MK8 Golf R Traction Issues / Slipping Out

[adekil]

Hi all,

So to add confirmation that I believe the MK8 is much inferior to my old MK7.5 I'm struggling to understand why the car feels like it has no traction control.

I have the 19" Hankook tyres from factory, which I thought were decent tyres although never had them before. But after 2-3 months driving from Feb 2024 upon car delivery, all seemed fine taking corners, around roundabouts but since then the front slips away from the turn if doing more than 10mph round a roundabout, tight'ish turn and at times the backend kicks out to the point i've almost lost control, and thats usually if I'm taking a turn around 15/16 mph.
Question is, is this the tyres or something else going on?
I've not been flooring this car or burning rubber and the tyres are not worn so I'm boggled as to what is causing this since I never had any issues in my old mk7.5 running Bridgestones and driving faster.
Roads are not icy or wet/soaked but when they have been I drive much slower anyway since the car wheels spin a lot (again never had this in my old golf)
Just don't feel safe in this car 

[BillSan]

At those low speeds Adekil, there is no way the car should do that.  I'm not technical at all, but a Golf R could/should be able to handle double those speeds with no problem whatsoever. 

Did you get the car from a dealer or with a warranty elsewhere?   I'd get the car checked over ASAP, as you're right to be concerned.

[adekil]

At those low speeds Adekil, there is no way the car should do that.  I'm not technical at all, but a Golf R could/should be able to handle double those speeds with no problem whatsoever. 

Did you get the car from a dealer or with a warranty elsewhere?   I'd get the car checked over ASAP, as you're right to be concerned.

Car is a 4 year lease, 3 years left, sounds daft but can't help compare this car to my previous and don't like it at all but stuck with it now. My first year service is this week but VW have booked me in next week to do a tech demo on the issue so will see what they say. In the meantime, stay out of Race mode and drive it like a milk float!

[DrG_GTi]

I've been having that issue recently, i put it down to the cold, possible black ice, went sideways at 15mph yesterday, luckly no-one else about and a large roundabout, also wheel spinning easily in comfort at low rpm - im putting it down to ice/mud/salt/wet/oily roads

[Exonian]

Having owned 5 mk7 models including a 2015 R, an Ed40 and TCR followed by 3 years in a mk8 Clubsport and now 13 ish months in an 8R, I’d say the mk8 was fractionally sharper than a mk7 and certainly the 7R and 8R driving dynamics favour the newer car with the caveat that the mk8 has a lot of body movement.

Are we talking low speeds but heavy steering and throttle inputs here or are we talking just pootling about gingerly?

My 8R washed out a little early this morning on a sharp right hand bend where I was probably going fractionally too fast (for the conditions) causing the electronics to momentarily pump the ABS to steady the car. I’m talking 30 - 40 mph maximum when I can push the car around that bend at over 40 on a warmer dry morning. But this morning it was about 6°c and the road was slightly damp, possibly salted (although I’d seen no sign of a gritting lorry) wearing summer Bridgestones. I’ll have to hold my hand up to “my fault” for that. Generally the car feels pretty secure although not massively more so than my previous Clubsport which handled like it was on rails.
 
Whether it’s the Hankooks or an electronics fault in your car adekil is hard to know without more info. A few test drives with a VW tech in the car might throw up some ideas. You could be proactive yourself and take out a forecourt car on test drive to see if it does the same. It sounds like you won’t have to drive it like a tit to get it to replicate your issue.

Have you seen any similar reports on the R forum?

Moral of the story: if you lease a car make it a short lease in case you hate the car.
Buying a car at least means you can bin it if you don’t like it! 

[adekil]

Having owned 5 mk7 models including a 2015 R, an Ed40 and TCR followed by 3 years in a mk8 Clubsport and now 13 ish months in an 8R, I’d say the mk8 was fractionally sharper than a mk7 and certainly the 7R and 8R driving dynamics favour the newer car with the caveat that the mk8 has a lot of body movement.

Are we talking low speeds but heavy steering and throttle inputs here or are we talking just pootling about gingerly?

My 8R washed out a little early this morning on a sharp right hand bend where I was probably going fractionally too fast (for the conditions) causing the electronics to momentarily pump the ABS to steady the car. I’m talking 30 - 40 mph maximum when I can push the car around that bend at over 40 on a warmer dry morning. But this morning it was about 6°c and the road was slightly damp, possibly salted (although I’d seen no sign of a gritting lorry) wearing summer Bridgestones. I’ll have to hold my hand up to “my fault” for that. Generally the car feels pretty secure although not massively more so than my previous Clubsport which handled like it was on rails.
 
Whether it’s the Hankooks or an electronics fault in your car adekil is hard to know without more info. A few test drives with a VW tech in the car might throw up some ideas. You could be proactive yourself and take out a forecourt car on test drive to see if it does the same. It sounds like you won’t have to drive it like a tit to get it to replicate your issue.

Have you seen any similar reports on the R forum?

Moral of the story: if you lease a car make it a short lease in case you hate the car.
Buying a car at least means you can bin it if you don’t like it! 

Yeah spot on with the lease comment. Loved the MK7.5 and just jumped straight into the MK8 thinking it'll be very similar, handling wise, totally naïve of me.

Unlike your experience I found my MK7 to be more responsive than the MK8, pulling away felt much quicker in the MK7 and sometimes pulling out of a road unless I have my foot down fairly hard the car can take up to 5 seconds or so before the throttle kicks in so now in the habit of always flicking down to Race to pull out then back to Sport to drive. This doesn't always happen so seems a mixed bag of when the car wants to accelerate quickly or sluggishly when approaching and pulling out of a junction.

As for the cornering or on roundabouts, don't think I'm hard steering at all as I'm approaching slowly but travelling at around a constant 10-15 mph with no touching of the brakes or accelerating to coast around then the front or backend slips out, just slightly to startle me but not to the point the car is way off track.

Will see what the tech says next week and ask him to drive it too in case I inadvertently drive like a granny, hopefully hear all the creaking and rattling in the cabin too which is also annoying.

[Tarmac_Terrorist]

Difficult to tell as the roads have so much salt and grime on them as well as being damp.
I have recently put 4 x Hankooks on my 2022 RSQ3 and have so far been impressed with them -no such traction issues. See if they wear evenly - not unknown for new cars to have tracking issues from factory.

[Carlosfandango]

I had a similar case of understeer exiting a roundabout at the weekend, with a little too much throttle input I had to correct and let off, purely down to the conditions in my case, and likely the same for the OP, the roads are greasy at the moment, and temps are pretty low, summer tyres will never perform optimally in winter weather, driving to the conditions is key, I hoofed it too early basically!

[Paul70]

Sorry if I missed this point but have you checked tyre pressures? As per the last post any car will behave erratically if the alignment is out, but it’s unlikely to be alignment at the speeds you have described.

If I was in your shoes I would take the car to a specialist to get the suspension and alignment checked, especially if the dealer tries to fob you off.

Perhaps test drive another MK8 for comparison? Did you have the 7R from new, as it may have been modified by the previous owner, as a standard MK8 is faster than a MK7.5.

Good luck getting the issues resolved.

[fredgroves]

As for the cornering or on roundabouts, don't think I'm hard steering at all as I'm approaching slowly but travelling at around a constant 10-15 mph with no touching of the brakes or accelerating to coast around then the front or backend slips out, just slightly to startle me but not to the point the car is way off track.

so with no throttle input its sliding out at 15mph or less?

That can't even be possible can it?

You couldn't induce a slide on a "normal" road surface at 15mph even on full lock???

Its not ESC kicking in is it? The Mk8 has per wheel VDM, unlike the Mk7. Could it be ESC intervention?

If you have a particular scenario where you can reproduce this problem (and safely) try it with ESC set to sport and even try ESC set to off....

There have been a couple of funnies with VDM doing things that aren't technically wrong but do upset experienced drivers!