[vishy76]

Hi Jetta owners,

The car has clocked 42K as of now and there haven't been any major issues up until now. However, for the past few days I have noticed a humming sound coming from the rear right of the car. I don't think it is the tyres because they are brand new (only 1K old) and have also been balanced. I will try to describe the nature of the hum:

- Comes between 30-50 Km/hr and disappears later. Especially prominent on rough patches of road, not the smoother ones

- The car remains stable throughout. No wobbliness or nervousness at all till now.

I looked up VAG forums and it says that the sound should be speed dependent. However, the humming in my car goes away completely as the speeds increase. So could this be,

- A worn out wheel bearing

- Loose suspension linkage

- Unbalanced tyres (there are minute stones stuck in the Michelins as of now)

Could it also be something else? I need some pointers here. Any help would be appreciated.

Another question, is it viable to get the car serviced at an FNG now that the warranty has expired? I have found a bosch service centre in my city.

Thanks in advance,
vishy

[VW2010]

Humming when it increases with speed it usually will be wheel bearing. Check if wheel bearing is covered under warranty. I know it is with pre owned Hondas for it happened to me with an Accord.

When i say humming the early stage will be minute whining sound but as the bearing is wearing off, the sound will be pronounced and heard throughout the speeds. Post 50kmph you may not be hearing as the road noise may be over crowding the current state of bearing noise.

Take it to SA if you are worried, else give it some time for the sound to be actually pronounced. HUMMING or Whining and not thudding or spongy sound.

[bhavik.1991]

The infamous OEM battery:

The battery of Jetta gave up last Sunday. It was replaced around 13 months back under warranty due to the battery failure of 20 months old OEM battery which came along with the new car.

The (DSG) car was jumpstarted (thanks to extended VW road side assistance) & was kept idle for an hour (due to my absence). I came back home after an hour & tried to start it again but she didn't crank.

My car is still the extended warranty. Is the battery covered under extended warranty?

If so, I will get it replaced free of cost otherwise I will get an Amaron battery as suggested by other bhpians.

[VW2010]

My car is still the extended warranty. Is the battery covered under extended warranty?

If so, I will get it replaced free of cost otherwise I will get an Amaron battery as suggested by other bhpians

More than the battery is there something that is draining your battery randomly. Any modifications, LED, interior lights or something that is causing a drain. Check that as well.

Battery for just 13 months, i feel they should cover it under warranty if this is more like a manufacturing fault. But a battery having a manufacturing defect is very rare and the driving pattern can lead to shorter life of batteries. You will find those driving at some cruising speed one part of their daily trip hardly complain about battery say once every 4 year may be.

Are you driving the car enough for the battery to get fully charged. Short rides with full accessory on may not help charge the battery enough or help the acid batteries prolong life.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by VW2010

More than the battery is there something that is draining your battery randomly. Any modifications, LED, interior lights or something that is causing a drain. Check that as well.

Battery for just 13 months, i feel they should cover it under warranty if this is more like a manufacturing fault. But a battery having a manufacturing defect is very rare and the driving pattern can lead to shorter life of batteries. You will find those driving at some cruising speed one part of their daily trip hardly complain about battery say once every 4 year may be.

Are you driving the car enough for the battery to get fully charged. Short rides with full accessory on may not help charge the battery enough or help the acid batteries prolong life.

Unfortunately, I am the sole driver/rider of Vitara Brezza, Jetta & KTM RC 390 & I spend 12 hours a day on my desk during weekdays

My usage pattern on weekdays:
20kms two way commute (60% highway, 40% city traffic)
20kms highway running during night time

I use Brezza for daily commute everyday & use Jetta once/twice a week for 20kms highway ride during night & RC for the remaining days. Apart from that, Jetta is used for highways in very random pattern (12k kms annually).

RC was added to the garage just a month back & I should be blamed for the extra love I am showering on RC at the moment. I hope I will soon be using Jetta/RC in alternate pattern for those highway night drives.

I have not done any modification or added accessories that might cause the drain. All the tests were done VW workshop when the battery was replaced 13 months ago. I am sure they will repeat the process this time & let me know if there is any malfunction that is causing the battery drain.

OEM Varta batteries are infamous for premature failure. I hope I will make peace with battery issues in future by switching to Amaron battery & modifying my driving pattern in favor of Jetta.

Just called my acquainted SA & he says the battery comes with only 1 year warranty from the date of purchase & doesn't get covered under extended warranty however I reminded him that my battery was changed after 20 months under warranty. He corrected the mistake & informed me that battery has 24 months warranty still he was sure that it doesn't get covered under extended warranty.

Any input regarding the battery coverage under extended warranty would be highly appreciated.

I asked him about the warranty issues if I get it replaced outside & he said that my warranty would be void if I get it replaced outside. He informed that VW has made the policies strict regarding the battery replacement recently. The customers used to replace batteries outside earlier & had no issues in warranty claims but it isn't the case anymore.

I asked him bluntly that what will happen if I swap the OEM battery back before bringing the car to workshop regarding any warranty claim & I was unofficially informed that there won't be any issue if I do that.

I find the VW policy completely absurd. I need to pay 9000 for the sh*t VARTA battery which I know will fail on me in a few months. If I go for Amaron battery, I need to carry Varta battery everywhere like a spare & find someone to replace it which would be pain in the arse if I get stranded due to some electronic malfunction & then call VW roadside assistance.

Such incidents are making it easier for me to understand why European cars are failing miserably in India in the segments where they have Japanese/Korean competition (despite being superior products than their Japanese/Korean counterparts).

Lexus will definitely find many takers despite the exorbitant pricing due to the absurd policies of European car makers.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by bhavik.1991

I asked him bluntly that what will happen if I swap the OEM battery back before bringing the car to workshop regarding any warranty claim & I was unofficially informed that there won't be any issue if I do that.

I find the VW policy completely absurd. I need to pay 9000 for the sh*t VARTA battery which I know will fail on me in a few months. If I go for Amaron battery, I need to carry Varta battery everywhere like a spare & find someone to replace it which would be pain in the arse if I get stranded due to some electronic malfunction & then call VW roadside assistance.

This is totally hokum bokum by the dealer to make you buy that crap Varta/Exide Spain from him. No way can a warranty claim be denied if you are using an Amaron of the same spec as VW.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by bhavik.1991

I use Brezza for daily commute everyday & use Jetta once/twice a week for 20kms highway ride during night & RC for the remaining days. Apart from that, Jetta is used for highways in very random pattern (12k kms annually).

I find the VW policy completely absurd. I need to pay 9000 for the sh*t VARTA battery which I know will fail on me in a few months.

Frankly speaking, since your running is limited I would strongly recommend buying a smart charger like the one discussed here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...y-charger.html

IMO it is better than spending on a battery every 1-2 years. Most importantly your car is ready to go anytime you are.

I get the feeling they are palming off batteries that have been on the shelf for a long time without a top up charge every 1-2 months. This lack of charge + hot weather causes sulphation which when combined with the limited running kills the battery in 12-24 months.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

This is totally hokum bokum by the dealer to make you buy that crap Varta/Exide Spain from him. No way can a warranty claim be denied if you are using an Amaron of the same spec as VW.

Thank you for the information, mate. I will call/email Volkswagen Customer Care & confirm the same. If I get a positive response for them, I can escalate to VW if the dealer rejects the claim in future.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Frankly speaking, since your running is limited I would strongly recommend buying a smart charger like the one discussed here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...y-charger.html

IMO it is better than spending on a battery every 1-2 years. Most importantly your car is ready to go anytime you are.

I get the feeling they are palming off batteries that have been on the shelf for a long time without a top up charge every 1-2 months. This lack of charge + hot weather causes sulphation which when combined with the limited running kills the battery in 12-24 months.

It definitely makes sense, thank you for the suggestion. I will look a little bit more into it.

[VW2010]

I find the VW policy completely absurd. I need to pay 9000 for the sh*t VARTA battery which I know will fail on me in a few months. If I go for Amaron battery, I need to carry Varta battery everywhere like a spare & find someone to replace it which would be pain in the arse if I get stranded due to some electronic malfunction & then call VW roadside assistance.

I feel any battery you get may end up in a similar state based on usage or an underlying problem. The chances of getting two bad batteries in such a short span would be a statistical miracle specially in terms of battery failure records.

Like someone suggested get a cheap battery tender and if you have a closed parking at home, just attach the battery tender.

[sups]

Can somebody please confirm if Jetta manual diesel has a heavy or light clutch and also the clutch travel? I could not get it in the official review.

One more question. Octavia TDI and Jetta TDI manual has almost same ARAI fuel efficiency. However, Jetta TDI AT has almost 3 km/L less ARAI fuel efficiency than Octavia counterpart. Any reason?

[vishy76]

Originally Posted by sups

Can somebody please confirm if Jetta manual diesel has a heavy or light clutch and also the clutch travel? I could not get it in the official review.

The clutch is on the heavier side, but it depends on what car you are coming from. My dad previously owed a 1.5 Verna VGT, so he found the clutch to be heavy. But, he only complained once, and I have never heard that same statement from him again.

The clutch is slightly heavy, but travel is par for the course. Even the kickback of the clutch is not bad. The turbo lag is also negligible, thus you don't have to use the clutch much.

[sups]

Originally Posted by vishy76

The clutch is on the heavier side, but it depends on what car you are coming from. My dad previously owed a 1.5 Verna VGT, so he found the clutch to be heavy. But, he only complained once, and I have never heard that same statement from him again.

The clutch is slightly heavy, but travel is par for the course. Even the kickback of the clutch is not bad. The turbo lag is also negligible, thus you don't have to use the clutch much.

I do not have experience with Verna. I am comparing with my exisiting Liva diesel whose clutch is quite springy. Its bigger brother Etios has relatively lighter clutch surprisingly. I love the clutch of SCross 1.3. Even Punto has a light clutch, but has a long travel and I don't like it.

After a lot of search, I got a new 2016 comfortline diesel manual with a dealer. No 2016 DSG in stock with anybody unfortunately. So, a bit worried about Jetta's clutch as it will be mostly driven in city. The budget can be extended for Octavia diesel AT, but the lack of multi-link suspension is a deal breaker for me with priority towards back seat comfort. Its quite difficult to get both the world it seems.

[bhavik.1991]

Originally Posted by bhavik.1991

Thank you for the information, mate. I will call/email Volkswagen Customer Care & confirm the same. If I get a positive response for them, I can escalate to VW if the dealer rejects the claim in future.

I called VW helpline number to get the information. After so many tries (looks like a bug in their IVR), I was able to connect the executive. She said that she doesn't have any idea about the clause of extended warranty & I need to contact the nearest Volkswagen workshop

I didn't have the time to shoot an email to get the information so I got the car jumpstarted by VW roadside assistance & took it to the Volkswagen Karnavati. SA over there confirmed that warranty shouldn't be void if I get the battery replaced outside the workshop having the same specification. Looks like, my acquainted SA at Volkswagen Automark was trying to take me for a ride.

Originally Posted by VW2010

I feel any battery you get may end up in a similar state based on usage or an underlying problem. The chances of getting two bad batteries in such a short span would be a statistical miracle specially in terms of battery failure records.

I have seen OEM batteries failing on bhpians within 12-20 months who drive their Jetta almost daily. I replaced mine with Amaron yesterday. Let's see how it will behave in long term.

[Mission_PGPX]

Good morning gentlemen,
need advice on servicing after warranty period:

My jetta is 70500 kms and 4.5 years old now. She is remapped by petes in January and has done about 7000 kms after remap. 5th service is now due.

Q-1) Should I continue servicing at the VW authorized workshop after warranty is expired? I believe she should go to authorized service center once every 30K and i can use bosch or similar service stations in between, since my running is higher than 15K per year.

Q-2) Reliability of bosch service center: There are several in ahmedabad and quotes about 7000 INR for usual oil, filter, air filter, AC filter and check etc work, which is about almost half of what service centre charges. They also say they can reset the service interval in my car and it will not show that spanner in MFD. But they are not sure if the maps will be changed too?

Any help from fellow Remapped jetta owners will be appreciated.

[VW2010]

Remap or no remap, it doesn't matter where you service. No one is touching the ECU unless there is a recall to do so in case of VW centers. The maps cannot be changed with software any of these centers have so you dont have to worry about it. Even for resetting the interval the VCDS allows only basic changes and not remap changes which requires a completely different set of softwares.

Petes recommend 7.5 K for servicing? you can shift to 10K post the first 7k service. I dont see a need for changing oil every 7.5 K even if the car was remapped. Depending upon the version of car the remap could simply be standard in another country. For example the MKV was sold as some 110 BHP car in india, and the same car was running with a map of 130 BHP or so in EU and their service interval did not change because of this map.

7000 for oil, all filters looks CHEAP. Go for it and avoid VW authorized steal'ers. I meant dealers.