VW/Audi Exorcism Thread

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Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I am looking at a '12 TDI Golf and am only hesitant due to the fact I've never owned a diesel before. In terms of maintenance and driving style how different is it from a gasoline vehicle. Currently I drive a 2009 Impala SS and am also concerned if this would be a dumb purchase only because I am wanting better fuel economy and have become fond of the Golf.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2012 14:30

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 08:16

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Elephanthead posted:

Are these tdi's reliable? I have been eyeing a sport wagon.

My husband bought one about a year ago, a 2014 in stick, it's been pretty great so far.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2019 14:20

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

FancyMike posted:

I asked about wagons a couple weeks ago and ended up buying one. Hopefully this wasn’t a mistake the only other vw I’ve ever driven was air cooled.

We picked up a 2014 awhile back, it's been great so far, minus a missing fuse box diagram, as we needed to replace a fuse to use the 12v at some point.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 11:14

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

dialhforhero posted:

SportWagen crew checking in.

My husband bought one about a year and a half back, got a 14 TDI in manual, it's pretty sweet.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2020 20:04

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

So, my husband had been complaining that my GTI is more difficult to drive than his tuned TDI sportwagen, which is true. I usually keep the windows down or music low so I can hear the engine enough to shift. He suggested doing stainless cluch lines, an aftermarket clutch block, an exhaust, and maybe an aftermarket pendulum mount. I'm not particularly mechanically inclined, however my husband is one by trade. I was just planning on getting an AWE exhaust at some point, but is would the other stuff be worthwhile or would it be better to do something else?

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 21:29

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Buhbuhj posted:

What year GTI is this, is it tuned, and what exactly makes it hard to drive? I recently picked up a manual MK7.5 GTI so I'm just curious because mine is super easy to thrash around. Only complaint I have is gas pedal placement makes heel toe real hard for me(getting a spacer for this to see if it helps).

It's a 2016. It's still stock, for me I only learned to drive stick about a year ago now. My husband complains that it's numb and it's difficult to hear the engine and get feedback from the clutch. I don't know enough for the last complaint, but I need to use engine noise to downshift. I'm still not particularly smooth all the time.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 22:55

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Buhbuhj posted:

Honestly I would just learn to drive the car as it is. There's no need to make the car louder because you can't get your downshift blips right. I drove a s550 mustang for 5 years before that and it had absolutey no clutch feedback so maybe I'm a little biased but the GTI clutch feels fine to me, a bit light but theres enough feeling.

You can try removing the very small assist spring on the clutch pedal that helps pull it to the floor. I didn't really feel a difference doing it but perhaps there's a small amount of feedback there you can gain.

Downshifting I seem to be fine, as dumb as it sounds it's going from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd that I am not the smoothest. My husbands TDI is pretty easy and I learned to drive in that, but it is way easier to drive stick with a diesel it seems.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2020 23:58

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I'll have to give it more time, working from home the past few months hasn't helped either. Thanks for the advice.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2020 00:50

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

My own 2016 GTI SE, the fender system is seriously outstanding in it, though it loves to get dirty.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2020 00:36

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

My husband is trying to convince me that we should buy a v10 touareg for sale, he's a mechanic and says he should know better. It'd be amusing, but nah.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2020 13:22

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

User Error posted:

I thought we were only getting the mk8 GTI? Y'all plebes should have bought more poverty spec MK7s.

As far as I'm aware, just the mk8 GTI and R are coming to the US.

# ¿ May 2, 2021 20:52

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Tyro posted:

So this conversation about greeb's car got me on a wagon hunt.

Any reason not to buy a 2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI with 85-ish K miles? Dealer near me asking $11k, which seems a little high but might just be this used car market. Being sold as a used car not CPO. I assume it would at least be more reliable than my old Mk4 GTI, which I admit is a low bar.

Per https://www.vwdiesellookup.com the emissions fixes have been done by VW, and:

"the vehicle has an Extended Emissions Warranty that runs for 10 years or 120,000 miles from the original in-service date. Please see your VW dealership for additional information including the vehicle's in-service date.

In addition, and concurrently, the Extended Emissions Warranty runs for 4 years or 48,000 miles (whichever occurs first) from the date of modification or first dealer resale post-modification. Your vehicle was modified on Oct 25, 2018 and 35,012 miles. Please see your VW dealership for additional information on the vehicle's post-modification dealer re-sale date."

If Carfax can be trusted, the first owner put 35k miles on it over 5 years doing services every 5k, then 2nd owner put 50k miles on it in 2 years after the emissions recall doing services every 10k, so that extended emissions warranty is gone.

Anything specific to look out for on these?

We bought a 14 TDI Sportwagen, though ours is a manual so I can't speak to the DSG, but someone has already brought up ensuring that it was serviced. Check the fuel filter, as my husband mentioned that's a thing you'll have to pay mind to replacing occasionally due to it being a diesel. The two years we've had it, it's been a great car though.

# ¿ May 11, 2021 01:17

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I picked up a 2016 GTI SE with the performance pack about two years ago now. When I was shopping around, it was a pain to find one in manual and get to the dealership quick enough to look at it. So far it's been great, just a bit over 50k miles now, and we've only had to do the usual services; though we did do the vaq differential fluid at 40k even though the American service guide said it was a lifetime fluid. I can't speak to how shopping in New England is now, as we left last year, but I ended up picking mine up in Maine.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2021 23:23

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

The fender system is pretty great, unfortunately I don't think that's an option you could get with plaid.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2021 14:21

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

My '16 GTI has hill assist, though no other driver aids that I know of, it is quite nice, especially when I lived in Maine/NH.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2021 16:28

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Nitr0 posted:

I have a 2019 Q8 and the assistants are quite good. If the lines are painted nicely I could mostly hands off drive on the highway with no issue.

I love it, something I didn�t have before, of course I don�t hands off drive but you just rest your hand on the wheel and it mostly just works.

What I care about is consistency. I want to know what the system is gonna do, even if it�s the wrong thing. It�s easy to think like the computer and you start to realize what the car will do before it does it.

I know folks have alot of different experiences with driver assists, while I've not experienced them myself, I'm still skeptical of them. I had a co-worker nearly get into an accident on the highway because the lane keep assist apparently tried to keep him in his lane when he had to make an emergency maneuver, granted anecdotal evidence is not evidence. The idea of them is nice, but I also worry that it'll allow some people to become less attentive on the road which we've enough of a problem with already and the above mentioned consistency with how they operate.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2021 16:41

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Ok Comboomer posted:

The problem I’ve been having with Carvana/Vroom/etc is that p much any GTI with the features I want gets bought immediately

I had the same issue in 2019 when I was looking for mine, even then I had to call the dealer and show up first thing in the morning the very next day to have a chance.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 13:23

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

It's weird how much nicer the clutch in my husbands tdi sportwagen feels than the one in my gti.

E: I feel like I suck too much when I'm driving the gti with the ac on, but whatever.

Pine Cone Jones fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jul 8, 2021

# ¿ Jul 7, 2021 17:41

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Well the seal to my right headlight went, hopefully it's covered under the cpo warranty.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2021 22:39

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

VelociBacon posted:

What year GTI? I was really surprised how much drain on the motor the AC produces in my 07 GTI. I guess you feel it because it's such a weak motor at the low RPMs, and you're in that range when accelerating/shifting from a stop.

It's a 16. It takes some getting used to on my part to drive it smoothly in the summer certainly.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2021 09:44

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Well, the right headlight on my GTI had the seal fail for whatever reason, thankfully that's still under warranty for another month and a half. Better the 50 dollar CPO deductible than paying the 1320 prior to labor for the whole light assembly.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2021 20:49

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

In my case with the water intrusion in my headlight, it shorted out my drl's, which was nice. Granted it's just an led strip.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2021 21:55

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I'm at the VW dealer getting warranty work done for a headlight assembly, looking through the lot there's a 14 tdi beetle convertible with a 6 speed. It's somehow going for 23k with no warranty, it is crazy. Back in 19 we bought an 14 tdi wagon with less miles for 14k.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2021 14:28

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Well a bit over a month after having my right front headlight in my 16 GTI replaced under warranty, due to water/moisture ingress, the same exact thing happened. The cars warranty is up, though I'm hopeful that because it's the same part that was replaced is defective now, that they'll cover the cost rather than me having to shell out around 1.4k usd to replace it.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2021 20:56

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

monkeytennis posted:

Do you get the xenons where you are? Mine have been steamy in certain conditions since I took delivery in March 16, apparently it�s normal.

Yeah, though this is the second time the "check daytime running lights" and "check adaptive headlights" have come up as warnings. The previous headlight assembly and control module was replaced under warranty.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2021 21:49

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

How is AWE for mk7 exhaust stuff?

# ¿ Sep 11, 2021 20:50

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

dialhforhero posted:

Would you guys trust a used GTI that is dealer sold?

I guess I am concerned in that I assume all GTIs are driven�kind of hard.

It's where I got mine two years ago and it's been fine, though it did have a CPO warranty.

Also, I'm not sure about the track edition exhaust from AWE, I was thinking of the touring as it'd be less loud but still more significant than stock.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2021 22:34

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

So the parking brake in my gti has had the leather(?) accent bit start to come undone on the drivers side, I'd like to glue it back on but I think I'd like some feedback to how to better address this.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2021 22:11

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Thumposaurus posted:

Contact cement is the usual go to for regluing leather but you might have to rip it the rest of the way off and clean it up first.

Speaking of paying brakes I had to replace the cables in my mk5 GTI one on the passenger side the other sheath completely rusted through. I just did both sides so I won't have to do the job ever again. Cue having to take the entire center console apart to get to the adjuster. Then being horrified at how much junk has gotten caught between/underneath it leads to deep detailing the whole interior.
Ultimately resulting in the battery go dead because I had the doors open scrubbing the poo poo out of everything for so long.

I'll give contact cement a try, I'll see if I can just make it work on that portion instead of peeling everything off first though. Thanks.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2021 21:16

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Rolo posted:

I�ve been posting in a lot of threads but I�m thinking about taking a ridiculous Carvana offer on my Forester and getting an older wagon, preferably a BMW or Audi manual. This popped up on BaT in my state, anybody have any hard opinions?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2008-audi-a4-24/

As someone who makes bad choices without any kind of forethought, do it.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2021 21:04

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

Rolo posted:

The auction for the 2008 A4 Avant I posted earlier ends in an hour. It’s still in my range and Carmax just made me another acceptable offer on my current car.

Do it

E: too slow

# ¿ Nov 11, 2021 22:21

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I know in my 16 GTI android auto only works if I have the right thing installed on my phone and hook it up via cable, granted I really only use it on long drives which are few and far between now.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 03:25

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I hate getting older. The stock seats in my mk7 gti hurt my hips like a motherfucker if I sit wrong

# ¿ Apr 10, 2022 01:41

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I know about the water pump class action/recall thing ongoing, but today I got this, first time I'd heard of it.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2022 23:06

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

I replaced the battery in my 2016 GTI at home just fine, if there was anything that needed to be done afterwards, I'm not aware.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2022 02:11

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

My husband picked up a 2014 tdi sportwagen 4 years ago and so far and the only issue he's had has been having to replace the stock springs. Which randomly seemed to break over time. After two went he just replaced them all.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2023 00:32

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

CommieGIR posted:

Expect to need to replace the DEF Injector at some point or possibly a turbo down the road (like way out there past 150k for the turbo) but otherwise its really their most reliable motor.

Just make sure to get the right oil in it, it HAS to be the correct rated oil for the VW TDIs. Recommend changing it every 5-7k rather than the 10k they recommend. Also: Look at doing the fuel filter if it hasn't been done yet.

Ours doesn't have a DEF System at all, thankfully. For both our cars we use the vw recommended oil and do the changes at every 5k. The fuel filter we're planning on doing in the next month or so.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2023 00:54

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

As far as I know, the 2014 Jetta Sportwagen TDI doesn't have a DEF system? There was a DPF but it was taken out when an aftermarket exhaust was put in. We are going to put the stock exhaust back on, probably.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2023 01:15

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

VelociBacon posted:

That's insane if you really mean the metal springs and not just a failing/leaking damper. I would think you could spray salt and water onto them constantly for 8 years and not have them just up and break.

Literally the springs in this case, though spending most of its life in NH didn't help.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2023 12:15

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 08:16

Pine Cone Jones: Dec 6, 2009; You throw me the acorn, I throw you the whip!

My husband suggested to test the power at the rear wiper motor, if there is no power it may be the switch.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2023 00:42

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