DSG/Mechatronic Unit Problem Update

THE NHTSA LAUNCHES A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO DSG FAILURES

Hello from your friends at VWvortex... I'm here to inform you that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the USA has opened a Federal investigation into the recent surge of VW/Audi DSG/Mechatronic Unit malfunctions.

Here are the links:

http://nhthqnwws112.odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/a ... -36241.pdf

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=988

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4465016

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4486496

We love our cars, but the DSG's have been failing way too soon, and way too often, even after repeated repairs! We decided to put our collective heads together before someone was seriously injured or killed. (Read the reports and you'll see.) We hope our effort will inspire others to file a report as well. Follow the links above.

As this affects many TDI owners, we will leave this thread a sticky for a while so it gets maximum exposure.

FYI I saw this thread which is one of the very few that actually seems to point to the specific cause of some of the problems.

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94482

Basically it sounds like there is a failing teflon coated "shift solenoid washer"

Here is the text from that thread:

"Ok a bit of background. I have a 2008 r32. At about 13000 miles, it started having the bad mechatronic symptoms. It was diagnosed as a bad mechatronic first time in the shop (no its normal for a dsg etc from the dealer.) We will order you a new one. In the mean time drive this jetta. I was quite happy with how things went. How long will it take: 2-6 weeks to get the part and throw (its internal to the transmission) in.

Fast forward 2 weeks..I get a call from the manager who says volkswagen wants to send an engineer overr that had something to do with the r32 and or the dsg (it was a bit unclear) because they want to find out what really is happening with the mechatronic unit. A few days later they say they tore everything down and found the actual problem that is causing it. There is a teflon coated float thingy inside the mechatronic (i envision something like a float in a toilet but your free to imagine anything you like) where the teflon coating was inferior/not applied correctly causing it to bind when its HOT (which is why it works fine until the dsg warms up.)

They replaced just the toilet thingy and now the car doesnt have the bad mechatronic symptoms any longer. This was verified by the shop manager as well to make sure I wasnt going to get it returned broken still. I have not picked up the car (the dealer called late friday and I was unable to get there to pickup my car before they closed so I was able to drive the jetta for the weekend as well.) I will pick it up monday night and if anyones interested report it back here if its fixed or not. He says that vw will put a tsb out to the dealers about this being a possible fix.

I am ASSUMING this will mean much qucker turn around for everyone with this issue since the part is available and you dont need the entire mechatronic. Additionally this requires a transmission fluid change so according to the manager the 40000 dsg fluid change service can now be pushed back until x+40000 miles (x being whatever milage you have on the car when you get it fixed) saving $500 in work for my 50,000 mile lease (since the dsg fluid will now have to be changed after I am due to turn it in.) All in all I was very happy how I was treated by the dealership and do love the car (keeping fingers crossed)
dex

Unfortunately the W/O reports that the work was done on a seperate w/o number (they transfered it to corporate since the engineer did it so I dont have it. But, I called the dealer and talked with the SM and he told me ...well on hold.....oh bad hold music. shift seloniod (sp) washer. Its the actual washer on the selonoid. According to him, they now make this washer differently so it wont melt the teflon off it once its hot. So it wont happen again. Still on the phone. Hasnt been deemed official yet. They want to do it more to make sure. If they get just one that doesnt fix the problem then they will stay with replace the whole unit but its looking promising. hope this helps
dex"

Also vwredux found this eos thread http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4072270&page=1 that describes some failures. Sounds like OP had a warped clutch plate and/or failing DMF. Also though, he had a faulty brake sensor which caused loss of power when starting out. That sounds similar to many of the problems. Also one thing they mentioned in that thread was that a failing DMF caused the jerkiness in reverse issue and if it didn't have jerkiness i reverse it's probably not the DMF (don't know if that is true or not). Lots of pieces to the puzzle.

My Q is, what proactive maintenance can be done to the DSG other than changing the fluid earlier and maybe lubing that brake sensor?

Please describe how someone can be "seriously injured or killed" by DSG failure.

lkchris, with a faulty temp/speed sensor the transmission thinks that is is overheated and stops delivering power to the wheels. I had to get from the fast lane of the freeway over to the shoulder without being able to accelerate. I was nearly in 2 accidents and by nearly I mean that while trying to get over in front of a bigrig I missed seeing a car that had in moved into my blind spot and forced them two feet off the road.

I just finished reading the entire 5 pages of threads on the DSG issues and pretty concerned. Anyone on this forum experience a DSG failure? Just bought my 09 two months ago and now wondering if I should have gotten the 6-sp manual

Loving it so far but now a bit worried since I do a good amount of daily driving (120 miles +).

Thoughts?

lkchris said:

Please describe how someone can be "seriously injured or killed" by DSG failure.

Click to expand...

Apparently there are large numbers of drivers on the road that have never experienced a total loss of motive power in their driving careers.

What I and most people my age grew up expecting to happen at any time is now a totally unacceptable, unreasonable, un-heard-of, and (the most deadly of all) UN-PLANNED-FOR occurance.

Folks,

When you are driving, think about what is the worst thing that could happen.... and for god's sake come up with a plan to put into action if that 'worst thing' does happen.

A defensive driving course would be a good start for every one of us.

I cannot count the number of tire blowouts, and engine power failures I have had over the years, but it hasn't happened to me in a couple of decades... so I expect it is about my time to have one or two.


So Kent, in answer to your question as to how someone can be seriously injured or killed by a DSG failure... Failure of the driver to do his/her task in a competent manner.

The truth is often uncomfortable, but I hope you all live to a ripe old age.

Bill

it's far too easy to get a driver's license in this country

2004 Beetle DSG failure

So, to bring us back on topic, anyone on this forum with an 08-09 experiencing this issue or have similar concerns? I read all of vwredux's postings and I feel his pain. I know for those that have experienced this, it had to be scarry but is this isolated or wide spread? I've read the vwvortex details...all 5 pages...and watched several You Tube videos but there is always a much greater percentage of issues on these forums as they are very concentrated with enthusiasts like ourselves.

Also thinking about getting the F1tuning tune that many have said very positive things about. Will this tune exacerbate the problem or speed up the DSG problem to occur sooner than later?

Thanks for your input!

edilbeck...thanks for the info. I thought I read that it may also be a bad "temperature sensor" and that many dealers are replacing the sensor first before replacing the machatronic. You stated a speed sensor was their first attempt and I have never heard/read about that being an issue.

Since you've had your machatronic replaced, how many miles have you put on and is all ok? Was this covered under warranty?

It sounds like you're up to date on all the info. Not much else left to tell. Subscribe to the threads and follow for further developements. It's a work in progress at this point.

I currently have 87,000 on my beetle. Since the dealer repaired the DSG i have not had any problems. I just did my 40k DSG fluid change. So I am waiting for it to fail(it failed within 4k of the last fluid change). And yes it was repaired under warrenty. it took them a long time and several trips back to the dealer.

False neutral fix

securityguy said:

edilbeck...thanks for the info. I thought I read that it may also be a bad "temperature sensor" and that many dealers are replacing the sensor first before replacing the machatronic. You stated a speed sensor was their first attempt and I have never heard/read about that being an issue.quote]

When I had the false neutral DSG problem repaired last month at 3122 miles the service tech writeup I got back read in part:

"....I then call techline and informed them of the customer concern. They advised me to replace the Speed/Temp Sensor G509/G182 and replace the Mecatronics (sic) bolts becaus (sic) the sensor has been known to be faulty."

It is not clear to me whether this is one sensor with two functions (and two part #'s?) or two seperate sensors. I asked the service writer who obviously didn't know, and I wasn't able to talk to the service tech.

I've put another "quick" 2K miles on it http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=255738 since then and have had no further problems so I believe this is the correct fix and am in love with my JSW again!

Click to expand...

Seems there are two sensors on the same part. I'm assuming those numbers correspond to the Part # 02E-927-231-A Speed Sender listed on my invoice, but I also have a Part # 09G-927-321 Sender listed.

Thanks to all the replied. I have almost 1K miles and we'll just see how it goes. If it happens it happens and I'll do what I have to, armed with some great detail from my friends on this forum, to get it fixed right the first time.

VW annouces recall on DSG!

See:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hPyqO7IjE6W9er1utVnwp3fG6YSAD9A6L7I80

SWF - I think this is a great thing as we'll all now know who is affected and can get it fixed once and for all if you are impacted by the recall