Tentative first VW (MK7.5 R) buyer question? Why the bad rap?

[Parlour]

Hey all,

Tl;dr - Im maybe days away from buying a MK7.5 R to replace my daily Rav4, but am getting turned off by some mechanics, family friends etc.



My background is modified jap cars; SR's, RB's, 2J's, Civics, Subeys and i still own a single turbo 89 GTR. Im mechanically minded and do 99% work myself, have rebuilt motors etc.

Up until a few months ago, I had the impression that VAG cars were highly strung PoS, not suited to AU weather and never lasted past 100k km;s. That electrics would fail and they were a general nightmare to own unless you weren't on 150k/A and didn't mind lots of service recalls and a living with a money pit.

But then i drove a mates 2018 GTI DSG hard last year and was pretty impressed. Few months back, i drove a mates 2018 R H-pattern hard through some mountains and even sat in the back for a 5hrs on a road trip. I was very impressed. Civilised, absorb km's. Peppy tight motor and very capable around corners at speed.
Iv spent 5-10hrs on the forums, YT, reddit, etc. I read that journo”s have been raving about these for a few years. That they represent maybe the BEST sporty daily practical car available. I researched all the generations of the EA888, know about the various early DG200 DSG issues. Im aware of how they respond to the usual host of mods (very well) It seemed i was maybe stuck in past, ignorantly thinking cars hadnt matured since my beloved Japanese 90’s.

So im left with these two opposing positions.

1 - The Gen3 EA888 and DQ381 in the current R's is a highly iterated unit, and if serviced, taken care of and maintained correctly, should be as reliable the old jap stuff" A mechanic mate picked up n early 2010 EA888 car, failure due to timing chain, repaired it, has put another 100k km;s onit, love the car. Sooty intake valves are mostly taken care of by the intake injectors. And asking around, i have some mates with cars (less powerful golfs) past the 120k km’s mark and they’re very happy.

2 - I must know 3-4 people with blown motors, boxes in various VAG (older) cars, all premature. 2-3 Mechanics tell me "lol, we love VAG cars, in here all the time"

Yet there are active forums like these and what not that praise Golf's and R's. There's seemingly a pretty big after market industry of people really leaning on the motors. So whats the deal, can i expect a 2018 R thats been treated well, but driven hard, to last as long as a Evo, WRX etc etc? Note i do 25k km/A and would like to keep it for 3-5yrs.

thanks in advance

[spellbound]

My experience has all been good with that motor Skoda RS with stage 1 , Mk6 gti with stage 1 , never had any issues , not tracked though , always serviced on time/kilos .
Current MK7 is not chipped , not really needed , i did shift the mk6 at 55k because mine was a 2011 with the potential timing chain issue which can happen from low mileage , some mechanics say as low as 60k .
Mine have all been manuals so i cannot comment on the DSG but friends have had no issues , not had any warranty issues with my VAG cars .
I love my GOLF .

[Parlour]

Thanks mate, some good data.

[Kachingg]

i can't help with the r motor side of things as i have always had a diesel 1st a tdi mark 6 for 9 years now a 7.5 tdi alltrack for the last 3 years
Fantastic cars drive well smooth comfortable ect ect
The only issue i have had is a leak in the sunroof on the alltrack which was fixed under warranty apart from that nothing!

Love my alltrack to bits and will be keeping it for at least another 7 years

Hope you jump on with the R will put a smile on your face everyday

[GolfRWag]

You would read on here and on other forums like VWROC as well as Whirlpool if the R model had big big problems.

The DQ381 is a robust unit, I haven’t heard of any issues.

The earlier Mk6 and some 7 timing chain, water pump and other issues have been well sorted, the 7.5 is generally very well mature sorted tech.

Having dual injection here, the carbon on intake valve problems like in the US should not affect our models at all. Later 7.5s come with 5 year warranty so that provides a fair bit of confidence as long as you buy an unmodified vehicle.

[Parlour]

i can't help with the r motor....

You would read on here and on...

Thanks guys for the feedback. Yah that was what i heard about gen 1 / 2 motor too. Only the water pump / thermostat leaking is really still with the Gen3 / 7.5.

Thanks

[Lucas_R]

Generally the bad rap that VW has in recent years is down to 1x engine and 1x gearbox in particular, which affected a huge amount of cars. I dare say this is what is keeping your mechanic friends in business. This transmission (DQ200 7 speed dry clutch) was fitted to a huge amount of lower power/low torque VAG vehicles such as the Golf 77TSI, Golf 90TSI, Golf 118TSI, Polo 77TSI and GTI, Skoda Fabia & Octavia, Audi A1, A3 etc. The main engine in question is the 1.4L twincharge petrol engine, which was a very popular engine (especially in the VW Golf) and was the most popular engine/transmission combo in the Golf by far.

In short the gearbox overheats in stop start situations and cooks itself - requiring new clutch packs, oil and mechatronics (DSG computer). Then 12-18 months later it would happen again.

And the 118TSI engine was tuned to run so lean that it ran super hot and would ping under load (made even worse when matched to the DSG gearbox that always wants to me in the tallest gear so the engine labours, and also made worse by owners who didnt use 98 ron fuel). Eventually a hole would appear in one of the pistons (more often than not its piston #4) requiring a rebuild.

So yes there is a 135 page thread on here with countless owners who have been stung with the 118TSI engine and DQ200 DSG gearbox. And every few weeks this thread is resurrected with another owner who bought one cheap without doing any research and is now lumped with a broken engine and/or gearbox.

The VW Mk6 Golf GTI (and other vehicles which ran this engine such as Tiguan, Skoda vRS, Audi A3/A4 etc) to a much lesser degree have some issues with timing chains, water pumps etc.

Overall the Mk7 is proving so far to be a very reliable platform - the most common issue I see is Haldex issues because the little filter clogs up and causes the pump to fail. But if you over service the Haldex (or at least check/clean the filter every 20,000-30,000km) it should be ok. VW have gone back to a timing belt on this engine (good thing as they could never get the timing chains to be reliable). The Mk7 GTI/R engine is also very strong and can make 300+kw atw on stock internals when tuned well.

Another thing VW seem to never get right is water pumps, so keep that in mind that it will no doubt leak at some stage (hopefully while the car is still under warranty) and require replacement. The water pump and thermostat is all one unit.

My friend has a 2014 Mk7 R that is stage 2 (so makes about 245kw atw) and has just over 100,000km on it, and last year he took it to the Eastern Creek drags. The car could not get traction and he soon realised that his rear wheels were not engaging. The mechanic took the Haldex system apart and yes the filter was completely clogged up. A new Haldex pump was required to get it working again. Apart from this, he has not had any issues with the car at all, and has not needed anything other that normal maintenance.

I also have come from a JDM car background, owing an S14a 200sx, an S15 200sx, a WRX, then a Mk6 Golf R, then a Mk6 GTI, and now have an Audi SQ5 (wife's/family car) and bought myself a 2008 Subaru Liberty GT tuned by STI to tinker with. Lots of the members on here used to own WRX's, Skylines, Stagea's, 200sx's etc etc.

[HaydEn]

/thread


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[Parlour]

Generally the bad rap that VW has in recent years is down to....

Honestly, Thank you kindly for the time you took to write this up dude.
Everything you have said aligns with the, what must be 20hrs of research iv put into this topic.

I always knew that changing the daily from a 2017 Rav4 to a R (wagon, i need the space) would require more maintenance. Saw the AWD system pump blowing due to clogged filter. Figured i would be checking it, precisely as you described. Researched how, pretty simple in the garage.
As for the thermostat / pump combo, iv laughed at VAG over the last few weeks with mates. Ones dad has replaced his twice on a Passat and mechanic mates says he done half a dozen in AU. Iv skimmed most VAG forums for the issue and have accepted its just the part of the VAG "pay to play" cost.

Anywho, i read above post and decided to pull trigger. I signed papers to the new owner of my Rav4 last Tue, jumped in a rental with NSW plates and raced through VIC/NSW border with 1.5hrs to spare before border closed. Im now working from a mates couch and working through acquiring 2017 R Wagon Wolfsberg.

I have a feeling after a few weeks in R life, the GTR will feel like a laggy Maxima.

While i knew asking questions in a VAG forum was guna get me a certain response, thank you again kindly for those that helped me. Stage II flash, dump, elbow and complaining about Wagon's lack of noise valve, here i come!