2014 Heatercore

DK

Veteran Member
Joined
May 6, 2002
Location
Massachusetts
TDI
2014 TDI Golf 6 speed
Fellow TDI drivers. Has anyone experienced heater core problems with their 2014 Golf TDI? Mine is scheduled to be replaced Tuesday. I understand 2014 Jettas were vulnerable. Thank you for any input. The Golf has 82K miles.
 

ebain21

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2012 Golf TDI 6M
I have a 2012 golf and mine had to be replaced. It sounds like a pretty common thing on the mk6 cars, especially with them sitting for long periods during dieselgate. Was yours CPO? Mine was covered so it was only the $50 deductible to replace.
 

03GolfTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
May 4, 2003
Location
Atlanta, GA
TDI
'12 JSW DSG and '11 JSW DSG
Seems like this might be a thing with the MKVI platform cars. Guy over on bobistheoilguy just had to replace his heater core on I think a '15 Jetta 1.8T w/58k miles. His lovely VW service department mentioned to him that he had never flushed his coolant......glad to see terrible VW service departments are still out there going strong. :D

For some reason i recall reading that the dieselgate warranty was expanded at some point to include heater cores if they went bad but don't quote me on that, may have been something I dreamed up.
 

JELLOWSUBMARINE

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Location
yes
TDI
2011 Jetta Sportwagen, 6M, red/tan, navi, pano, 83 5m diesel pickup, 82 p/u trailer,.04 5.5 TDI Passat wagon (gone), 80,81,82 diesel p/u (gone), 80,82 sportruck (gone), 59 passthru bus (long gone), 79&87 westy (gone), 57 baja bug (long gone), 73 914
Is yours leaking or plugged? I read somewhere that the newer years used a soldier flux that caused a acidic corrotion build up that plugged the heater core. Is your heater running cold? Youtube has multiple heater core backflush vidios, seems to really work.

I confirmed my 2011 with 75k condition by using a coolant temp. Gauge in the center vent/full heat on low speed. It maxes 10* +- cooler (180*) than full engine temp of 190* (acording to dash).

I havent got around to it yet but I want to check the PH level before a good maintenance flush.
 

DK

Veteran Member
Joined
May 6, 2002
Location
Massachusetts
TDI
2014 TDI Golf 6 speed
I am sorry. CPO? My car got the fix. Might be going to dealer tomorrow. Estimate is 1K. Yikes.
 
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ebain21

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2012 Golf TDI 6M
I bought mine certified pre-owned (CPO) from VW. Heater core was replaced for only the $50 deductible. $1k seems steep and no fun at all. Good luck!
 

DK

Veteran Member
Joined
May 6, 2002
Location
Massachusetts
TDI
2014 TDI Golf 6 speed
Wow. I am the original owner, post fix. The car went to the dealership today, and had a heat core I bought and brought sitting on the passenger seat. Dealer couldn't get a VW core for 3 or 4 weeks. It's cold here. 3 mechanics refused to get involved. I am just hoping maybe the heater core failure is covered under the extended warranty. 2014 Golf 6m.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
The heater core is 1.4hr labor on these cars. They are not hard. There is no need to take hardly anything apart. The dash does not come out. The heater case does not come out. The core slides out of a slot in the side by the pedals.

Where is this crazy nonsense of $1000 estimate coming around? That is ridiculous. List price for a brand new OEM core from Volkswagen is less than $240. Aftermarket offerings, but for half the price (and are often from Valeo, which is who made most of them in the first place).

I really would like to see how 1.4 hours of labor, some coolant, a couple o-rings, and a heater core, can come to a whopping $1000. These dealers should be ashamed of this crap. All the later VAG products are mostly arranged the same way. A5+ Golf, Jetta, Eos, Tiguan, even some of the newer longitudinal cars like the Audi A4, etc. are like this too. Easy peasy.
 

PRY4SNO

Veteran Member
Joined
May 15, 2016
Location
Edmonton, AB
TDI
2013 Touareg Execline
The heater core is 1.4hr labor on these cars. They are not hard. There is no need to take hardly anything apart. The dash does not come out. The heater case does not come out. The core slides out of a slot in the side by the pedals.

Where is this crazy nonsense of $1000 estimate coming around? That is ridiculous. List price for a brand new OEM core from Volkswagen is less than $240. Aftermarket offerings, but for half the price (and are often from Valeo, which is who made most of them in the first place).

I really would like to see how 1.4 hours of labor, some coolant, a couple o-rings, and a heater core, can come to a whopping $1000. These dealers should be ashamed of this crap. All the later VAG products are mostly arranged the same way. A5+ Golf, Jetta, Eos, Tiguan, even some of the newer longitudinal cars like the Audi A4, etc. are like this too. Easy peasy.

Beauty post.


*slow clap
 

Joe Romas

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2000
Location
Columbus, Ohio USA
TDI
2014 Jetta Sprotswagen
As a previous owner of several older A3 VW's I think it's smart on VW's part to make heater cores easily replaceable.
Maybe some dealers are making up for the time spent on A3's. LOL
 

IXLR8

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2003
Location
Cushing, ME
TDI
12 Passat Platinum Gray, 02 Golf Black, 01 Jetta Black
Where is this crazy nonsense of $1000 estimate coming around? That is ridiculous.
Probably the same place as my $600 and 3 hr estimate to fix my ABS sensor error.
It took me 30 mins and $34 to fix.
There is a reason I don't go to the stealership.
 

JELLOWSUBMARINE

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Location
yes
TDI
2011 Jetta Sportwagen, 6M, red/tan, navi, pano, 83 5m diesel pickup, 82 p/u trailer,.04 5.5 TDI Passat wagon (gone), 80,81,82 diesel p/u (gone), 80,82 sportruck (gone), 59 passthru bus (long gone), 79&87 westy (gone), 57 baja bug (long gone), 73 914
Probably the same place as my $600 and 3 hr estimate to fix my ABS sensor error.
It took me 30 mins and $34 to fix.
There is a reason I don't go to the stealership.
I worked dealerships for a 7 year period in the past. The horror stories Ive witnessed... Although there can be the rare dealership exception. IMO Ill only use them to statigically apply warrenty. Unfortunately my experiance finding good qualified VW techs more often than not in a general repair shop.
 

90_zeros

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 21, 2019
Location
Alabama
TDI
2013 Golf TDI
I got screwed and didn't enjoy it.
That sucks :(. I find dealers usually have good prices on one or two services, like loss leaders. For example they charge me $100 for oil + fuel filter change, but they quote my friend 9k to replace k03s on a b5 S4.

Idk what in the world costs so much about the heater core. Nothing at all like an F-body or an F150 where the entire dash comes out. I just watched a guy on YT get his out in 17 mins.
 

wolf1389

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2015
Location
Kitchener, Ontario Canada
TDI
2014 Jetta sportwagen Comfortline
mine just went out at 129,000km 2014 JSW TDI DSG. VW dealer is replacing it for free under the extended heater core warranty ( 10 yr,200,000km) they mentioned they need the car for the whole day as they need to flush the old coolant out with a new mixture that has a "cleaning solvent" in it and then then another flush again with fresh coolant then refill with new coolant along with new heater core.
 

ebain21

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2012 Golf TDI 6M
Were CJAA cars covered under the heater core extended warranty? I might need to call a dealer and see if my 2012 golf is covered. Heater core seems to be going again. It's not getting very hot and not as hot as I remember, temps have been 15-25 F for the most part lately.

Does anyone know what the criteria for diagnosing heater core issues are? I'm guessing it's a vent outlet temp at full heat and operating temp? Any diagnosis I can do with VCDS?
 

wolf1389

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2015
Location
Kitchener, Ontario Canada
TDI
2014 Jetta sportwagen Comfortline
yes they are covered under warranty. lack of heat in all vents for me at least. some people had only one side of the vents giving heat.
 
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ebain21

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Location
St. Paul, MN
TDI
2012 Golf TDI 6M
Sounds good, I'll have to give the dealer a call who did mine previously and see what they think. I'm not really wanting to pay for a diagnosis and heater core replacement until it's real bad. Mine was done in February of 2019 and only 27,000 miles ago. They also apparently did a coolant flush at that time so I'm not sure what the deal is....
 
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