DSG box has broken

[Ronshirt]

My 2014 GTi has just eaten its DSG box. Travelling at around 30mph uphill, it suddenly displayed the message "reverse gear not available" then jumped into neutral. I stopped, switched off then restarted but the EPC light came on, so I called GreenFlag.
My dealer looked at the car but after contacting VW was told they couldn't repair it so a replacement box is on the way.
Fortunately I took out a five-year VW warranty when I bought the car new because this is going to be one extremely expensive repair. To be fair to VW they did offer to pay for the box and half the labour costs before I pointed out my warranty.
Still, with only 15,000 miles on the clock and an easy life as my second car - always taken on runs long enough to warm up, never used as a shopping trolley - it has shaken my faith in DSGs.
I was going to get another GTi this year, now I'm thinking I might not. Or maybe get the manual box, which is not what I want really.

[scanesare]

Any details as to what exactly has failed that led to a complete gearbox needing replacing? (if I understood correctly)

We've occasionally heard of mechatronic units that fail and get replaced at a non unreasonable cost but these gearboxes are holding up quite well overall, even with lots of tuned miles on them (let alone for mild use that you say yours was under) so it sounds like you were just very unfortunate is all I can say right now.

[Ronshirt]

The dealer can't say what has failed because VW have told them not to open the box, just replace it. The head technician said there are several different models of DSG box, apparently VW have been constantly improving them. He said some can be repaired by dealers but others, like mine, are simply swapped out whole.

[scanesare]

That doesn't sound very enlightening but on the upside they seem willing to cover the cost even on cars out of warranty which I guess is what matters at the end. I wouldn't be put off buying another DSG although it's maybe easier to say it when it hasn't happened to you but again, there aren't really reports to suggest those boxes are made of chocolate, quite the contrary.

[Steve78]

Things can go wrong.  I'm fairly certain manual gearbox issues are still a thing so nothing is bulletproof.

The fact that VW are going to replace it makes it a non-issue, surely?

[Talk-torque]

I had a TT for 4.5 years, from 2009 to 2014, and these things were dropping like flies then, especially earlier in that period. At that time, I wouldn't have entertained owning one. Even now, I'd be reluctant to continue ownership outside of the warranty period, but VW's response here is a comfort. That they are willing to cover most of the cost is good in itself, but, as said, also suggests that they are not seeing many of these failures.

[scanesare]

I had a TT for 4.5 years, from 2009 to 2014, and these things were dropping like flies then, especially earlier in that period. At that time, I wouldn't have entertained owning one. Even now, I'd be reluctant to continue ownership outside of the warranty period, but VW's response here is a comfort. That they are willing to cover most of the cost is good in itself, but, as said, also suggests that they are not seeing many of these failures.

Was that car featuring the DQ200 7-speed dry clutch box by any chance? That was what I had in my last car and that one had quite a few reports of mechatronic failures although in my 5 years of ownership mine (and others that I know of) didn't miss a beat. The situation with the DQ250 6-speed wet on the MK7 GTI/R is much improved anyway, much rarer to hear of issues.

[Talk-torque]

Not 7-speed wet clutch, just earlier 6-speed dry clutch. It was mostly Mechatronic failures and some wierd happenings were reported, with 'boxes doing their own thing, so things are much better, and much safer, these days.

[Moro]

My current GTi is the 4th car I have bought with this transmission. I have previously owned from new a Mk1 & Mk2 TT using the 3.2 V6 petrol power plant plus a Skoda Suberb Combi with the 170 Diesel engine. All were faultless apart from the oldest TT which threw a gearbox error once when trying to select reverse and parked forward towards a wall. A simple “off and on” procedure fixed it and as no error was recorded and it never happened again I did not treat this as significant.

I do agree from past experience on UK TT Forum that mechatronics used to be problematical.

I still have another 6 months of the original extended warranty left and have only covered 15k miles in my current car so hoping there is not a generic problem with the most recent iteration go the 6-speed DSG I currently own.