Hi folks, first post here so please be nice!

I have a query about my 2.0 FSI (manual, 55 plate, 67k miles, owned since July '12) - it's starting to judder at lower revs - normally 1000 to 2000 rpm - which seems to have got a bit worse in the last few days. Not sure if 'judder' is the right word - it's not a regular rhythm, almost like a very sharp lift off then foot back down on the gas - but it's not that! It's not a single judder - it's continuous.

It happens when travelling on the level (or nearly level) - i.e. with a light foot on the gas. Downhill with no gas, or putting the foot down to climb/accelerate, and there's no judder. Likewise, idle seems smooth, and no juddering above 2000 rpm.

Can anyone suggest what it might be or where I should start to investigate? I've had a search of the forum and the www and can't turn anything up, apart from the EGR valve on the TDI engine, but mine is petrol - could it still be the same thing?

Thanks,

Mark

i have hade this on one of my old cars,turned out to be a coil pack.

bill

Id say coilpack too. All the electrical connectors on mine have had the little lug snapped off by either previous owner or dealer so one day when i was giving it the beans, traction control cut in and one of the connectors popped off, nearly shat my pants as it was only running on 3 cylinders and was shuddering real bad

Edited 21 February, 201313 yr by banzaiman

Thanks both. A little digging into coilpacks on here reveals there's a recall for them and my car is affected by it (confirmed by a dealer today). They're on order so should have them done early next week, hopefully that should sort it out.

Standardblue The symptoms you describe are not unlike those I experienced on my 57 plate 105k mile vrs petrol.

My exact symptoms were a mild misfire on part throttle (especially in 30 mph zones). This improved markedly just after the engine reached operating temperature.

I changed the coil packs (eurocarparts) with no improvement (although given that these are known to be a problem area I have no regrets).

Following some time on this forum and using an excellent guide from a link on the golf mk5 gti forum I cleaned the inlet tract. This is a fairly involved job and took me between 10 and 12 hours but it has completely solved the problem. The cause was a massive build up of oil from the PCV on the backs of the inlet valves and in the inlet tract - 6 hours of the job was spent laboriously cleaning. I was surprised that the engine ran at all!

Given that changing the coil packs takes about 10 minutes and costs around £100 I'd start there. If that fails plan for cleaning the intake (sea foam or the like won't be good enough) and if you do it your self order a 4" long M10 triple square (splined) bit for your socket set as the job will be much harder without one.

Inlet valves prior to cleaning, vrs petrol tfsi, 105k miles.

Dual Mass Flywheel?

A known weak point on both the petrol and diesel vRS.

Accelerating in a high gear, low speed, low rpm = judder similar to a slipping clutch.

Standardblue The symptoms you describe are not unlike those I experienced on my 57 plate 105k mile vrs petrol.

My exact symptoms were a mild misfire on part throttle (especially in 30 mph zones). This improved markedly just after the engine reached operating temperature.

I changed the coil packs (eurocarparts) with no improvement (although given that these are known to be a problem area I have no regrets).

Following some time on this forum and using an excellent guide from a link on the golf mk5 gti forum I cleaned the inlet tract. This is a fairly involved job and took me between 10 and 12 hours but it has completely solved the problem. The cause was a massive build up of oil from the PCV on the backs of the inlet valves and in the inlet tract - 6 hours of the job was spent laboriously cleaning. I was surprised that the engine ran at all!

Given that changing the coil packs takes about 10 minutes and costs around £100 I'd start there. If that fails plan for cleaning the intake (sea foam or the like won't be good enough) and if you do it your self order a 4" long M10 triple square (splined) bit for your socket set as the job will be much harder without one.

I would love this done to mine, i'm not that technically/mechanically minded though but would love to give it a good clean and make them spotless.

Inlet valves prior to cleaning, vrs petrol tfsi, 105k miles.

thats makes mine look quite good at 95k then, mine were no where near that bad, i had no symptons but did it for peace of mind. Not something for a non mechanic to do really

Dual Mass Flywheel?

A known weak point on both the petrol and diesel vRS.

Accelerating in a high gear, low speed, low rpm = judder similar to a slipping clutch.

Silver, it's fine accelerating, it's running at a constant speed/light throttle that I get the judder so possibly (hopefully!) not the DMF?

Standardblue The symptoms you describe are not unlike those I experienced on my 57 plate 105k mile vrs petrol.

My exact symptoms were a mild misfire on part throttle (especially in 30 mph zones). This improved markedly just after the engine reached operating temperature.

<snip bit about ECP coilpacks and scary engine dismantling!>

Bert, thanks for the heads-up. If it is that, I think I might ask the garage to do it as it's probably a little beyond me and with a potentially high penalty for failure! My juddering seems to be worse when up to temperature, although my commute is such that it's hard to tell if there's judder before it's warm. Mine's only on 67k miles, so a little scary if it's all clogged up already - might depend on how it was driven before?

Thanks both,

Mark

The fouling is a symptom of the engine design. In the vw fsi and tfsi engines the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder. Although this is technically better than injecting fuel into the inlet manifold ahead of each cylinder the downside is that over time oil vapour from the crankcase breather builds up in the intake - there is no washing effect from fuel in the intake. I tried to work out if I could inspect the valves without removing the intake - I bought an endoscopic USB camera on eBay for £30 which is a handy piece of kit, but I could not get it far enough into the intake to see anything. However I did manage take out the spark plugs ( all quite oily) and have a good look at the top of the pistons which did have reasonable deposit of damp looking oily build up on them. The other possibility would be to drill an inspection hole in the intake and then reseal it (its made of plastic and note that there is some actuated control vanes in it).

Yes the PCV is partly to blame but the main culprit is exhaust gas because of valve overlap. Manufacturers had to cut it out to solve the problem that's why newer DI engines don't suffer from this, but credit where credit is due...nice work bert, Ive been planning on doing mine for a while.

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