Lingnoi

My 1.4 TSi 7 speed DSG (dry clutches) gearbox has started showing some clutch slip after 62K miles. I noticed it first when I was putting it back in the garage and normally just letting the foot brake off is sufficient to put it away as the DSG clutch will take up drive and be sufficient to move the car forward on tickover (my drive has a slight slope to it) but it just slipped back and I had to use the handbrake to stop it rolling back and apply more accelerator. I've since noticed (I was testing it out a bit) that on hard acceleration the engine over revs a bit on some gear changes. I assume it's the clutch pack that needs replacing (I'm seeing a VAG specialist garage next week). Anyone have experience of having this problem? Was it the clutch pack? How much did the clutch pack cost to replace? At the moment the car still drives OK though I do notice the over revving from time to time and also that from stand still it seems to take longer to get moving. Was tempted to call it a day and trade it in for a new car whilst it was still driveable but the car has been otherwise flawless and the 1.4TSi engine is a peach, strong and yet really economical plus of course my car tax is £30 a year so I'm loathe to let the car go.

I didn't replace the bulbs but got some LED lights that were designed to replace the while fitting completely. They're fantastic and light up the whole boot no problem. I can't remember where I got them from. I have bought LED replacement bulbs before and I used them for all the interior lights but I found that they didn't make much difference in the boot light fittings.

I was told at my last service in September and at the MOT in December that the rear pads were down to 4mm and the front discs were lipped. But considering the fact that I am likely to be working from home until possibly 2021 and even then unlikely to go back to commuting every day (thank goodness) plus the current lockdown in England, I'm not stressing about getting them done yet (normally I always err on the side of caution especially with brakes and tyres) as I'm hardly using the car at all approx 50 miles a week tops.

Agreed. Just had mine in for an MOT and they advised me that the cambelt needed doing, again. What!?! It was done in January this year (and that was because the car was 5 years old not because of the mileage which was 50K). I advised them of that and they said "Really?". My response "Yes, I'm surprised it's not recorded somewhere". When they did do the cambelt (I had the water pump & belt done as well) they gave me the car back and when I checked the washer fluid & oil a few weeks later I discovered they'd snapped one of the two clips that holds the inlet pipe at the throttle body, thus letting unfiltered air into the engine inlet plus ruining the engine mixture. It took a number of visits to convince them to rectify this. They finally did it after the remaining clip snapped clean off at 70mph when I changed down (the DSG did) to do an overtake and the manifold pressure was too much for the remaining plastic clip. Not impressed that they broke it during the servicing and they just reassembled it hoping the owner (me) wouldn't notice. Rather than call me and say, we've had an issue, keep the loan car another day and then they could fix the issue. I wouldn't mind but they're not cheap either, so I'm paying top dollar for shoddy workmanship. At the same time they also managed to spilt the air guide hose from the air filter housing (I'm assuming they were just very rough and ready with the car when they were working on it). I didn't even bother to complain about that and sourced one from another dealership and paid for the part and fitted it myself. There's a reason they're sometimes called "Main Stealers". But's kind of Catch 22 because I get free MOTs if I get my servicing done there, although they did forget this and try to charge me. It passed and they washed it for free too. But I'm seriously considering taking it elsewhere but can't decide where. With Covid my mileage is very low so I can put the decision off for a while yet.

Mine didn't die as such after 5 years with Stop-Start active but it would occasionally fail to restart first time. Had a new battery fitted and coded and it's been perfect since. I took the failure to restart a couple of times everyday as hint that the battery was on it's way out. Replaced the original with a Varta which is an AGM battery and actually better spec than the OEM taken out (it wasn't AGM).

In 2017 within a week of owning my 63 plate Octy Elegance 1.4TSi DSG with 17" alloys, I scuffed an alloy badly (only cosmetic but still ugly). I bought a new one and needless to say scuffed a spoke on the new one on a steel petrol station island surround (serves me right for using both sides to fill up - misjudged the distance). Anyhoo the old scuffed 17" alloy sat in the garage unloved. The car came with a spare wheel and jack but it was a 16" black and yellow steel wheel and limited to 50MPH. On a recent service I was informed that one of my front tyres was marginal, not wishing to take chances with winter approaching and there being a deal on Michelins at Costco I replaced both front tyres and the better of the two (which had plenty of tread left) was put on the bare wheel. I now have a pukka full size spare (I thoroughly cleaned it before I had a tyre put on it) and it fits fine under the boot floor in the recess that 16" spare sat in. I'm well pleased and I'm very grateful for the advice of the forum, some users of which suggested the idea to me. It only cost me a valve and balance, which was less than a tenner. So far I've been unlucky and in the 3+years of ownership I've managed to have 3 punctures requiring me to use the spare. If it happens again I know that I can put the spare on and carry on as normal. Once I had a puncture before a 200 mile return journey so I had to abort and get the tyre done which meant I missed an appointment. Thanks forum for your excellent advice and ideas.

I've 17" wheels on my Octy Elegance (63 plate) and the suspension seems fine, in fact more compliant than the 320i I had previously which had 16" wheels, though to be pair it also had run-flats which are notoriously harsher than normal tyres.

Yup! I have these and they're great. No errors at all and very bright but the light is diffuses quite a lot so the brighness drops off with distance a lot.

That will t-cut out. Try that first, it's not a huge outlay for a tube of T-cut. I think you'll be surprised how much better it will look. In the end it's the bumper and they will get knocks over time (that's what they're designed for). I love my Octy to death, my favourite car ever (in nearly 40 years of driving) but it's not a Mk2 Jaguar or Aston Martin DB5, so I'm not that precious about it YMMV.

I've always used stop-start, when the car wouldn't reliably start first time from stop-start (it happened a number of times) I replaced the battery and since then it's been perfect. I upgraded to an AGM battery. The original battery was 6.5 years old.

The DQ200 is the Volkswagen 7 speed dry clutches Direct-shift automatic gearbox as fitted to my own January 2014 1.4TSi Octavia. I'm interested in knowing how many miles it's possible for this gearbox to do without requiring maintenance. As I understand it there is no standard maintenance. I'll start the ball rolling. Mine's done just over 55,000 miles and it's fine so far.

Thanks for letting me know, I suspected as much. I'll just to have roll the dice then...

Yes, as a driver of a 1.4TSi DSG myself which so far has covered 55K miles (33 K miles in my hands over 3 years) I am desperate to know whether the DSG gearbox can survive to 6 figures...

My car (secondhand) came with a spare wheel, which despite being a full size steel spare, because it's a 16" it's smaller than the 17"s that the car is fitted with so you have to treat it like a space saver i.e. no more than 50 mph or 50 miles. BUT it's been an absolute Godsend, used it 3 times now including when the tyre sidewall was ripped open by extremely sharp kerb stones. Wouldn't be without it. Previous car was a BMW which came with no spare and runflats, ironically I've had more flat tyres since I got a car with a spare wheel.

Totally agree. I don't understand how they decided to have it the other way round.