neil once in it. Some boo outta her lad:D

That was you not the car

JoeA3

Neilw wrote: »

That was you not the car

Not even Daz could save his underpants after it.

Neilw

TheBazman wrote: »

Same here - radio starting acting up - taking on a life of its' own, changing stations, volume etc. Software update didnt work, radio replaced under warranty.

That can be caused by using dash cleaner/products that get on the screen.
Clean the screen with an alcohol wipe fixes it.

Neilw

JoeA3 wrote: »

Not even Daz could save his underpants after it.

I had to change the pollen filter after him

hooch-85

Neilw wrote: »

That was you not the car

JoeA3 wrote: »

Not even Daz could save his underpants after it.

Neilw wrote: »

I had to change the pollen filter after him

It was nearly a brown trouser moment alright:D

GTi TCR next then neilo is it?

Neilw

hooch-85 wrote: »

It was nearly a brown trouser moment alright:D

GTi TCR next then neilo is it?

Depends on the price, if it's more expensive than a new R I won't be buying.

Toyotafanboi

hooch-85 wrote: »

The earlier cars are getting on in the years now so it's inevitable they would start showing a few issues. I've been lucky with mine so far. Has anyone heard about cars with climate control having problems with their heater matrix? There's a bag of silica gel in the coolant expansion tank which can burst and block the heater matrix. Apparently it's a £1,500 fix in the UK. It comes up very often on the GTD owners forum on Facebook, I'm not sure if it is a GTD specific problem or if it affects all mk7s. The preventative solution it seems is just to remove the silica gel from the tank, I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the first place though. My car is going in for a service in two weeks so I'm tempted to ask them to remove it altogether.

Any one else come across this issue?

The coolant itself contains silica, the coolant in most new VAG stuff has no service interval, it's "for life" stuff. The silica is there to slow down the corrosion of the aluminium components in the system and the block itself. The problem that VW see is that the silica in the coolant can deteriorate and loose it's effectiveness thus allowing corrosion to happen in the system, which isn't ideal in a sealed for life system. The solution was to add an additional pouch of silica in the expansion tank that the coolant can "feed" from over the systems lifetime.

The problem is, the pouch is **** and breaks down, the silica gets out, gets all mushed up in the system and turns the coolant to sludge.

You can remove the silica bag yourself with a long nose pliers, you can see it as soon as you take the cap off. What's better (and easier) is to buy a new expansion tank and remove the dry bag, then swap it out for your old tank because if the bag in your system is brittle and you burst it on the way out, then you're ****ed anyway. No issue taking the bag out once you commit to a coolant change once every 5 years/ 100k kms like the older models.

hooch-85

Could you take the bottle off and remove it then, that way if it bursts at least it can't get into the system?

bazz26

Some some photos of the Mk8 have surfaced:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsv2RYjHBhk/?utm_source=ig_embed

SaintsYB

Not massively different to the 7.5 though it was never going to be. I imagine we'll see something at Geneva?

Comhrá

bazz26 wrote: »

Some some photos of the Mk8 have surfaced:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsv2RYjHBhk/?utm_source=ig_embed

My impression at first glance was a similarity to the Renault Clio. I like it though. Rear light shapes are an improvement on the current ones.

bazz26

In depth review of the GTi TCR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgO9gTVecKw

SaintsYB

Those alloys are mint! Not a fan of the side decal though.

JoeA3

SaintsYB wrote: »

Those alloys are mint! Not a fan of the side decal though.

Yeah, I’d expect that decal to be an option - or an option to not have it! The small “TCR” Logo down low by the sill is enough. The big decal makes it look like an Adidas trainer.

SaintsYB

JoeA3 wrote: »

The big decal makes it look like an Adidas trainer.

It's like the logo you'd get on a tracksuit from Champion Sports

drunkmonkey

How does it compare to an APR stage 1 tune?

Anyone had it done...thoughts on it?

drunkmonkey

Anyone know the cheapest way to get a replacement navigation sd card?

Toyotafanboi

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057948019

Here, for free. Just buy a blank card and download onto it.

drunkmonkey

I'll give that a try and see what happens....at the moment when I hit nav it just says media missing please insert sd card.

Toyotafanboi

Is there any SD cards in the control unit? I think the Nav SD only works in slot 2 and sometimes if people have been fiddling with it they put it back into slot 1 and it doesn't work.

drunkmonkey

No there's no SD card in the car, I picked the option without the VW SD card, it's downloading there now, only 6.1gb might be more when I extract it to the SD card. I'll know in an hour if it works.