Traded the '11 - probably my final TDI.

[03GolfTDI]

Well the '11 TDI is now gone - replaced by a '17 GLI gasser.

Hate to close this chapter as I fell in love with TDI's back with my '03 but the writing is on the wall they will never be back. I have to say I went into my '12 SW buyback with starry eyes only for it to be a total disaster and spending almost a month in the shop in the first 12 months for various problems, the '11 was purchased a few months after the '12 and it turned out to be almost as much of a disaster and spent ~20 days in the shop the first 2 years. The cars sitting and rotting unused for years did not do them any favors and I don't think the fix helped things much - both cars were service bay queens. The '11 was 8 months away from dieselgate expiration and with diesel at $4.99/gallon and it having some hard start issues and an odd rattling in the HPFP area we ran for the hills when we received an eye popping trade in value for it. With how nuts the used car market is we basically paid ~$136/month to drive the '11 for a little over 3 years so there are no hard feelings whatsoever - not to mention we experienced one of the last VW diesels to ever grace our shores.

GLI is a blast, we always hated on the corporate 2.0T since it is in pretty much everything and so generic but after driving it I can see why it is very popular powertrain and I have very much grown to like it. Torque for days just like a diesel but high RPM power to boot. Per MFI lost ~5-6 MPG in typical commute pattern (~25-26 in TDI vs ~20 so far in GLI) but with regular unleaded at $3.69 vs $4.99 diesel the GLI is a little cheaper to fuel currently. Even if we took long road trip the HWY estimate of 33 for the GLI is still only 5 MPG lower than the TDI in that cycle so GLI still wins out on cost - for now.

Welp here she is in all her glory - 65k, CPO, 6 speed manual, clean Carfax with by the book service history.

 

[TDNation]

Nice buy. As much as the EA888 is crapped on (they are not without issues), they can make some great power with minimal modification (Stratified Tuning, if you're interested). My friend's 2013 GTI has been daily driven for three years now with 300 whp without skipping a beat. Cheers

 

[oilhammer]

The EA888 is a source of good income for me. I would never crap on them, LOL!

 

[03GolfTDI]

Nice buy. As much as the EA888 is crapped on (they are not without issues), they can make some great power with minimal modification (Stratified Tuning, if you're interested). My friend's 2013 GTI has been daily driven for three years now with 300 whp without skipping a beat. Cheers

We will probably keep it stock at least for the CPO warranty period (2/24) - even after then it will probably stay stock as it makes very nice power as is and current power levels routed through the front wheels causes obscene amounts of wheel spin. .

The EA888 is a source of good income for me. I would never crap on them, LOL!

Since you know these engines like the back of your hand can you confirm to me which generation EA888 is in the 6th gen 2017 GLI? I cannot for the life of me follow the various generations and what cars they were actually in. Also if this later engine may have had some of the bugs worked out versus the earlier. It's really hard to determine when issues started, stopped, etc. and VWVortex while a fun message board to peruse does not seem to be heavy with technical knowledge.

We are keeping our eyes peeled on the oil level for the first couple months to make sure it doesn't have any consumption issues. Annual mileage ranges from about 7-8k so it will get slightly shorter oil changes than the 10k max - hoping this might help prevent some of the common oiling issues (timing chain stretch, oil burning, etc.) but that ship may have sailed as the prior owner stuck to the 10k changes religiously.

 

[TDNation]

We will probably keep it stock at least for the CPO warranty period (2/24) - even after then it will probably stay stock as it makes very nice power as is and current power levels routed through the front wheels causes obscene amounts of wheel spin. .



Since you know these engines like the back of your hand can you confirm to me which generation EA888 is in the 6th gen 2017 GLI? I cannot for the life of me follow the various generations and what cars they were actually in. Also if this later engine may have had some of the bugs worked out versus the earlier. It's really hard to determine when issues started, stopped, etc. and VWVortex while a fun message board to peruse does not seem to be heavy with technical knowledge.

We are keeping our eyes peeled on the oil level for the first couple months to make sure it doesn't have any consumption issues. Annual mileage ranges from about 7-8k so it will get slightly shorter oil changes than the 10k max - hoping this might help prevent some of the common oiling issues (timing chain stretch, oil burning, etc.) but that ship may have sailed as the prior owner stuck to the 10k changes religiously.

If I remember correctly yours would be a Gen 3 engine. This is probably a good thing as it has the most recent revisions, including things like the chain tensioner and guides, and the water pump. I don't work on these cars for a living like oilhammer, so there are probably a lot of other things that are different he can chime in on. Good luck

 

[oilhammer]

I really don't think of them so much as a black/white "generation" thing, because some stuff phased in at different times on different versions in different cars in different platforms. Also, some things I would label as "change" but not necessarily "improved", like the active thermostat nonsense. Instead of fixing the plastic water pump housing, they just made it more expensive. They changed the crankcase pressure regulator, but they just made it more expensive and harder to diagnose. The raised the oil capacity, but didn't really address any oil consumption issues, AND some of the newer stuff now spec's an oil that is thinner, which makes it even worse. I mean, the engine family debuted in 2008. 14 years ago. You'd think by now, they'd be 100% bulletproof. But they are most certainly not.

 

[calimustang]

I really don't think of them so much as a black/white "generation" thing, because some stuff phased in at different times on different versions in different cars in different platforms. Also, some things I would label as "change" but not necessarily "improved", like the active thermostat nonsense. Instead of fixing the plastic water pump housing, they just made it more expensive. They changed the crankcase pressure regulator, but they just made it more expensive and harder to diagnose. The raised the oil capacity, but didn't really address any oil consumption issues, AND some of the newer stuff now spec's an oil that is thinner, which makes it even worse. I mean, the engine family debuted in 2008. 14 years ago. You'd think by now, they'd be 100% bulletproof. But they are most certainly not.

hence why I stick to the TDI's...... the mentions you made, scares me LOL

 

[oilhammer]

I think the advantages that simplicity has in the automotive world cannot be overstated. If you want to limit your liabilities, the least complex stuff, the fewest moving parts, is always going to win. This certainly isn't limited to Volkswagens.

Take the Prius (all its varieties) for instance. We do all kinds of things to those cars here. We've got yet another one here now getting its brake accumulator assembly replaced. This is a TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR job. On a 2010, with only 160k miles on the clock. Yes, the car is fuel efficient, but it is COMPLICATED. We do batteries, inverters, and the 2ZR-FXE 1.8L engine that is used in quite a few of them has a nasty habit of filling the combustion chambers with coolant. The cylinder head gasket is a big job on them, and you have only about a 50% shot that the head is not cracked beyond repair, and a new head is about $900 for just the bare head.. no valves, no cams, no nothing. So we put used engines in these a lot. They have a crazy complicated cooling system.... several electric pumps, switching valves, etc. All of which can fail, none of which are cheap. The catalysts for some of these are nearly 2 grand (and what is worse, they've become a hot commodity for theft!). Sometimes the DMFs go bad, and they can be SO bad that when the engine starts, it shakes the poor thing so bad and bangs around so bad it wigs out the ECU's CMP/CKP signals and it shuts the engine back off (yet won't ever set a DTC, go figure).

.... but one could find and buy a base stripper Toyota Yaris that will only get 10-15% less fuel economy, and have NONE of the above mentioned problems, ever, because it simply has none of those parts on it.