Paintwork problems

[monkeyhanger]

According to my calculations based on indicated average mpg (since fill) before and after pick-up of my car from the dealer, and the fact that it went in at 197 miles and came out at 205 miles - the "test drive" for fault finding used 0.40 gallons to do 8 miles. That's 20 mpg. They must have frigged the f**k out of it. The dealership is at the bottom of a wickedly long and steep hill to get onto the A1. I suspect they floored it all the way up the hill, tonned it on the A1 for 3 miles and then turned around and brought it back again. Was probably 15mpg until they came back down that hill and it recovered a bit.

[Mr Savage]

20MPG in a diesel!? That's bad MPG for a GTI never mind a GTD! That's the reason I don't want VW anywhere near my beauty until it's been broken in (over 1000 miles). If you say anything they'll say they needed to test full open throttle or some crap like that.

I think all our cars got ragged before pickup though!

[monkeyhanger]

20MPG in a diesel!? That's bad MPG for a GTI never mind a GTD! That's the reason I don't want VW anywhere near my beauty until it's been broken in (over 1000 miles). If you say anything they'll say they needed to test full open throttle or some crap like that.

I think all our cars got ragged before pickup though!

There's ragged and then there's that - especially on a GTD. They've probably gone a long way to filling up the DPF again. Hopefully they did their "test run" shortly after I left the dealership so at least the engine was warm. The car went in with "270 miles" range and came out with "215 miles" range. Since driving it 25 miles it is now at "215 miles" range still.

[Sootchucker]

They haven't necessarily ragged it MH, dealers seem to not care in the least about clients fuel and probably had he car running for quite some time in their workshops standing still.

When my Rocco went in for a service once, the master tech who works at the dealership is a friend of mine, and I complained to him that my MPG showed only 23.4 for 2 miles covered and had they been shagging it to within an inch of its life. As it turned out, he did the test drive but said that the tech who had done the service, had it ticking over for half and hour whilst he checked brakes, suspension etc up on the lift. I did get a complimentary full tank of fuel as a result and an apology. What's better is that there is now a big sign hanging in the service bay that basically says if the engine doesn't need to be running - switch the bloody thing off ! 

[monkeyhanger]

You’d think that in a semi-confined space like a workshop they’d be worried about CO and CO2, even if the exhaust gases are cleaner now. A thrashing did seem feasible as there is a wickedly steep hill that runs for about a mile to get you from Scotswood Road to the A1 which is way above it. That hill is about 1/3 of a mile from the dealership.

Had a 10 min technical discussion with the principal technician about slightly lower than expected power output, lower mpg and higher DPF regen incidence. He said that VW had changed a lot of stuff on the car such as the way the DPF clears now – they apparently clean little and often rather than waiting for a significant build up. I mentioned about the engine’s water temp getting up to normal quicker on the GTD, but oil temp is lower. He said that he’d noticed this, but “cold start” fuelling is tied to water temp rather than oil temp and because the viscosity of the fully synthetic oil used doesn’t change hugely over the 5C-95C range, oil temp was not something to be too worried about on the newer VWs.

He told me that they generally rely on a potential issue flagging up when they input the VIN into their diagnostic computer, such as a bulletin from VW Germany to change this or that and there were no bulletins for my VIN that related to fuelling or low power/mpg. I did say that when I had my service remap on my MK5 170TDI PD, they’d had to go looking for the remedy. He said he was going to have a dig around for anything related to mpg/DPF between then and tomorrow when I get my suspension mount bearing done.

Once that was over I was given my keys and looked all around the site for my car which I had assumed had been parked out the front or up the side of the dealership. I walked back into the service area to ask where my car was, and looked through the workshop window – it was parked up in the back of the workshop and one of the technicians was wandering around and looking for something. I tapped on the window and he came to the door. “looking for these?” I asked whilst waving the keys at him. Then the car was moved outside and I was on my way.

[Sootchucker]

Hmm, interesting report MH. It does certainly seem that the DPF is more regen happy that the MK6/Scirocco, so maybe there's some truth in what he is saying. With all the issues VW had with the MK5 Golf and the DPF's, maybe they are now being over cautious and making sure the DPF never gets more than a lower percentage saturated before It goes into regen to prevent it going too high and potentially clogging up ?

Apparently there is a monitoring feature in VCDS within the measuring blocks that can report the soot level in the DPF, might be worthwhile having a look to see what the DPF loading usually is ? Trouble is, now that the Rocco's gone I haven't anything to compare it against.

[Mark V GTD]

I can take a look at mine (Roc 170 TDI)?

[monkeyhanger]

Got my car back from the dealers. The only mention (only spoke to service reception, no technicians around) on pick-up was that they replaced both shock mounting bearings as after the first one was done, they noticed the other one was a little noisier than it should be. They couldn’t find anything wrong with the handbrake keeping a tight grip in reverse sometimes. Puzzlingly, the trip meter shows that they’ve had a 28 mile run out in it. They mustn’t have tonked it this time because my “range” dropped from 170 miles to 140 miles in those 28 miles . Given that I got 47mpg going to the garage to drop it off, I’d say it was driven very sensibly. Still not sure why testing the suspension requires a 28 mile drive, surely 2 miles and going over a few speed bumps without any noises would suffice?

Not sure whether they’ve done something with the engine. They never made any mention whether there was a service remap or anything found and applied (as per my previous conversation with the head technician), but the car feels a hell of a lot more spritely, and without much throttle pedal either. Didn’t get a chance to really test out 5th and 6th acceleration due to traffic volume on the A1 back to work, but from 0-55/60 the car seemed to have had a kick up the arse. If it lasts and my mpg goes up too, then I will have to get back onto them and ask them what they did to it.

The service desk representative said he’d seen a lot of suspension mount bearings getting replaced on the MK7 Golfs over the last 6 months – seems to be a common problem.

[dubber36]

They will have done a 28 mile test drive as that may have taken them up to bait or dinner time. No point in taking a car out at 12:00 for a spin around the block, only to be given another job to start when they get back. Get back at 12:50, kick a couple of tyres, put a couple of spanners away, go and get the sandwiches out.

[charlie]

Bit of topic but I delivered a Maserati quattroporte to a garage brand new took my time taking it of 4 salesmen came out to check it they took the bag of it and all the transport stickers checked the paintwork and then one of them got in it and revved the nuts of it hundred and twenty grands worth so what do they do to a thirty grand gti muppets I say