Mk7 Common issues and resolutions

[elcid86]

Yes if anyone offered a filter relocation kit id be on board for that.

ROFL. It was so nice on the MK6 and on my BMW E46. Right there under the hood and easy to reach...

 

[GreenLantern_TDI]

ROFL. It was so nice on the MK6 and on my BMW E46. Right there under the hood and easy to reach...

Same for the BRM. Super easy.

 

[Blue_Hen_TDI]

I guess it was impossible logistically with that water-cooled intercooler mounted right to the front of the engine.

 

[740GLE]

I just did mine for the first time since owning the car (@113k mi). Not a bid job, but would be so much easier if the filter was accessible WITHOUT removing the battery/tray...
I too agree it takes quite a while to fill from the top (20-30min) even though I let the new stuff warm up in front of the heater while I was removing parts/draining the old stuff.
I also did the fuel filter and oil/filter. I used FCP Euro and will take advantage of their lifetime part/fluid guarantee next time.

Let us know the cost of shipping the fluids back to them, still gotta be cheaper than new fluids but pain in the butt.

 

[740GLE]

I guess it was impossible logistically with that water-cooled intercooler mounted right to the front of the engine.

Ahh but the Gen2 Passat did it, it was very tight with the HP EGR hose, but still on the top with no drips.

The NMS engine compartment is huge compared to the Mk7, so I'm sure that's the reason why the '15 TDI platform all went to the underside location.

 

[sprstu]

2015 GSW 6spd 64K miles, MANY small annoyances



Investigating a cold temp clicking in the front suspension, probably sway bar end link but annoying this early in its life

Investigating rear wheel bearing noise at slow speed around corners (think roundabout)

Investigating clunking from rear suspension on speed bumps

Clutch slipping under heavy load in 4-5-6th gear. Must always shift down to get above 3K rpm to avoid slipping.

Driver window auto up-down 50% functioning
Radio forgets station upon start up and goes back to static 50% of the time
Tire pressure monitor system thinks tires are low, investigating reveals the system is wrong
Torn 2 outer CV boots, driver side, car is OEM height
Back up camera is 50% function, many times just black screen


I have been rather disappointed with the MK7 quality overall. My mk6 JSW with triple the miles was a more solid driving vehicle. I like the Ea288 engine more but the car itself feels inferior overall. Perhaps are I replace parts with non-OE pieces they will be superior quality but I have my doubts.

 

[Mike in Anchorage]

2015 GSW 6spd 64K miles, MANY small annoyances



Investigating a cold temp clicking in the front suspension, probably sway bar end link but annoying this early in its life

Investigating rear wheel bearing noise at slow speed around corners (think roundabout)

Investigating clunking from rear suspension on speed bumps

Clutch slipping under heavy load in 4-5-6th gear. Must always shift down to get above 3K rpm to avoid slipping.

Driver window auto up-down 50% functioning
Radio forgets station upon start up and goes back to static 50% of the time
Tire pressure monitor system thinks tires are low, investigating reveals the system is wrong
Torn 2 outer CV boots, driver side, car is OEM height
Back up camera is 50% function, many times just black screen

•*As much as I hate to recommend it, have you taken it to the dealer, in particular with respect to clutch slippage?
•*Window regulator should also be covered under warranty.
•*TPMS - you can reset. Have you done that at a low enough temp to keep it from alarming again?
•*Radio - no idea. Do you use bluetooth for your phone? Does it function the same whether or not your phone is BT enabled?

Best wishes for the new year.

 

[Nuje]

Radio going back to static is the "87.7 radio station bug". Talked about more than once here.
Torn CV boots - wow! Not sure what you're driving over, but that does seem bad.
Clutch slippage - that's not good. Take that in for sure.
Back-up camera in my car is the best of probably 20 different cars I've driven in - only time it doesn't work is if I put it in R, then go out of R to another gear, then back into R again.

 

[MiniAustinMini]

2015 GSW 6spd 64K miles, MANY small annoyances
Investigating a cold temp clicking in the front suspension, probably sway bar end link but annoying this early in its life
Investigating rear wheel bearing noise at slow speed around corners (think roundabout)
Investigating clunking from rear suspension on speed bumps
Clutch slipping under heavy load in 4-5-6th gear. Must always shift down to get above 3K rpm to avoid slipping.
Driver window auto up-down 50% functioning
Radio forgets station upon start up and goes back to static 50% of the time
Tire pressure monitor system thinks tires are low, investigating reveals the system is wrong
Torn 2 outer CV boots, driver side, car is OEM height
Back up camera is 50% function, many times just black screen
I have been rather disappointed with the MK7 quality overall. My mk6 JSW with triple the miles was a more solid driving vehicle. I like the Ea288 engine more but the car itself feels inferior overall. Perhaps are I replace parts with non-OE pieces they will be superior quality but I have my doubts.

Does this happen to be the red one purchased from Hall VW this summer/fall? I was very interested, but when they started showing me pictures of it at the junkyard it came from... Its sad how some of these buybacks were treated.
Many of your gremlins could be cause by water damage/dry rot. My '15 GSW 6spd with 33k has only a squeak behind the dash to complain about. (had the peeling shift boot trim replaced the week after I bought it)
Best of luck to you. Do you have any kind of buy-back guarantee on it?

 

[adjat84th]

It would not surprise me if the clutch delay valve (restrictor) that's built into the bleeder unit could cause a slipping clutch after some miles.

FWIW, my MK7 has 75k miles and no crazy issues that weren't self inflicted.

 

[sprstu]

Does this happen to be the red one purchased from Hall VW this summer/fall? I was very interested, but when they started showing me pictures of it at the junkyard it came from... Its sad how some of these buybacks were treated.
Many of your gremlins could be cause by water damage/dry rot. My '15 GSW 6spd with 33k has only a squeak behind the dash to complain about. (had the peeling shift boot trim replaced the week after I bought it)
Best of luck to you. Do you have any kind of buy-back guarantee on it?

It is a platinum grey originally from Michigan that was purchased in Minneapolis in sept 2017. It sat for a little while, 2 months, while it was in limbo being fixed but the CarFax shows a pretty quick turn around from VW buying it, fixing it and then selling it at auction.



None my issue are life ending, just very annoying.

 

[740GLE]

Driver window auto up-down 50% functioning

I find I need to hold the window switch way longer than I should to initiate the auto up/down feature (1-2 seconds, where our previous MK5 and NMS it's instant), almost like there's lag in the canbus for it to register.

 

[SyncroHead]

2015 GSW with 6-sp DSG and push-button start: Spontaneously Dies

My 2015 GSW with DSG transmission and push-button start was "new" in 2017 when we bought it from the dealer after having part 1 of the settlement modifications complete. Still under original warranty. Car has about 18K miles on it.
The car has spontaneously died while driving 5 times in the past 1.8 years. The first couple times, I thought it was just a fluke, but the 3rd, 4th, and now 5th time I've taken it to the dealer.
Behavior: Driving steadily along with no issues. Suddenly the engine stops running. Cost to side of road. Car is still "on", but engine is not running. Glow plug indicator is on. Pressing the brake pedal and the start button, the car cranks quickly, but will not start even after 20 seconds of cranking. Foot off brake and push the "start" button so car is completely off. Depress brake and then the start button again and car starts immediately as if there were no issue.
No fault codes are set when this happens.
Repeat this behavior for failures 2, 3, and 4 over a period of about a year. Months and thousands of miles go by between occurrences. Dealer could find no issue after 3rd time. Dealer (at VW recommendation) re-downloaded the ECU firmware (same version) to see if that would remedy the issue.
5th occurrence happened 2-16-19 at highway speed and car coasted to side of freeway. After turning car off, the car started again immediately. Upon putting car in Drive, engine dies. Wait 1 minute. Car starts again, appears normal, but dies again after putting transmission back into drive. Car towed to dealer.
At dealer, car would not start at all. Dealer found the starting battery failed the performance test and replaced the battery under warranty. I think this is probably unrelated.
Dealer's has had the car for 3 days now attempting to reproduce the issue. It continues to behave normally since replacing the battery. Planning to speak to the VW rep tomorrow.
Anyone else had a MK7 TDI spontaneously die like this and leave no codes?
Jim

 

[Lightflyer1]

These cars do seem to be sensitive to good voltages from my reading. The battery and/or charging system may very well be the issue. Do you know if the battery was replaced with a new one when you bought it after being "stored". What kind of driving do you do? Lots of short trips or longer drives? Do you have access to VCDS to scan for codes yourself or are you taking the dealers word? Have you measured and/or tested the battery yourself at all?

 

[SyncroHead]

2015 GSW with 6-sp DSG and push-button start: Spontaneously Dies

Thanks for engaging LightFlyer.
Issue: 2015 GSW with 6-sp DSG and push-button start: Spontaneously Dies
Q: Do you know if the battery was replaced?
A: The battery was NOT originally replaced and was nearly 2 years old when we bought it.
Q: What kind of driving do you do?
A: Commuting. Mostly 45-60 minutes each morning and 45-60 minutes each evening. Should be more than enough tine for a battery to come back up to full capacity after starting.
Q: Do you have access to VCDS to scan for codes yourself
A: Yes, but have not used it related to this issue yet.
Q: are you taking the dealers word?
A: Yes, so far I have. They appear to be earnestly searching to diagnoose.
Q: Have you measured and/or tested the battery yourself at all?
A: No. I never suspected the battery. The dealer did replace the battery with a new one this week and they are hoping this solves it. However, this happened first about a year and a half ago when the battery was much younger and several times in between then and now. Until this latest time, the battery had enough power to crank quickly and immediately start the car.
Thanks again.
Jim

 

[Lightflyer1]

Maybe your battery was sulphated from the storage causing intermittent issues.

What Is Battery Sulfation?
Battery sulfation is the process of lead sulfate crystals building up on a battery cell. Sulfation will occur to some degree in every battery throughout its lifetime. However, rapid sulfation can occur with extended storage, overcharging, or undercharging of a battery. As more sulfate builds up on a battery cell, the less effective the battery becomes. Sulfation is the number one cause of early failures in lead-acid batteries, and can lead to any of the following: loss of cranking power, longer charging times, excessive heat build-up of your vehicle’s electrical system, shorter running times between charges, and ultimately shortening your battery’s life.

https://no.co/blog/diagnose-and-treat-battery-sulfation

Hopefully the new battery will fix this. I would suspect your car did have some codes and just not revealed to you for some reason. I thought replacing the battery was a requirement before sale of these cars. I scan my car every so often just to see if anything shows up. Sometimes intermittent issues will give you some warning before a complete failure happens.

 

[SyncroHead]

Thank you for helping.

On a couple cars I have that sit for long periods, I keep them trickle-charged with BatteryMINDer chargers that tout their desulfator capabilities.

You think that the battery sulfation issue could cause a car that's driving along fine, with overall voltage controlled by the alternator/regulator to spontaneously die? Then start up again as if there were no issue?

Jim

 

[Lightflyer1]

I personally have no idea, but that site seems point that it might be a possible issue. Especially if swapping the battery out fixes it. Probably a possible reason why they were all supposed to get new batteries before being sold.

 

[kjclow]

Maybe the battery hit a dead area and therefore transferred no charge. I don't know if these cars will run without the battery hooked up. I've heard that the older diesels could keep running if you disconnected the battery.

 

[Kalevi1Poeg]

Backup Camera Sticking

Anybody have the backup camera sticking during cold weather (temps below 10F)? A bit annoying since you can't open the hatch when this happens. Usually clears itself when the car or weather warms up - couple times this winter it was stuck for days.

Spring is almost here in NH (did get 1/2" snow this morning) - deal with it next winter.

 

[thundershorts]

Hi syncro!
Similar problem on mine. Changed tank lift pump to latest version, its different from what was originally installed at factory. No codes from a failing lift pump other than low rail pressure. The new pump also is almost dead quiet. No further problem. Dealer will most likely not be able to replicate the intermittent failing. Since the newer pump is different, vw probably knew and re engineered it. Vw screwed me and wouldn't pay but I need reliability.

 

[dubStrom]

Heat/AC blower control DRAINS the battery

I bought this new 2015 GSW (DSG) in 2017 after release, and phase 1 emissions mod was done.

Within a month of ownership, something sucked the battery down overnight. I charged it, and the problem went away for about a year, and it did it again, then again a month or so later. Each time, I charged it back up, and the problem disappeared.

But THIS TIME, it was BAD!

Started the car, and quickly got a series of failure warnings on the MFD: ASR antilock brakes fail warning, then TPMS fail warning, then adaptive front lighting fail warning, then airbag fail warning.

Needless to say, this got my attention.

I had to drive to work, and I didn't believe all systems failing at once anyway. This cycle of warning happened more than once, sometimes randomly one or the other. Then on the way home from work same day, the warnings cycled through when I started it, and a new symptom showed up. The DSG began to downshift instead of upshift while I was accelerating in traffic. RPMs went up high, over 4000rpm! I pushed it into neutral, pulled over, and started again. This happend a few times. The DSG was wandering around aimlessly sometimes. Tip and the paddles unresponsive in tip mode while these failures happened.

The next morning, FOGGY, and needed defrost, but the BLOWER DID NOT work! Nothing. I left it on while driving, wiping the windshield from the inside to eliminate the foggy interior. Then the blower crept up to low (I had it on high) and lots of hot air dried out the inside of the windows in the car. All the while, the MFD warnings cycling and DSG doing weird things.
Same day leaving work, BATTERY DRAINED.

So I parked it when I got it home (after jump start) and got VAGCOM connected. AutoScan showed low voltage errors and 0010 code. I left it on the charger overnight. No real indication of EXACTLY what was happening.

BUT IT DID NOT CHARGE FULLY. The green light always shows up within an hour when I recharge it, but it was still red and the charger was hot in the morning. SOMETHING IS STILL DRAWING CURRENT WITH THE IGNITION OFF!

I took it to the dealership since this is under warantee and the DSG issues are hard to claim not under warantee! The blower started blowing in the garage right in front of the technician with the ignition turned OFF! SO GLAD THAT HAPPENED.

He ordered a heater control head, and might replace the module (behind the glove compartment) as well. AND, he found that the Adblue heater was failing (this was a legacy fail code from earlier this year when it was cold). But the heater blower fail is what's is causing the low voltage issue making all of those systems fail and display warnings!

So he will install a new urea tank (apparently this is not modular like the gen1 gen2 versions where the heater only can be changed). And he will get the heater/AC blower under control again, clear all the codes and then see if it behaves and doesn't throw more codes.

I think I will get it back by end of next week.

 

[ProfBrown]

Sounds like you will essentially be getting a new car in a way when you get it back lol. Sorry to hear of your issues, but hopeful to see that they are fixed and you are happy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dubStrom]

THE REAL CULPRIT- Heat/AC blower control DRAINS the battery

So, it turns out that the pano roof drain was blocked, water entered the wiring box. No reason to pull all of those panels, glove box, wiring covers, and dig into the damned thing if I had just known before the rain storm that there were leaves blocking the drain.
This car is just 2 years old. I had the same issue with the '03 wagon. It got my leg wet when I drove it after the storm, and was obvious when I looked up at the A pillar. I cleaned out the drain with a syringe and tubing, dried everything and no issues other than minor cleanup. This sucks.

At least it is diagnosed and will be working fine when dried out.

Gee. Stupid design to have the drain path when blocked go directly into wiring.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Glad I didn't get sunroof this time around!

 

[dubStrom]

Glad I didn't get sunroof this time around!

This is a heads-up.

The car sits outside until I can put another garage in. We had tons of heavy rain for a couple of days, spates! The pano-roof has a long seam, so I should have anticipated the need for a clear drain. I should have inspected it before the storm, and after. Even just one 6x 10 tarp pulled over it would have also prevented this. I didn't think about it at the time, but I would bet that EVERY time the battery got drained, there was a big storm the day before! Really. Heads up to ANY pano roof owner that parks outside.

Lesson learned. And FYI- I did not really choose it. I could not find a single 6MT in the region when they started selling them, so I decided to get the nicer model with the dumb DSG (but it does have paddles). On the other hand, it was good to find out that it was not inferior failing electrical component(s), but rather bad design on the pano roof drain that caused this. As I said, lesson learned. I just have to be vigilant on making sure the drain is clear. I like the pano roof, but I see that it comes with duty!

 

[740GLE]

was it the drain caps or spider caps or was it the cowel drain that clogged?

 

[fase2000TDI]

One reason I wanted a S instead of a SE or SEL. I dealt with this on my MKIV, didn't want to deal with it again. On the MKIV I used hose clamps on the sunroof drains on the roof end, and used RTV silicone on the car ends in addition to clipping the outside so the opening would be huge. Haven't had an issue and it's been 8 years. I'm a bit unclear why VW didn't put it together this way in the first place.

 

[Candellara]

I haven't seen too much info in this thread about the silicant from the reservoir clogging the heater matrix. Has anyone definitive information on this as there are dozens of threads across various forums. Much of what i have read is if this issue surfaces with your MK7 TDI - it's practically impossible to remedy? Many people have had to fit several new heater matrix's at £000's of expense.

 

[Nuje]

I just saw a notice come through from VW stating that heater replacement is covered under the terms of the "dieselgate" settlement - at least that's the case here in Canada (and presumably US).