More bad news for VW - Camshaft Recall

[Rob2k68]

Found this on the 8V S3 F/B owners group so can't claim to be the original source. Apologise for the poor quality but anyone else heard about this :-

 

[veeeight]

Oh my.

So the cam lobe activating the HPFP is still causing problems for Audi, a slightly different take this time (shearing off) - but this has been a problem that has dogged VW/Audi in previous engines !!

@S3Alex you might be amused at this

 

[Daz4311]

How does this affect cars on order..as mine is due to be starting being built Jan 4th ???

 

[sbarker]

Will this be for s3 then as says 2.0 and not 2.0t ? Hope not !!!

 

[Daz4311]

That's what I'm wondering!!!!mines not built yet but this has got me thinking!!!!!

 

[sbarker]

Just looked at vw site mentioned on there but not clear if golf gti in scope or not. Don't want my car pulled apart !

 

[veeeight]

At the moment, the recall only affects around 92,000 vehicles, with engines from the Silao (Mexico) plant.


http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM489770/RCLRPT-15V705-9597.PDF

 

[cuke2u]

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/11/04/vw-recalls-models-camshaft-failure/

 

[sbarker]

Assume our engines made elsewhere then!

 

[Rob2k68]

The autoblog article states 1.8 and 2.0 turbocharged engines and lists Golf and Golf GTI whilst not mentioning the A3 I thought they'd be MQB platform common ?

What's worrying is that the fix is to replace with a camshaft of the same pedigree. They don't expect a superior design component to be available until March 2016.

 

[veeeight]

I think it's a specific supply chain component (camshaft) only supplied into the Mexico factory.

Hence only cars sold in North & South America.

This may change, they find the same issue in Europe cars. Or admit to it.

NHTSA are much more efficient/strict when it comes to recalls.

 

[pipedaudi]

@veeeight, that doesn't make sense if there won't be a 'superior' replacement until March 2016. If the euro part was ok, then you'd think they'd sub that in. Unless the engine/cam is different. Which is possible if the USA engine is direct injection only vs direct+indirect for everywhere else.

 

[veeeight]

The NHTSA bulletin says that the material for the camshaft was changed in June 2015.

So who knows, these days, with VW, getting the truth out seems to be difficult.

 

[gamegenie]

This seems to only reference VW cars not Audi. and I'm sure that 2.0L is not the 2.0T turbo engine of the A3/S3.

 

[cuke2u]

Assume our engines made elsewhere then!

Audi engines most certainly are http://www.audi.com/corporate/en/company/audi-at-a-glance.html

 

[WeeDram]

Hence only cars sold in North & South America

Sold and built in North America. I'm in NA and my car was built in Hungary. But as you say, time will tell if euro parts are also affected

 

[S3Alex]

Oh my.

So the cam lobe activating the HPFP is still causing problems for Audi, a slightly different take this time (shearing off) - but this has been a problem that has dogged VW/Audi in previous engines !!

@S3Alex you might be amused at this

Totally missed that!

Well.....my old monster has covered nearly 80k miles,70k of which with an uprated HPFP,and the last time the cams were out,the lobes were all within original spec.

The driver wasn't,but the cams were....LOL

Naturally I have some supporting evidence...



OEM cam to the left,brand new aftermarket cam(which we didn't use in the end) to the right.

Note the nice shiny lobes on the OEM stick.

 

[veeeight]

Nice photo!

The aftermarket cam looks a more aggressive profile too, wonder what that would have done in your car... Probably would have been too much for it! (if you ever did get it to run properly with those cams)

My initial comment was more to do with the chocolate cam followers under the HPFP in previous S3 (and 2.0TFSI), leading to the eventual destruction of the follower, HPFP and sometimes camshaft!

I guess it's a bit early to see if the 8V cam follower has the same issues :/

I assume you just change yours at regular intervals?

 

[S3Alex]

Nice photo!

The aftermarket cam looks a more aggressive profile too, wonder what that would have done in your car... Probably would have been too much for it!

My initial comment was more to do with the chocolate cam followers under the HPFP in previous S3 (and 2.0TFSI), leading to the eventual destruction of the follower, HPFP and sometimes camshaft!

I guess it's a bit early to see if the 8V cam follower has the same issues :/

I assume you just change yours at regular intervals?

Yes that's the answer....regular follower changes,but I cannot remember the intervals.

That cam was impossible to time with the stock ECU,and so we scrapped it,whereas my current ECU offers VVT control so it would probably have worked with it.
The biggest problem was how far off-centre the lobes are,and in any case the stock cams with the new ECU and it's range of VVT control makes over 600bhp anyway.