Convince me that I don't want a Golf GTI

[zinfamous]

Yeah, I'm going to do the filter myself, but it will take some time. It's buried near the passenger footwell beneath the glovebox, have to remove a fuse box, then free up the filter reservoir.

 

[zinfamous]

Welp, had the engine shut-off-at-low-speed/stop thing happen to me 3 times today, within about 2 minutes while nearing home this afternoon. The one that I posted earlier from that Reddit thread. Definitely not stalls, because I was in neutral or the clutch was on the floor as I was shifting into neutral and then braking/releasing clutch at the stop. It was back to back to back, which is what a lot of people are reporting, especially early on. I'm at 101 miles on the OD right now.

Poop, but not unexpected. These 2019 have a brand new ECM compared to the 2018 models (which I think they carried over for at least 3 or 4 previous model years?). I've definitely stalled out a few times--didn't do it today--so I knew that isn't what was happening. It was also mis-reporting the engaged gear, as other owners have mentioned. Though, it wasn't showing 3rd when I was in 2nd, but showing 2 > 3, even though I had no business upshifting at that speed and low revs, and it also showed 3 > 5 at one point...which makes no sense. So, I don't think it was meant to suggest an upshift, right? It just didn't know what was gong on.

Looks like I'll be submitting a report to NHTSA and VWoA, then taking this thing to the nearby dealer on ~Monday.

I think I'll print out some of the forum posts from VW and Reddit, with some of the dealer solutions (Transit mode active or Camshaft angle adjustment), and bring them to the local shop. ....I did order an OBD11, but I'm not sure if I can check Transport mode with that (it was actually one thing I was considering)

I get my Mazda back from the detailer in a few hours.

 

[NutBucket]

Thanks for reminding me why I'd buy American(and have) long before VW LOL

 

[zinfamous]

Thanks for reminding me why I'd buy American(and have) long before VW LOL

yeah well, my car has personality, and stuff.

 

[NutBucket]

Then you should have bought some old and British (or Italian)

 

[BurnItDwn]

Then you should have bought some old and British (or Italian)

https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1988-alfa-romeo-spider-e6c20b52ecedba45a22a95a6c20a3f12/

https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1969-alfa-romeo-giulia-1300-ti-ca6ff7eb8bc73946b99fd31dce7bfab3/

I kinda want both

No wait, I want THIS one!
https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1983-alfa-romeo-spider-97d8fa7f043a074bb4f8f5f07c7fee78/

 

[zinfamous]

Then you should have bought some old and British (or Italian)

yes, well I'm not quite ready for that much personality. ....though I have considered it.

 

[zinfamous]

https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1988-alfa-romeo-spider-e6c20b52ecedba45a22a95a6c20a3f12/

https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1969-alfa-romeo-giulia-1300-ti-ca6ff7eb8bc73946b99fd31dce7bfab3/

I kinda want both

No wait, I want THIS one!
https://monzacarusa.com/listings/1983-alfa-romeo-spider-97d8fa7f043a074bb4f8f5f07c7fee78/

I had this roommate for a short while 18 years ago when I was in Italy, whose primary reason for being there for those 5 or 6 months was to pick up a ~1967 Alfa and ship it back to the states. He eventually found one in Torino and, last I heard--many years ago; never stayed in touch with this individual--it "drove" for about two years before "falling apart completely." He claims to have saved a few hundred bucks including all expenses by doing it that way as opposed to finding one in the states--but he was a very wealthy individual anyway so I don't think that is a useful argument for him.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I had this roommate for a short while 18 years ago when I was in Italy, whose primary reason for being there for those 5 or 6 months was to pick up a ~1967 Alfa and ship it back to the states. He eventually found one in Torino and, last I heard--many years ago; never stayed in touch with this individual--it "drove" for about two years before "falling apart completely." He claims to have saved a few hundred bucks including all expenses by doing it that way as opposed to finding one in the states--but he was a very wealthy individual anyway so I don't think that is a useful argument for him.

If I had money to burn, that would be an awesome vacation ...
Test drive old Alphas in Italy

 

[zinfamous]

If I had money to burn, that would be an awesome vacation ...
Test drive old Alphas in Italy

about a week or two ago I saw some dude driving one of the new Quatrifogolios in my neighborhood, which is a very blue collar neighborhood, lol. No dealer or temp plates, either.

You get kinda used to Maseratis and even Ferraris and of course the Teslas nowadays, but seeing a Giulia...I don't think I'll ever see that again. (well, a different one, anyway)

 

[BurnItDwn]

about a week or two ago I saw some dude driving one of the new Quatrifogolios in my neighborhood, which is a very blue collar neighborhood, lol. No dealer or temp plates, either.

You get kinda used to Maseratis and even Ferraris and of course the Teslas nowadays, but seeing a Giulia...I don't think I'll ever see that again. (well, a different one, anyway)

One of the Indian contractors I used to work with had a 90s era Alpha that he used as his DD when he was in the US. After his Visa expired, he moved to work in Mexico on a visa there, not sure what happened eventually with his Alpha, but, I know he often rode with other people to/from work on account of his being at the mechanic's shop quite often

The rarest interesting sighting I've had over the last couple of years has got to be a 2CV, which is hilarious because they were one of the cheapest cars ever made. There are a LOT of expensive luxury cars in the NW Burbs of chicago, but, sports cars in the same price range tend to be very very uncommon.

It's actually quite sad, for every 911 or Cayman, I see like ... 10 of those cayennes and macons and those horrendously fugly 4 door panameras

 

[zinfamous]

The rarest interesting sighting I've had over the last couple of years has got to be a 2CV, which is hilarious because they were one of the cheapest cars ever made. There are a LOT of expensive luxury cars in the NW Burbs of chicago, but, sports cars in the same price range tend to be very very uncommon.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@zinfamous

Clearly you have purchased the wrong car. When you thought to yourself, "Hmm, I'd like a GTI!" what you really meant was, "If only I could get a Trabant".

 

[IronWing]

The old joke was, "Why do Trabants have rear defrosters?"




"To keep the owners hands warm as they pushed the car."

 

[zinfamous]

@zinfamous

Clearly you have purchased the wrong car. When you thought to yourself, "Hmm, I'd like a GTI!" what you really meant was, "If only I could get a Trabant".

That owner has his own channel, and I watched a few of his videos. He took his Trabant to a drag race.

 

[DrMrLordX]

A Trabant? At a drag strip? Oh dear. Actually the one where he took the Trabant rallycrossing was even better. The F355 Spyder vid was top notch.

Hey you want an F355 cheap?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Yea, Doug borrowed that trabant from Robert (youtube channel Aging Wheels).
Robert just finished a huge overhaul job on the Trabant.

I highly recommend his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/agingwheels

 

[zinfamous]

Finally took some time yesterday after work to take the GTI out for some spirited parking lot driving! Have a much better handle on the clutch, no wheel spins and no stalls, a few successful downshift rev-matches (not perfectly smooth...but pretty good damn it). I was unable to reproduce the soft stalling issue in neutral/low speed that has been reported several times and that I did experience the other day. The car does need to be warmed up a bit, but it still didn't happen. We shall see. I received an OBD11 yesterday, so hopefully I can play around with that today.

I stumbled upon a local driving school--makes sense. I discovered the wide open back parking lot at the shopping mall near me using Google maps, and so of course when I show up there, it is being used for private driving schools. There is a nice rear-facing "launch zone" that runs parallel to the local street. I was able to punch it a few times along that strip, and of course it was fun zooming past the terrified older ~asian ladies creeping along in their Camries as they tried to learn the difference between the throttle, brakes, and steering wheel.

This car is fun.

There was also a dude with an electric wheelchair with a companion standing on the back of it, zooming around the same parking lot, doing donuts. Quite amusing.

 

[zinfamous]

Dropping my car off tomorrow for (hopefully) the soft stall fix. It's happened a few times so far, and it's been more and more apparent within the VW community. at least 50 NHTSA reports so far, and VWoA, and VW Germany techs have weighed in, and there seem to be some solutions that are starting to make sense:

So, with 2019 GTIs, VW replaced the oil pump with a new one, and updated the oil spec to a lighter weight, 0w20, compared to 5w40 over the past however many generations of the E888 engines that they have been running, no problem. ...so, what seems to be happening is that software/computer whatever is misreporting the intake camshaft angles on the intake valves because it is getting a different PSI from the new oil compared to what it is expecting. Once the vehicle is up to temp and you start approaching low RPM at low speeds, the computer might be shutting the engine down because it doesn't know what is happening...or something. But honestly, who really needs to test this stuff properly before sending them out to the market; isn't that the kind of thing we only expect from the Italians?

Basically, these are the fixes that are working:

--intake camshaft replacement and installing some cam magnet thingy to keep it at the proper angle? dunno what that is about, tbh.
--replacing oil with 5w40 spec, and install that cam magnet thingy.
--other owners have reported that simply doing a throttle body adjustment in VCDS has solved the issue
--Turning off transport mode in CAM Gateway and Central Electronics doesn't really fix anything.

Germany is pretty much recommending replacing with the older oil spec and adjusting the cam with magnet, or replacement, or both, and it seems there will likely be a software update within the year, so that the computer is properly tuned to the lighter oil spec that this model year was, supposedly, designed for. Interestingly, I've read that the newest APR tunes that were recently released call for 5w40 oil as well, supposedly independent of these known issues. That could also be that they are just working off the previous model years' specs. Canada VW website still reports 5w40 oil for the 2019 engines, even though the same Canadian cars are documented in the hood stickers to be specced for 0w20.

Apparently, some owners of the brand new GLI are reporting the same issue, which makes sense. Same engine and power train, I think. So, I'm not sure if the fix now will mean that when the official recall and fix is in within a year, it means I need to go in to get this work undone? Wonder if it will impact mpg in the meantime?

Being a VW owner for the first time in my life...this is so exciting!

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

lol. That didn't take long. I think you've convinced me to never buy a vw. You would hope to get at least a year in before doing more than oil changes. Ideally 3 years.

 

[zinfamous]

lol. That didn't take long. I think you've convinced me to never buy a vw. You would hope to get at least a year in before doing more than oil changes. Ideally 3 years.

My suspicion is that the Mexico factory (the US GTIs, GLIs, whatevers) simply didn't have the updated intake camshafts that are necessary to meet the new 508 oil spec for this year. German GTIs (and all Rs, which are all from Germany), don't appear to have this problem. ...it wouldn't really surprise me if they just didn't install the proper ones either because they didn't have them or never got them memo? lol, I have no idea.

Hey, at least this car already has personality. It's not like I went out and bought a Mini.

 

[DrMrLordX]

My suspicion is that the Mexico factory (the US GTIs, GLIs, whatevers) simply didn't have the updated intake camshafts that are necessary to meet the new 508 oil spec for this year.

Many VW engines come from a separate facility in Mexico. They often can't/won't build engines in countries with stricter emissions regulations. Unless VW has another engine plant somewhere in Eastern Europe or something, I'm gonna bet that the R and GTI engines all come from the same place.

 

[zinfamous]

Many VW engines come from a separate facility in Mexico. They often can't/won't build engines in countries with stricter emissions regulations. Unless VW has another engine plant somewhere in Eastern Europe or something, I'm gonna bet that the R and GTI engines all come from the same place.

yeah, knowledgeable user on the VW forums pointed out that on one of the workorder fixes where the techs replaced the intake camshaft, the replacement part was the same as the OEM part, so that isn't the issue. It seems that they just replaced it for a more comprehensive solution. ....it seems more and more that the cam-valve system just isn't quite tuned for the lighter oil spec yet. Might be a simple computer tweak after all of the data is in.

Dropped mine off this morning. Probably hear back from them on ~Monday. They were rather accommodating with the ~20-30 pages of forum posts and comments and information that printed out and circled for them, lol. Data is data.

 

[Vic]

Many VW engines come from a separate facility in Mexico. They often can't/won't build engines in countries with stricter emissions regulations. Unless VW has another engine plant somewhere in Eastern Europe or something, I'm gonna bet that the R and GTI engines all come from the same place.

VW has a plant in Gyor, Hungary that also builds EA888 engines.

 

[DrMrLordX]

VW has a plant in Gyor, Hungary that also builds EA888 engines.

Ah! That makes sense. They're always looking for cheap(er) places to build engines with more-lax environmental requirements. Hungary probably fits the bill at least on one count.