1.4 Tsi nightmare

[Chrisc_91]

After having my 60 plate 1.4tsi for only 7 months I have had no end of trouble including the dreaded misfires which ended up needing a full engine rebuild, various engine management light pop ups and the constant worry of what's going to go wrong next. After all that I have decided to trade it in, I am pretty disappointed that such an amazing motor company like VW could build such an unreliable car, of course this isn't the case for the majority of people with these cars but for me, it's been an absolute nightmare and honestly I'm happy to see the back of it. When I got the car I absolutely loved it and they are lovely cars but VW has lost my trust and I really don't think I'll be going back any time soon.
Ended up buying a new Fiesta ST with a nice long warranty.

Really appreciated all the help I got on this forum, cheers!

[Cuprabob]

Enjoy the Fiesta ST, it looks like a fun little car

[Chrisc_91]

Thanks buddy! Take care

[Liamcatt]

I have had a 10 plate 1.4tsi for over 2.5 years now and I've had the coil packs go twice during its time and this weekend the chain has jumped so is looking like a rebuild also!!!

Absolutely love the car but reading about how common these problems are it is ridiculous! I don't think I will get a VW for a long time or at all again either!

My car is still in the garage racking up the £££ why they fix the damage from the jumped chain

[Tallguy]

I had a 1.4 TSI in 2009 and keep it for two years without a spot of trouble. It was brave for VW to adopt the turbocharging/supercharging technology but it was maybe a step too far. Interestingly the 1.4 engine with a
turbo only (as used by Audi) is reliable.

[blower]

The 1.4 tsi twincharger was fine in the golf mk5 when it came out in 2007.
It was only the 2009-2012 models in the mk6 and other platforms such as the scirocco that had the problems.

Wrong spark plugs from factory in 2009-2010 due to an error in the parts database caused a load of misfires.
The knock sensor calibration being wrong also meant engine knock was not being detected properly - resulting in a lot of early piston failures in countries with poor fuel quality (Australia)
Early ECU software (2009-2010) ran too lean, had issues with misfires on warmup, misfire detection coding also had an issue with it resulting in it flooding cylinders with over-fueling.

Also pre-2012 pistons were made out of chocolate. The manufacturer - Mahle, was abandoned in favour of KS pistons which appear to be much better.

Basically they made a good engine in 2007, then they messed with it to try and make it meet new emissions regs - they screwed up a load of the ECU software and also changed some parts that ended up being weak and the net result was an unreliable engine. Unfortunately, like all car manufacturers, they responded at a snails pace and it took them 3 years to sort it out by which time they were moving onto the next gen engines.

[salsajoe]

Have a late 2011 TSI from new and have had no real issues. Use good quality fuel, oil changes every 5000 miles, regular long runs and make sure the oil gets hot before using any high revs. Really enjoying the car.