The heat in my 2015 GTI Autobahn only blows warm air out of the drivers side when heat is on for both sides. The VW dealership recommends a new thermostat, water pump, and heater core, and blend door. For now, I'm stuck with having a semi warm vehicle and the possibility of engine overheating while on the highway. With the coolant and thermostat being one of the vital parts of the vehicle, its upsetting for such a new vehicle to have such a common problem of needing a new water pump across the board. These types of imperfections in design and quality control need to be addressed due to the shear amount of people needing coolant related issues resolved on their own dime. Do better VW.
2015 Volkswagen GTI engine complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 40 of 40, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Plastic Thermostat Housing Failure-- Cracks and leaking coolant. While getting an oil change done at a local Volkswagen dealership, the mechanic pointed out that there is a coolant leak and showed me where the leak is coming from (Thermostat housing/water pump) The coolant is slowly seep out of the crack on the underside of the thermostat housing, I have been adding coolant every other week. As the loss of coolant often trips the low coolant warning if the level isn't maintained. I feel like I'm not the only one with this issue, after reading online Volkswagen community. Many 2015-2020 GTI owners are also having the same problem. The car overheated couple times when stuck in New York traffic, I would like Volkswagen manufacture to address this issue and give all the GTI owners an explanation to why their part fails less than a few years of ownership.
Linkage on the turbo wastegate actuator seizes if the car is not driven for more than a few months at a time. This causes the car to not produce any boost and leaves it in a state in between limp mode and normal rpm range. This makes it incredibly inconsistent with rpm and maintaining speed.
Hello - I own a MK7 VW GTI with approximately 42,000 miles. The vehicle has consistently had a "check engine" and "Low Coolant" light since approximately 20,000 miles and 3 years. The dealer checked the car but did not see a leak under their test. However, the car was diagnosed with a leaking water pump and thermostat which has been replaced out of pocket by an independent. This is apparently common with MK7 GTIs and can cause engine failure and stalling in the middle of the road.
The engine blew while stopped at a light at an intersection. The car was unable to restart. We were told there was no compression in cylinder 3. This car had received regular maintenance at the dealer. If the car had been in motion, the driver and passengers could have been seriously injured. The engine only had 67,000 miles on it and no known problems beforehand.
Paid to have new vw turbo put in car and it lasted 116 miles. Took it back and it was diagnosed that the turbo had failed and the turbine broke and fell into the motor. As a result it blew the motor. Vw warranty refused to warranty the part and take any responsibility for the blown engine. Even the dealer ship agreed it was a faulty turbo and as a result it blew the engine.
Waterpump/thermostat housing covered in dry coolant, leaking due to warpage of the plastic parts used my volkswagen. Coolant needs to be topped off every 3 months, vw said they didnt find anything wrong. Problem is getting worse as the parts fail and will lead to catastrophic failure and damage/overheating to the engine.
Persistent coolant migration problem, wherein coolant migrates through wiring harness connection on coolant reservoir and travels through the wiring harness to other sensors and engine control equipment on the vehicle, corroding and destroying key components of the cars electronics and safety control systems. This repair has cost thousands of dollars to address, and it still not solved.
First car starts. Second put the gear into reverse. Third car starts to stall slowly shutting down the engine while in reverse. Fourth, car has difficulty starting the engine while putting in park gear. Fifth, I had to press the brake and the push start button in order to start while pressing the gas pedal to increase the RPM. Then I drive. This happens often when first starting the vehicle under stationary.
Coolant leak and strong smell after driving the car since it was new. Gradual coolant loss in the reservoir. Vw redesigned the thermostat housing and water pump after rampant 2015 model year failures.
My water pump is leaking at only 76 thousand miles0
I have a 2015 gti that has only 80,000 miles on it. I had a repair done to replace valves, coil springs, spark plugs and ignition coils last year due to failure of the engine. They claimed to fix this problem and a year later the same exact failure happened. The first time it cost 3,500 to fix with a customer loyalty discount. This time they suggest replacing the engine at a 14,000 price tag. There is clearly some design flaw that is causing this repeated failure in such a new car. Volkswagen doesn't back up the previous repair. With the frequency of this issue I'm sure there are other people with this same issue.
2015 volkswagen gti. Consumer is seeking reimbursement for vehicle repairs related to suction pump safety recall. *ld the consumer stated each failure occurred after filling up the gas tank. The consumer requested to be reimbursed for the repairs.*js
After having my 2015 vw se 4-dr 2.0t auto pzev into the dealership's service center for A/C issues. Two weeks later the engine light came on and I immediately parked the car. The car was towed to the dealership with this as the problem. Replace engine and turbo! Over $17,000!
Water pump & thermostat housing leaking coolant at 31,000 miles. Both items were replaced at the dealership.
My coolant warning light came on at about 71k miles, to my surprise. My mechanic checked all fluid levels when I last had the car in, which was about 6k miles prior. I checked the coolant level and it was way below the minimum level in the reservoir. My independent mechanic determined it was the thermostat housing which in turn caused damage to the water pump as well. This results in a $980 repair. After doing some research online, I have determined that this problem has affected other vw gtis of the same model generation. This is a factory defect and should be covered by vw but my car is now outside of the factory warranty. I am seeking to recover the money I have spent out of pocket and to prevent this from happening to any other owners. The details are as follows: the issue is limited to 2015- us models and 2013- european models, and seems to be related to the ea888 rev3 engine that is in several mqb models sold by vw/audi. Coolant will slowly seep out of a weep hole on the underside of the thermostat housing. It doesn't seem to be enough to ever leave a puddle but slight residue may be seen under the thermostat housing and possibly on the oil pan. The loss of coolant often trips the low coolant warning if the level isn't maintained. Depending on the size of the leak, the coolant drop can either be gradual or catastrophic. Loss of coolant has also been linked to the water pump failing. Furthermore, the accessory bracket gasket can leak hot oil down onto the thermostat housing (even after repair) which can cause failure.
Coolant leaking requiring thermostat housing replacement as well as new sensor and new water pump.
Water pump failure at 49500 miles.
Engine loosing coolant, dealerships fails to diagnose the problem. Faulty water pump that vw failed to diagnose two times.
While driving to work, my vehicle would lose acceleration as I press on the gas and would not accelerate right away. Also as I'm in park or idling in traffic, the car would shut off but the vehicle lights would still function.
2 years after purchasing my car brand new the coolant level was low. After calling the dealership they instructed me to top off the reservoir with distilled water. In february of 2019 I had the car in for general service including a coolant flush at a private, licensed, vw mechanic. He discovered my waterpump/thermostat housing was leaking and likely had been for a long time. He replaced the assembly and filled the car with new coolant. In august of 2019 I discovered once again my coolant level was low. Upon inspecting underneath my car I found dried coolant on my oil pan. My mechanic is again telling me the waterpump/thermostat housing is leaking and will need to be replaced. Nothing has been done to the cars cooling system and driving habits have not changed over the lifetime of this car. The mechanic pointed to a poorly designed seal on the thermostat housing where the leak occured. The replacement housing appeared similar in design. This is a widely reported issue, a slow coolant leak, on 2015+ vw golfs, gtis, and rs and in extreme cases can lead to an overheated and ruined engine. The first incident occurred at roughly 60,000 miles, outside of the factory warranty. The 2nd incident occurred at roughly 88,000 miles.
Power steering turns stick randomly at any speed, requiring me to turn off the engine and restart only to get the steering back to normal. Very scary as more effort has to be input I to the steering for it to work. Engine stalls and cuts out randomly especially on idle. Has caused several issues when driving.
While driving, the cel came on. We had the car scanned for codes. Researching the codes, we believed the issue to be crank walk. We took the car to a local shop who confirmed that thrust washers had dislodged and begun deteriorating. This is essentially a catastrophic failure as the car cannot be driven without causing significant further damage to the engine. Most cost effective solution is to replace the engine ($3500 + labor). We have spoken with vw and presented them with 17 other cases of the same failure since 1/1/2019, but they are unwilling to work with us since we did not go to a vw dealership. The vw dealership labor rate is ~50% more expensive than our shop which is equally as qualified to identify an issue such as this. Vw executive group advised me that if we took the car to a dealership so they could diagnose the issue, there would be potential for good faith assistance but nothing is guaranteed. That would require us being prepared to take on upwards of $1000 additional expense for the same repair process. This expectation is unreasonable and this type of failure, with the frequency we've been able to see indicates a serious engineering flaw that is costing owners excessive amounts of money for repair almost immediately after the warranty has expired.
My car starts to feel like it's going to die out. There is a ticking coming from the engine that comes and goes when idled. I've informed the dealership but they can't seem to find what the ticking noise is.
I am writing about my 2015 vw gti. I am the second owner of this car. Like most gti owners, I thought that it was a great car. I am the 2nd owner of this car, and I purchased the car about 18 months ago when it had about 25,000 miles on it. Over the past year, I have had numerous problems with oil leakage from the car. This past week, the check engine light went on again. The attached records show all the routine care and special care that I had to give this car during the past year. I took the car back to the same dealership and the dealership found pieces of pistons and the piston ring in the oil drip pan. The paper work is attached along with a picture. Who ever heard of pistons falling apart in a car that was well taken care of and with only 60,000 miles? This is preposterous. The technician at the dealership indicated that this was the third car this year on which he worked with the same problem. The car needs a new engine to a cost of at least $10,000. The car is not drivable anymore as it has no acceleration. The car is worthless unless someone wants to put in a new engine. I am sending this note to various government agencies to notify them of this obviously defective car. If I find out that other cars are having this problem suggesting a pattern of defects covered up by the manufacturer, I will hire a lawyer and seek legal redress. In the meantime, as an average worker who works for a living, I am off to buy a new car at a honda dealership which hopefully will be more reliable. This will set me back an enormous amount of money which I cannot afford, especially since I still have payments to make on the 2015 gti which right now is completely worthless.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 volkswagen gti. The contact stated that there was a drastic loss of engine power, metal was extracted from the exhaust manifold, and there was excessive smoke and oil. The dealer (fox volkswagen of rochester hills, 773 s rochester rd, rochester hills, mi 48307, (248) 656-0400) diagnosed that the turbo charger needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not yet been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and suggested that the dealer repair the vehicle. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 19,000.
First issue I had was about two years after purchasing my vehicle was with my gear box. I have an automatic "dsg" transmission which began giving an error light telling me to take my car to service immediately. I took it to my local volkswagen dealer which ended up replacing the whole box unit do to an electrical sensor not reading when I'd engage into drive. I was under warranty so it was cost free but another year later the same error is coming out and was told it would have to be replaced again but I'm no longer under warranty so I'd have to pay. I feel that's pretty unfair and unacceptable knowing its happen once and was replaced by professionals yet I'm stuck with the same situation. I feel this part should have came with some sort of guarantee after being replaced. I got this car in november of 2015 and it's pretty sad that in under 4 years I'm experiencing this scenario. Now I fear of driving knowing that error will come on at some point or worse something happen with my gears and the car be put in another gear at random. And now I'm being placed in another situation in which my waterpump is leaking coolant which I find very upsetting knowing volkswagen had this same issue with the 201-2014 gti mk6 and had a recall yet it seems the problem continues with the following generation. And it's sad to say but I'm at the point of calling corporate and seeing what they can do because I haven't even hit 50,000 miles and this is happening. And both of this parts are pretty pricey when it comes to labor. At this point I can only hold off and save to hopefully get the water pump replaced but as far as for the transmisson issue I'll wait to see what can be done because I feel that should be resolved by volkswagen.
On 12/20/2017, engine failed @ 18050 miles and caused instantaneous loss of power in traffic. Engine failed directly off lakeshore drive in chicago, which has no shoulder. A strong smell of burning plastic and rubber was emanating from the engine compartment after the breakdown. Vehicle was towed into dealership and repair took 40 days, as engineers in germany had to be consulted on the proper repair method. Service advisor informed me he was "surprised they didn't put a new engine into the vehicle". Upon the vehicles return to us, on three separate occasions the vehicle revs dropped suddenly and we experience a severe drop in engine power for 2-3 seconds, once while turning and traffic was heading towards our car. Vehicle was returned to dealer for further repair but no issues were found and we were asked to try to get video recordings of the issue. To date the vehicle has been out of service for 45 days, and the issue almost resulted in causing an accident.
Watwr pump is leaking. There was a recall on 2011-2014 and obviously still not fixed my vehicle has 63k and now water pump is leaking in same manner the 2011-2014 are which was recalled.
The clutch operation in my 2015 volkswage gti (6 speed manual transmission) is malfunctioning to such a degree that I was almost in an accident and now fear for my safety. Clutch operation in the vehicle has become unpredictable, when depressed the clutch pedal will remain on the floor after the pedal is released, thus preventing the vehicle from accelerating. This has happened multiple times while stationary in traffic, while in motion and while accelerating. Most recently while attempting to merge onto a busy highway the clutch pedal stuck to the floor, this nearly forced me to take evasive steps into a construction zone. After this incident I brought the vehicle to the volkswagen dealership for diagnosis and service. I have heard of several alarmingly similar reports from other 2015 gti owners where the cause of the issue was a failed engine bearing that results in side-to-side crankshaft movement in the engine.
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