After the last installment, I started noticing the gearbox still wasn’t quite right. A sort of kangaroo like judder when pulling away, but only when hot. So I started investingating, changing fluid, doing lots of diagnostics and ruling things out. Took it to VW dealer twice, they must’ve spent at least a day looking at it but charged me very little – brilliant service Sinclair VW Cardiff!

Conclusion was, after ruling out software, that a valve was worn in the mechatronics unit (VW put all the valves, electronics and sensors for the gearbox on one single unit – has advantages and disadvantages – for the owner!). Now VW can only replace the whole unit at a cost of £1500; some chap in Nottingham can refurb them for £450 but there’s a chap in Denmark (evosoft.dk) who sells the valves on their own. I got one for 80 € and changed it – works perfectly.

The worn valve could have been due to the previous issues – it’s not a common fault so perhaps.

On the subject of trying to get my money back – the mobile mechanic didn’t reply to any of my contact, so I looked him up on Companies House and he’s folded the company.

So that’s it – perfectly working car (in fact better than when I got it) and I am done with it all. Not before time!

Are you planning on overtaking things now?

Glad it is sorted

Time to sell it then while the goings good 😉

We like a happy ending ! Nice work on the repair. Cars do increasingly seem to be drifting towards replace instead of repair from the manufacturers standpoint, quite worrying.

ATP I have seriously considered it now I can do so with a clean conscience 🙂 before all the dirt I inevitably dropped into the complex expensive hydraulic gubbins destroys said gubbins..

Cars do increasingly seem to be drifting towards replace instead of repair from the manufacturers standpoint, quite worrying

Yeah this is an interesting point as to why they’d design the unit as a monolithic piece. It’s a huge advantage to be able to take this thing out of the front of the gearbox from under the car, you don’t even need to remove anything besides a piece of air hose, but why don’t VW let their dealers fix the actual units?

The fix was a piece of cake – unbolt old valve, bolt new one on – and it’d generate a hell of a lot more good will if people could have their boxes fixed for £300 instead of £1500. And what are they doing with the old mostly working units save for one valve that they take out of people’s cars?

😀

so what was the eventual outcome of the CPU story ?
(must’ve nodded off somewhere about June)

June this year or last? Or 2012? 😉

Engine ECU fitted by dodgy guy was wrong type, he claimed the old one was buggered when it really wasn’t, wrong type cpu eventually failed due to being wrong type, had to get new one from VW at cost of £1200.

had to get new one from VW at cost of £1200.

oooyah !
(any refund obtained ?)

VWs – over rated, over priced piles of poo.

Out of interest, which valve in particular was it?

DaveyBoyWonder – Member – Quote
Regrettably, we’re having to sell our BMW 330I to fund a new VW T5 camper van. We’ve only owned the car since January and in that time its not put a foot wrong and has had some preventative bits done by us to remediate a couple of issues.

Not a good camper van experience then I take it 🙂

Sorry, I was just getting in there before the anti-VAG brigade got in. Completely forgot I have a fkn incredible T5 van outside 😀

(any refund obtained ?)

No, see OP.

VWs – over rated, over priced piles of poo.

See, if I thought that, I wouldn’t have put the effort in. I realised that in my case the DSG is why I like the car so much. It’s just fantastic to drive. I’d buy another VAG car just so I could get another DSG 🙂

Out of interest, which valve in particular was it?

The control valve (N215) for clutch 1 (K1) that does 1st, 3rd, 5th and reverse. The TSB that VW found said ‘worn valve mount’ whatever that means – perhaps they meant worn valve seat, I dunno. But it meant that the electronics couldn’t control the valve properly. So it’d open it up a smidge and too much oil would go through resulting in too much clutch pressure, so it’d have to back off then try opening it again, and so on – repeat til up to speed.

No, see OP.

What ? You mean fully ? Are you quite mad, sir ?
(oh, yeah, soz, etc)

That’s good news molg, pleased for you! V diligent too.

And what are they doing with the old mostly working units save for one valve that they take out of people’s cars?

They’re taking them back to Wolfsburg, fitting a valve bought off some guy in Denmark for €80, then selling them as replacement units to customers for £1500, I’d imagine.

Wouldn’t get that problem on a Golf R Estate… and you could overtake things…

That Golf R had a DSG though 🙂

i opened this expecting to see “sold it” 🙁

is disappoint 😉

Want to buy a Passat?

must be a low milage example is it ? 😀

If I were you I would give some serious consideration to getting rid of the car having already experienced issues with the gearbox and then doing a DIY repair on the hydraulics. Modern hydraulically controlled automatic transmissions of all varieties are very sensitive to hydraulic contamination, and as you know can be expensive when they go wrong. The reason that vw don’t let dealers work on the transmissions is partly because they require cleanliness, and also they are complex systems whereby a fault with one component could result in any number of different symptoms.

I can’t pass a potential lemon onto an unsuspecting buyer, so I’ll just hold onto it.

Re cleanliness – taking it out of the car and putting it back is far dirtier than fixing it on a bench, and they let dealers do that…

Very true, but it is probably a case of minimising the risk of contamination. The more you allow the dealers to do, the more chance there is for contamination or build errors. I work with these kind of transmissions on a daily basis and if it were me I would want a replacement transmission, and that is why the only way I would have a car with a dct would be under warranty!!

If I keep it for 20 years and it only shits its pants once, I’ll be happy. It’s worth it for the driving pleasure.

Interesting though – there are loads of screen filters all the way through. The in and out valve ports are screened, so even if I get dirt in the sump it’ll stay out of the valves; and as long as it doesn’t lunch the pump it’ll end up stuck in the main filter. Assuming I didn’t get anything in the valve body itself, but I don’t think I did as I did that on the kitchen table when it was all out and clean. I did knock some dirt in it when taking it out of the car.. hope I got it all out!

I can’t pass a potential lemon onto an unsuspecting buyer, so I’ll just hold onto it.

I can recommend a car supermarket that have 0 qualms about doing it to their customers if it helps?

Sometimes when you are slightly ahead its better to clear your chips from the table, cash them in and buy something new, maybe Japanese.

dont say that to the engineering boss here …. his 2.2 honda accord is going in for its second turbo manifold in as many years…..google reveals its a pretty common fault for the 2.2 engine.

hes not a happy bunny.

How much all in (time and money) has this car cost you?

Time – loads, although it’s not all lost since I’ve learned a lot.
Money caused by car faults – about £60
Money caused by crap mechanic – £2k

Don’t get started on ‘you should’ve sold it’. Selling it would’ve cost me more.

I would just get rid of it, it’s not a particularly exciting car and it’s just caused hassle. Unless of course you will run out of ideas for topics on here :-p

Yeah but the hassle is fixed. Anything else that can go wrong will be unrelated to anything else, so could happen to any car.

dont say that to the engineering boss here …. his 2.2 honda accord is going in for its second turbo manifold in as many years…..google reveals its a pretty common fault for the 2.2 engine.

Ah- I read that too. Our window cleaner has been through two turbos and a whole engine. I always buy N/A petrols now. Simplier the better.

Yeah but the hassle is fixed. Anything else that can go wrong will be unrelated to anything else, so could happen to any car.

Would seem at odds with

I can’t pass a potential lemon onto an unsuspecting buyer, so I’ll just hold onto it.

No?

“I always buy N/A petrols now. Simplier the better.”

i have old school N/A diesels but they are getting rarer and harder to find.

i suspect when i come to renew it will be with a small petrol car.

I have a nice reliable mondeo I can swap you

Bugger, and I thought this thread (before I opened it) was about the unfortunate end of car number 6 in a 6 car overtake!

If I keep it for 20 years and it only shits its pants once, I’ll be happy. It’s worth it for the driving pleasure.

Driving pleasure, Passat???? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that mentioned before in one statement 😀 Still, I guess if you don’t actually enjoy driving then the Passat is the perfect vehicle since it insulates you so well from the sensation of actually driving, which might then make it enjoyable I suppose.

Now that you’ve reached the season finale, and what with Christmas coming and everything, have you thought of making these threads available as a box set?

Cougar – there is still a chance I’ve introduced some dirt in the gearbox that would cause a problem, which is what I was referring to. The rest of the car is no more likely to fail than any other car of that age.

Selling it because I think it’s going to break is dishonest. If I don’t think it’s going to break, then I’ll keep it. So there’s no way I can sell it, is there?

Rebel12, stop being such a bellend. I enjoy driving all too much, which is why I drive a Passat. Think about it.

There’s more to driving than driving fast.