Hi,

Buying a new 27 plate Skoda Karoq 1.5 with DSG gearbox.

Interested to know what mileage you have on your Karoq with the 1.5 DSG and any issues you have encountered.

Online searches seem to imply they blow up at 30k or go on for ever. Interested in real world driving.

I do a 50/50 mix of country urban and motorway.

Thank you.

The difficulty with the online searches is the number of owners who report DSG problems is greater than I’m on those who have no problems. Clutch packs can wear same as a traditional manual so no different really except perhaps in cost. Mechatronic unit is the other failure item but never really find out why they fail. I saw a comment recently that the DSG failure rate DSG with the 1.5 TSI engine is the best combination. There is a dry clutch DSG 2013 VW pool car at work, it’s just had a mechatronic unit replaced at 75k miles, cost £1800, it’s driven by many people with varying levels of skill and mechanical sympathy, so I’m not surprised. We’ve got a dry clutch 2015 Fabia no issues with the DSG, I had a wet clutch DSG 2013 VW no issues with in 108,000 miles and I towed a twin axle car trailer with it as well. This might be of interest https://www.team-bhp.com/news/understanding-vw-skoda-dsg-dq200-failures-detail?amp

I'm guessing this has been discussed before but my 1.5tsi dsg is 5,5 years old and has done 51,000. The first 1,700 as a demonstrator.

What is the current thinking about maintenance. It's difficult to tell but occasionally seems to hesitate especially from cold.

What's the best course of action for longevity?

Thanks for the replies.

I get the same with my previous two cars, both Ford Mondeos. One a 1.6 Petrol and my current vehicle a 2.0 Diesel. Both manuals. 200k on both without any problems. Yet if you google for reliability it seems to suggest 80-130k max. So like you say driving style is a factor.

As I'm relatively sympathetic when driving hoping to get 100k before any major issues. £1800 for a mechatronic unit is comparable to a clutch replacement on a Ford so not too bad I guess.

If I can get 15 years out of the Karoq (16 and 13 years for my two Mondeos) I'll be happy.

We picked the Karoq because as we are getting old the Karoq offers a level of comfort we didn't find with most other brands.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by munnst

1 hour ago, barcudcoch said:

I'm guessing this has been discussed before but my 1.5tsi dsg is 5,5 years old and has done 51,000. The first 1,700 as a demonstrator.

What is the current thinking about maintenance. It's difficult to tell but occasionally seems to hesitate especially from cold.

What's the best course of action for longevity?

From what I have read not creeping in traffic prevents the dry clutch over heating.

There's conflicting evidence but changing the mechatronic oil every 40k is suggested to prevent failure although for newer models there is no official oil change required. Interested to hear from mechanics on that one. Again like my Mondeos you'll find stories of people stating to change the cambelt at 50k for the diesel. I changed mine at the manufacturers recommendation of 125k without any problems.

My mate told me today that his April 2019 VW R-Roc 1.5 150PS DADA's DSG - which will be the DQ 200 (dry clutch), at roughly 67,000 miles, handed out its first trans fault warning this week, his DIL who tends to use it most of the time, lost all drive, pulled into the side of the road, cycled the ignition and that sorted that out - for now. It has been taken out of use until it can get looked at. From what he told his VW Group Indie workshop, they are speculating that it will be a case of mecha unit out and sent away for repair - and they said "don't drive it now".

Would oil and fluid changes have avoided this, who knows, probably just another accumulator casing failure! Cars of that age were meant to have benefitted from a slightly increased accumulator wall thickness, so maybe so other failure.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by rum4mo
Added in "April".

@rum4mo I think I am correct in saying that the dry clutch mechatronic unit and main gearbox have their own separate dedicated oil systems. The wet clutch DSG has a single oil system that lubricates the gears, acts as an oil bath for the clutches and also provides the fluid for the mechatronic unit. With regard to creeping in traffic - with both wet and dry clutch DSG boxes when the engine is on tickover and the car is moving clutches are fully engaged so they are not slipping but the clutches can overheat with continual slipping. I would suggest that in queuing traffic a slow continuous creep on tickover is better for the DSG clutches than repeatably stopping and pulling away from stationary - the 7 speed DSG boxes tend to try and start off in 2nd which slips the clutch more than starting in 1st. We have a dry clutch Fabia and wet clutch Karoq, and I creep in traffic rather than stop/start all the time whenever possible, if I do have stop I leave quite a big gap to vehicle in front so I can start creeping sooner and not have to use throttle, I dogged same in the manual vehicles I drive.