VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Tue 10 Jun 2003 13:44

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Captain Alex Zippy O' Toole

Do the coil packs on these things inevitably fail early, and it's just a matter of time before they do - or is there a good chance they'll survive to a decent age? (And what would one consider to be a "proper" age for such things?)

I've got a two year old Ibiza Cupra that's done 26000 miles and, touch wood, had no such problems with it to date - but I'm worried that I'm on borrowed time.

It's not a major issue inside warranty, but if all sorts of exepensive horrors are waiting for me in the future, I'd rather get rid of the car before I have to foot the bill.

It seems that the engine suffers from the same failings right across the VAG range, have they fixed it for newer cars (so if I got a brand new Leon Cupra R would I get a better engine?) or is it an inherent design fault?

(Incidentally, the driver's side window did drop into the door the other day though, the dealer's magnificent temporary fix (waiting for the part to arrive) was to pull the window out of the door and stick it in place with three pieces of gaffer tape (and blag to me that they'd braced it underneath).

One rainstorm later and the tape came away, and the window dropped back into the door with a horrible thud. It was blind luck I was in the porch at the time and heard it, otherwise it'd have been sat outside in the pouring rain all night with an open driver's window. I had to run it up to my in-laws and stick it in their garage for the night. The dealer was a little sheepish when I returned the car to him this morning, not looking best pleased.)

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 14:01

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Dynamic Dave

Typing "coil packs" into the site search box will bring up previous discussions on the failure of these things.

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 14:17

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Marcos{P}

My mates brother in law has had the coil packs changed 3 times on his golf in America. It seems that either the new stocks are bad or the old stock is getting mixed up with the new.
He also pointed out that the Americans are begining to hate VAG. Not good news when your trying to establish yourself as a luxury car manufacturer in the biggest market in the world.

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 14:27

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Captain Alex Zippy O' Toole

Had a search as suggested and read through the various threads, must say I'm not exactly inspired with confidence - looks like it's just a case of waiting for my car to stop working one day.

I'll be picking it up tomorrow (assuming they've fixed the window) and I'll mention the coils to them then.

Have to say I'm really quite underwhelmed with VAG cars of late, a friend had a MkIV Golf GTi (1.8 non-turbo) and had a catalogue of problems with it, and her window dropped into the door too.

My father-in-law has had numerous issues with his MkIV GT-TDi, my Cupra's had the problem with the window and a dodgy temerature sensor, a family friend had an absolute nightmare with a new Ibiza 130bhp TDi (think it ended up going back about ten times in as many weeks) and a colleague's got an AudiTT which has been nothing but trouble.

Another colleague got himself a three year old Vectra dirt cheap and has been running it for a year (15000+ miles) without so much as a single problem.

Very unscientfic and doesn't prove anything, but you do wonder what you're paying top-dollar for sometimes....

(I think the best (certainly the cheapest to run) car I've ever had is a 1988 Cavalier, bought it for £50, got 12 months and 11000 miles out of it, all it needed was one new tyre and a second-hand battery.)

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 14:53

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Aprilia

Cars are getting too complicated. Too much of the technology is untried, untested in the long-term and everyone is paring costs to the bone.
The only ones who seem to be able to successfully manufacture automotive electronic systems that are reliable in the long-term are the Japanese.

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 17:14

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Cardew

My goodness criticism of 2 Seats!

Until now in the BR all the Seat and Skoda owners repeatedly state how wonderful their cars are - and what rubbish VWs are.

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 14:55

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Mark S

Replacement coils, part number 06B 905 115J, are modified versions. If last digit is prior to J, then it is an unmodified part. We have replaced loads of coils on VW with the modified part and have had no problems with new coils.Old coils are likely to fail at some point. VW are offering 100% parts & labour goodwill at the moment regardless of age/mileage. This may not apply to SEAT, as although the cars are from the same group, each Franchise has its own parameters. Coils that fail are all made by an Italian Company called BREMI, as are the replacements. As far as I am aware, no other manufacturer produces these parts.

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 18:18

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - David Lacey

After harping on for years about VAG build quality, I'm not overly impressed with the overall quality of my A4 TDi - had lots of silly things go wrong.

This coilpack issue has seriously hurt the VAG stable - all you have to do is visit some enthusiasts websites www.seatenthusiasts.co.uk/forum/ being a good example.....

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Tue 10 Jun 2003 18:44

VAG 1.8 20V Turbo engines - Dynamic Dave

This coilpack issue has seriously hurt the VAG stable......

Not to mention the security problem of being able to gain access to the car by simply inserting any old key into the door lock and turning to lower the windows on the Passat models!!

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