TheClient

Highway doesn't sound too far off the mark. Depends how stop start the city driving is. Check / change obvious causes like air filter, plugs . Check for binding brakes. Beyond that, driving style!

Ok. Seems accurate and legitimate. I don't know why it has failed again. How far away is this garage from you.? Maybe call them and talk through options. Get them to look at it again. You have no legal remedy against them but they may be cooperative with a genuine and friendly review request.

That is very pre-mature on a dq250. With proper oil changes and good conditions you can often expect 160k out of those clutch packs. On the dq200, I have heard of failures that low, there is one suspected failure in the threads now. But the dq200 is a different animal. For the dq250 to fail that quickly then it seems likely clutch was either faulty from manufacture or not set up properly on installation. How convinced are you it was definitely replaced? Is there a receipt? Can you call the repair garage to ask to read out the service fault and repair report?

I would be very surprised if there is not a very similar pre requisite list including temps. Do you want to share? Did you meet them? You can contact Ross Tech if you're the original cable purchaser. Reply post 4# https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/18874/

Yeah OK. 6 years. I probably would of bought replacements before pulling old ones to be honest. But you could run for longer, the kms very low. it's all about your poker face. But seriously, they do look good, but at same time they are electrical items and do degrade, insulation, electrode wear, insulator break down. A failure would probably resulting a potential disruption to journey if on a long distance haul. If local you can probably limp home. Up to you.

One of the pre-requisites for basic settings is g510 reporting between 30 and 60c. G510 is transmission temp I believe. Did you check what you could find for transmission temp? Pre uds they were in measuring blocks but now advanced measuring value or something like that and search text for transmission temperature .. Have a read through this, it may help with pre-requisites. http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/7-Speed_Direct_Shift_Gearbox_(DSG/0AM)

They look good from the photos. Especially what you can see in the last side profile shot, if all 4no. look like that. You may want to check gap but you do have to be careful with fine platinum tip plugs. It's probably likely they're slightly wider gap than spec by now.

@Aakayamy if there are no other faults logged (apart from dpf flow), then other than the dsg reset / adaptations there's nothing you can really do. A third opinion may put your mind at rest but in the absence of anyone else or anything else surfacing, the best steer you have is clutch pack. There are some readings on clutch and gear operation you can interrogate. But how conclusive and how to interpret them I don't have that experience. If you want to try Google dq200 clutch wear measuring blocks or something similar. Or Google the basic settings reset procedure but I don't guarantee it will fix it, but it is one of the few things you can try.

Did they scan the car for fault codes? If no one has done that, definitely run a full vcds scan. Not every or even most faults logged in systems will present a message in dash mfd. Other than that, if you want to re run adaptions / basic settings in the car you'll have to get the vcds connected and go into transmission and see what options are in there. Some googling on vcds dq200 reset, calibration might produce something. Or capture options and post back on here.

Ps. Are there any environmental factors that could of affected clutch. Do you live on a steep drive? Is your town quite hilly with lots of stop starts on inclines? Does your car have hill hold, do you use it? They could point towards a possible explanation of the premature failure. Or the clutch was manufactured poorly or transmission with clutch not properly set up at assembly...

To me, It is pretty damning that both suggest the clutch pack. They could inspect the dmf (rather than replace) but they are probably taking the attitude of while you're in there, change that consumable as well. Nb. I would also expect they inspect the clutch pack once dissassembled before blindly replacing (if it turned out to be in good condition they would have to think before replacing and putting transmission back in car). But by that stage a significant portion of the estimated cost is consumed by removing the transmission and partially disassembling transmission. You could ask them to inspect the dmf once opened up and decide then but seeing a premature clutch pack failure, they are probably suggesting belt and braces. The difference in price without dmf will not be huge in the overall cost as the bulk of the job will be in removing the transmission and replacing the clutch packs and reassembly. If the transmission is not throwing any codes the help indicate the underlying fault, then it's really down to experience and getting the transmission out and clutch pack out for inspecting. Given both have driven and said the same thing it seems there is not much of an alternative line to follow. A third opinion, another dsg specialist? Would that make you feel any more confident? You've got vcds, you could run dsg basic settings and adaptions, there is quite a few resets for yhe dq250. Im not sure what is listed for the dq200 once connected. but if the experts are right, it probably won't help.

There are cooling jets underneath each piston close to the crank and aligned to centre of each piston . Not sure if the closest one, could reach the balance shaft recess - only if the recess is not fully closed and has an open gallery area to the crank area below. Looked at the VW Self Study Guide which has some good diagrams of oil supply and return schematics and of the balance shafts and chain and tensioner but doesn't show or touch on the plastic tube.... Spent a bit more time looking at other videos this morning, got no further really. On the gen 2, there is quite a few balance shaft seizes out there on golf GTis and the like. All that I saw videos on - are on the exhaust side. On the gen 2, on the bs it doesn't seem that they ran the needle roller bearings now present in the gen3, but they still had a plastic tube on the exhaust balance shaft.... One of the videos I saw, with a siezed balance shaft, had damaged the plastic sleeve melted and distorted, from heat due to a strainer oil intake mesh on the balance shaft being partly blocked. Assuming that is the correct order of events. It's one hypothesis. It hadn't full broken apart though - the tube on that video it, the engine seized solid after a dyno run. And for the plastic parts that size to get to the bottom of engine like in this case, maybe there is a void or big return gallery in that exhaust balance shaft recess open to bottom of engine.... The debris can't come out the front of the balance shaft its bolted - to block. The debris size couldn't travel by fine oil galleries.. One worry I'd have is that the plasitc tube has failed due to excessive heat - due to a starved bearing on the balance shaft which could present a balance shaft failure risk without addressing.. The other, is whether that sleeve is directing oil or retaining oil in a particular way to ensure reliable operation of the balance shaft. Admittedly, it is expensive to address any of this and it seems to be running well for time being, so is it worth it on a fairly high mile vehicle.... It's all got a bit over my pay grade. And my head hurts now. I may post a comment on one of the gen 2 video failures I've seen and ask what they see the plastic tube purpose as...... see if I get a bite...

Not sure I haven't seen that. I doubt it tho. He goes by the brand name humble mechanic in the US of A. His first name is Charles. He is mates with Paul Barrett from Shop DAP.com (US vw part retailer). He's done hundreds of videos (now pretty much exclusively youtube I think) on VW parts, failed parts, tear downs, fixes, mods. Some of them with Paul. They're both ex vw techs. Not the best photo but it is what came up.. Paul Left - Charles right with ZZ top beard.

A bit of investigation and/or research into the purpose of that liner may help. I can't imagine the designers thought why not, we've got a big recess in here, so let's add in a plastic liner for the he'll of it... Someone who's actually dealt with balance shaft removal / renewal on one of these engines would be able to comment better than me. Say a vw specialist garage or vw / edit skoda worksop but you'll always be talking to a front line advisor there, certainly initially until strip down or investigation anyways. The bearing is at the back, so the bs is not riding on that plastic sleeve as such. Maybe it's a oil deflection or oil direction / edit retention sleeve to stop oil ON the shaft of the balance shafts (which are not round, flanged) getting thrown about at high velocity. The balance shafts run at double engine speed I believe. So 5k engine speed is 10k shaft speed. Good luck. Yes, do report back..

im wrong about 2 x liners. There’s 1no liner on the exhaust balance shaft. No liner on intake. But there are 2 x balance shafts and given mileage and problem of plastic sleeve break up they both may need inspecting, cleaning, maybe replacing. That said the intake looks like a pain. versa. Yeah. He’s a good guy Charles, I have watched and used heaps of his vids on gen 2 and gen 3 ea888s. The tear down video I saw, linked below is of the gen 2, the predecessor to what’s in your car but there is a lot of similarity given the shared family. I think the sleeve breaks up. Then finds it’s way out. Not sure how through block galleries. Why, I don’t know. Brittle maybe or catches. Not sure at all. Those balance shafts will need checking and the strainers at least. If that’s all you will have got off lightly. balance shafts at about 7:30 duration. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vw+golf+mk7+balance+shaft+tube+broken+up&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f70bfe40,vid:OQfdq4V6A-8

Yeah. I think it's timing chain work ++ some more. There is 2 of those liners, for 2 x balance shafts, so the other's going to be needed replacing as well along with all the other timing gubbins whilst your in there.. doesn't sound cheap I'm afraid. If the rest of the engine is sound I guess it will be someway cheaper than a new engine.

Just rewatched a humble mechanic 2.0tsi tear down video. I knew in the back of my mind I'd seen some plastic toilet roll holder in there somewhere!

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/tube/06k103199a/

Balance shaft liner.

Oh I see. Didn't notice names with you not being the op in on the other thread. Yep. It really does not look like a guide or rail. Much chunkier plastic. Not thin. And although curved in places not cylindrical!!

Same issue by looks. Any update @dimrod?

That's a bit of a coincidence. There's another thread posted on here recently with oil pressures faults, senders replaced. In the end pulled sump and full of black plastic. Presumed to be chain rail or guide.. maybe not though. Ill try to link thread. Intriguing. As to what it is. It looks cylindrical. Like the casing on a dsg oil filter. But it can't be that. So still scratching head.. Edit. Link.

It's just that the top mount is a separate part to the bearing. You can buy separately. Or, lemforder at least bundle together in a different part number. You may find oem genuine maybe up to10 to 20% cheaper but they will still be pricey...unless someone selling off surplus.

I've used lemforder. They seemed pretty much same dimension wise as oem as far as I can tell. Although, when you've had struts off and reassemble and drop car back down it does take a short drive to get everything to sit back down normally. The repair version of the part comes with the bearing and the topmount which is what you want.

To do a main timing chain, tensioner and rails used to be from about £700. But that was 4 years ago. At a skoda dealer was from about £950 at the same time. It's probably 5 or 6 hours work. And if it is one of the other tensioner that will add a bit more in labour and parts but the bulk of the cost is getting everything opened up. How many miles on the car? How long have you owned it?