[Sidban85]

I had a Skoda Rapid 2015 Diesel DSG which I recently sold.

I had to change the battery in 2018 and Autobahn personnel themselves told me to get a Exide battery as the warranty on battery was better from Exide than Skoda. So, I changed to Exide. The advise was not in writing so there was no proof.

Although I changed ABS sensors and fuel injectors, I somehow did not face DCT issue. This battery change looks like a new excuse in VAG arsenal and I did not consider Skoda or VW because of this known DCT issue.

[Mainali]

Originally Posted by SiddVish

Any suggestions on good independent garages would be much appreciated.

Your location says you are from Bangalore, you can try GoMechanic - Bro's Auto Care, Reliable Tranquil Layout, Bengaluru. Once a skoda service centre quoted 75k for an issue in my friends car, she was about to give up and pay that much to get the car fixed. I told her to visit this place once, it used to be in HSR during this incident. All it took was 500 bucks and the issue was resolved. She said I owe you a drink for saving her from spending 75K.

If anyone has been to satya's in koramangla, then the garage which was next to satya's parking was this one before he moved to HSR and finally to the place which I have shared.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by androdev

Here is a snippet from another source:
Source: https://www.ti.com/lit/an/snva681a/snva681a.pdf


Just want to point out that battery quality, spec and health are very important in modern cars. It is better to replace the battery as a preventive maintenance to avoid costly chips getting fried.

I am not an automotive engineer but was a former electronics engineer.

Agreed on what you wrote about the start-up phenomenon and just wish to elaborate little more. The dip/sag in voltage is called as 'voltage droop' when the in-rush currents peak at start up. When a motor is started (loaded condition), essentially it will try to short the power supply to draw the maximum current (only limited by the internal resistance in case of battery or any other intentional resistance to avoid it). This is called as start up load transient. But the time this happens is typically few milliseconds. This is quite common in the electrical world. No one can size a power supply to take care for these start up load transients.

Now if you are designing other sensitive electronics from the same supply, it will also see the same 'droop' for those few milliseconds. This is where problem starts sometimes with micro controllers driven circuits. Most micro controllers have a ramp up requirement even for their ultra low voltage requirement of 3.6V. If it is not met, some times it will get fried or some times it will get latched. Good design takes care of this by designing appropriate mechanism (Example: Which controller has to be started or held in known conditions at that 4V at those few milliseconds). Not only this, there will be design actions on how to behave in brown out condition start up, reset during Voltage dips and interruptions, etc. (I have made a small circuit to meet the AT91 series ARM micro controller ramp up requirements in one of the controllers I designed, learnt it in the hard way).

Now the reliability part of it - A robust and reliable design is to minimize the failure rates with worse case conditions as well taking account of part stress, analyze, predict the failures and design & test to avoid them till the goal is reached. In the above scenario, the design may generally work but can fail in some conditions.

Part differences and spec tolerances (Battery) - One of the key inputs for DFMEA is how an user will actually use and includes abusive case scenarios. It is a common use case that end user will change a aftermarket battery in India. Again good designs never qualify with only the chosen single part. They will select alternate parts and do the qualification and reliability testing within the tolerance of design. This is where VW fails. Another automotive engineer has clearly told why Companies do not want do them (cost cutting).

So if you don't do the product development from requirements to qualification the right way, this is how you will end up finding ways to deny warranty claims.

PS: What can we expect from a group that designs for 95RON fuel when most of the country runs on 91RON and then blames on poor fuel quality for failures?

[SiddVish]

So a quick update,

Visited the service centre yesterday and had a chat with the manager. He appeared understanding of the situation and said he'd reach out to VW and see what's the best he can do.

However, they all did insist that the gearbox is reliable and this is an exception to the norm. Which got me thinking, is it really just BHPians here who know there is a high failure rate with the DSG?

Thought it would be a good idea to create a list of DSG failures so anyone who faces this next can go right into how to fix this matter rather than having to jump through hoops insisting the gearbox is really at fault.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...lure-list.html (BHPian DSG Failure list)

[H_Dogg72]

It is a worldwide fact the DQ200 is unreliable. Not just limited to India or this website

[Storm2.0]

Its really painful to see car owners go through this ordeal. I see another thread on this forum about troublesome Tiguan. All these horror stories surely will discourage buyers like me, who swear by the reliability of Korean and Japanese cars and can live life long with their not so great build quality/ lack of brand appeal.

[aniket13]

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

Its really painful to see car owners go through this ordeal. I see another thread on this forum about troublesome Tiguan. All these horror stories surely will discourage buyers like me, who swear by the reliability of Korean and Japanese cars and can live life long with their not so great build quality/ lack of brand appeal.

I went through the Tiguan thread and the issue seems to be consistent with Kushaq niggles being reported. Been following the Polo GT TSI thread where the owner has been quoted ~ 6L for gearbox replacement rendering his car a total loss by the insurance provider. I'm still trying to comprehend the fact that a gearbox would cost ~ 6L for a 9-10L OTR car.

For someone with an itch to upgrade from the usually reliable but a bit boring Korean/Japanese cars to enjoy a proper fun to drive vehicle (mainly automatic), there unfortunately isn't any remotely affordable option apart from Skoda/VW.

[gandharjc]

Originally Posted by SiddVish

By any chance do you have this in writing because I did get my headlight bulbs changed with VW service in December and if I were to use the same logic, the gearbox did fail once this was done.

The car however has been running on amaron batteries since 2019

Hi, please do check your user manual - they never EXPLICITLY ask you to not install aftermarket headlamps, but do inform you to not 'tamper' with electronics. Now, this could mean splicing, fuse tapping, changing the wire harness etc.
IMO, the safest way to upgrade to LEDs is to get ones that draw the same power (W), and are a socket - socket fit (for instance, 35W H7 LEDs/35W DH7 HIDs replace 35W H7 halogens.)

[shibujp]

Used a Polo GT TDI for 90k kms over 4 years. OEM battery died in a year and used a Bosch battery for the remainder. The car had hardly any complaints. I firmly believe that never taking the car to VW service post the mandatory free services was a reason for the longevity.

I don't think there is much merit in pursuing them too much. They will find something or the other to deny warranty which is almost a given with them. Sell you extended warranty and then figure how to deny it. I bet that that DSG GB will work fine with the current battery if it's damaged components are fixed. All the hocus pocus about high voltages and surges are bullshit in a modern car. Enough safeguards are built in them. Starting with fuses. I can hardly remember a time over the last 19 years where I had a blown fuse on one of my cars even.

Cars are great but the organisation is flawed. Deeply.

Drive on,
Shibu

[Smokey Anoop]

There is no doubt in VW having built great cars such as Polo or Vento, but their stance of their products being perfect, is far from reality!

Did you hear any further updates?

[hkanitkar]

Originally Posted by SiddVish

However, they all did insist that the gearbox is reliable and this is an exception to the norm. Which got me thinking, is it really just BHPians here who know there is a high failure rate with the DSG?

Adding my name to the poll ! Mine happened on 7th May 22.

I have a Vento TDi DSG, 2015 model which has run 1.26L KMs beautifully upto this point. The car as of right now, is in VW Authorized service center in Pune. The SA chap there has confirmed to me that the fault code on scanner is for Mechatronics Control Unit Failure, and he has asked for a permission from Service In-charge higher up, to open up the unit ( which, he say needs to be done in such cases of DSG failure ). He has unofficially informed me that the cost of replacement would be close to 1.0L and he will try to his best to reduce it.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to follow up on this till now, but planning to visit them tomorrow to get a clearer picture, and get everything put in form of an email ( just in case if they push some weird theories to blame the failure on me ).

[hkanitkar]

Hi all !
I am looking for VW email ids to take up the DSG issue with my Vento, with higher ups. Does anyone have any leads here ?
The B.U.Bhandari guys in Pune have told me that there wont be any goodwill discounts in a very suger-coated way since its a 7 year old car. But frankly speaking, with a widespread issues with DSG being reported already, the company has to take some responsibility in the repair costs.

[Smokey Anoop]

Hi folks,

One more report of Volkswagen DSG failing - this time due to oil leakage from the mechatronic unit. The vehicle is just over 4 years old, and has run just 21,000 kms. The car has been at Volkswagen's Bangalore Mysore road service centre for over 6 weeks now, and the lack of response from them to fix the car is simply miserable! They have reported all reasons to avoid good will replacement, but are unable to justify for a component to fail this early into the lifespan.

I have time on my end to spare, as I am living elsewhere, but for someone buying Volkswagen as a primary car - please watch out! During a new vehicle sale, Volkswagen boldly claims "Happiness delivered here", whereas the service experience is more of a "Sufferance delivered here". Such a shame!

Is anyone aware of any legal actions taken against Volkswagen for selling defective products to the Indian market? I have already engaged my lawyer to start a lawsuit.

[Whiteburner]

So, the inevitable has happened after 8yrs and 2L kms of expensive bliss , one fine evening the DSG soul has left the chariot.

We plan on repairing the car and keeping it as secondary/for me while dad drives the Grand Vitara for now. When finance clears will get my own hatchback.

Need suggestions and if some goodwill can be squeezed from VW for mechatronic and clutch replacements.

[Whiteburner]

So ,VW ASC says the control unit inside mechatronic unit might have burnt.

The repair quote for unit with child parts is close to 1.6L . Is it wise to invest this amount and further 90k for clutch replacement in future on 8yrs old vehicle?