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Blown motor, tensioner failure 2.0TSI 2012 GTI 93K miles What would you do?

BudgetPhoenix

Autocross Champion
The manifold can be a bit tricky to get seated properly. When I did mine the gasket kept wanting to keep falling out as it slid in place.
 

TakmaN

Ready to race!
Man I haven't enjoyed following a thread in a while but this was exciting. Glad you got it running and it was cool that you documented a lot of your work. Hope you're able to figure out those codes and get them cleared up somehow.
 

Jeffs2013GTI

Drag Race Newbie
Well Done Sir.....Well Done :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Drive around see what turns off on the dash and what doesn't, then go from there. Your winging it just like anyone of us would...Good Job Tackling this yourself.

Again.

Good Job Sir!!
:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:


Jeff
 

GreggGTI

Passed Driver's Ed
Well....

You guys have been great, this has been fun (kind of!) for me too. Here goes:
I took the car around the block earlier today. Ran like garbage. DSG felt like a slipping clutch and the car was vibrating like crazy over 20mph. I got a little concerned. Since I still have the bad motor's intake manifold, I figured last resort I could swap it in to resolve the misfires. Not ideal, that's a long day... But I didn't give up hope yet, something just wasn't making sense. Only one cylinder misfiring? Probably not a PCV valve then. I swapped out coils, no change. So I let it run a bit longer. Flashback: While the motor was out of the car and I changed the intake manifold gaskets, I gave it a go at cleaning the notorious carbon buildup off the intake valves. I scraped and cleaned them and I guarantee some of that gunk hadn't burned off yet or run through the cycles, leading to the misfire code. Well, after about 5 more minutes of running, the CEL went out and it's been gone since! The idle smoothed out and I went for a ride. It is absolutely perfect! Better than when I bought it last year, smooth as hell. Can't even tell it's idling! Like the1bill said, the power steering light and the traction control lights would go out. And they did. I took a photo of it:
No Lights on!


Engine bay now:



And for one more minute of your time, I took some footage of running her up the revs, freaking thing is back and better than ever!

https://youtu.be/u2PyQONRxWE

I started the journey in August!!!! Towed it to 3 different shops, and finally back to my house. AAA Platinum is awesome, BTW



And now she's in the driveway, all done



I can't thank you guys enough for all the encouragement and knowledge. I did this without a Bentley or any out of the ordinary tools other than a triple square bit set and a torx bit set. I bought the hoist on craiglist, where it will return since I've only needed one once in my 40 years. None of this was impossible. Take your time, be patient with stubborn parts, take good notes and photos and you can do this. I now know everything about the engine bay of this car and could do it twice as fast next time. That's valuable too.

I hope I encouraged you all to do the same thing if your tensioner blows up! I'm in it for about $2600 with the motor, hoist and incidentals. Beats $6000+ from the shops, and with lower mileage the car will last longer.
You can do it too. I still can't believe I did.
Thanks for the help

Now to return the garage to its proper owner, my other VW problem child! (but this one's my age, so it's okay):
 

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OhioMK6

Ready to race!
Great job man! Stoked it all worked out for you.
 

Dans GTI

Ready to race!
Very nice job! You should definitely be proud of yourself!
 

Carlosfandang0

Autocross Newbie
Good job! Well done, just be sure to monitor for leaks etc for a while, sounds great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

WalkerT

Go Kart Champion
Great work man!
 

Pooley

Ready to race!
Awesome job! Great to see that it all worked out, and loved the video of it running.

My engine still runs great at 130kmi and I've done a lot of work on it myself from timing chain replacement, water pump, carbon cleaning, intake manifold (replaced at a later date), engine mounts, and K04 install. Seems like an engine swap is doable if something fails on mine.

As for the coolant, technically a vacuum purge system is the correct way to remove any air pockets, but just keeping the expansion tank at proper level should do well. I got the Schwaben purge system from ECS when I changed out a faulty water pump which gets the water level set correctly prior to starting the engine.
 

the1bill1

New member
So, I'm in the middle of what was just meant to be a K04 and intercooler installation. I figured it would be three or four days of work. Then the heat shield plug rounded off. Bummer. I figured that'd add a day.

Then I discovered that I had a broken stud in my exhaust manifold. Exact same stud that was broken on yours. It's an engineering fault for sure. I'd guess that there is a shear load being applied by the weight of the turbo on the manifold that gets exacerbated with the better part of a hundred thousand hear cycles to snap the stud. Either way, the stud was snapped and it had been for a while judging by the corrosion at the point of the break on both halves of the stud.

You took the smart route, hogged it out, and put in a bigger bolt. I tried to drill it out (and went off centre with my pilot bit), and then called a machinist who made a jig to guide a couple of drill bits. That didn't work, though, so I dropped the head off with him today. He'll throw it on a bridgeport, repair those threads, and all of the studs back there are being replaced with some stainless ARP studs that will have better longevity.

This thread is giving me back a bit of inspiration. It has been a long and annoying slog to get to the point where I pulled the head. Hopefully I can get it all back together as well as you did.
 

Jeffs2013GTI

Drag Race Newbie
Bravo Sir....Bravo :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Very cool how you just did this. I want to get my tensioner replaced, dealer closest to me wants about $2000 to do it. That is all new chains, followers, new lower timing chain cover. :yikes:

Cheaper than what you went through though. S H I T like this is what gives VW a bad name. To VW's credit though, I do not believe the MK7's on up have this issue.

I noticed your Van in the background. My Grandfather had one, think his was a 79 or an 80 I forget. Had the circle front head lights not the square. Similar color to yours. He did sell it though unfortunately.

My Grandfather did have one other VW though a 60 bug convertible. This bug has been in the family since 1963 and is on its original engine and trans. When my Grandfather past, my Dad kept the bug.
[/IMG]

Ironically, the bug has been in the shop less in 57+ years than my GTI has haha. :23:

Very Cool to see your car up and running....again...Great Job ::clap::


Jeff
 

GreggGTI

Passed Driver's Ed
I tried to drill it out (and went off centre with my pilot bit), and then called a machinist who made a jig to guide a couple of drill bits. That didn't work, though, so I dropped the head off with him today. He'll throw it on a bridgeport, repair those threads, and all of the studs back there are being replaced with some stainless ARP studs that will have better longevity.

That's a bummer! Taking the heads off and having it done is a lot more work! Like you said though, definitely a design flaw if the same ones keep breaking. And I also wonder how long yours was broken. Too much heat, not enough strength. Keep at it, everyone. This swap is not beyond your abilities.

And thanks as always for the compliments Jeff. My bus is a '79, almost the same year as me. And of course round headlights, not a Vanagon by any means! Aircooled Bus all the way, I don't like liquid cooling, but do like heat so the GTI is great in the winter! That bug is beautiful man, love the originality. My bus is my summer daily driver. And like you, my bus has been more reliable than my GTI, by far!

300 miles so far on my swap. I took it 100 miles away for the weekend. Other than two additional P0304 codes (and subsequent P0303, P0302 etc as I swapped coils to chase the code) that were easily traced to two bad coils (interestingly, they came off the new motor), it has been flawless. I bought some coils at the dealership and it completely fixed both instances. The bugs are being ironed out and I'm beyond thrilled with the outcome. This has far exceeded my wildest expectations.
 
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