Is VW really going to get away with it?...or has it already

Well, in my case, the follower actually fractured. It didn't wear down. It ate my cam and my HPFP. I have bits and pieces of the follower I will be posting soon. Clearly there was no excessive wear the follower simply broke apart.
What the cause is/was has yet to be determined.
If ya all seen my other post about this yes, VW completely denied any warranty and said the causable part was the APR HPFP. APR, of course says it is a known issue and has been for years and is a VW fault.
All I know is all this denial of fault at a minor 17K miles has turned me off of this platform. Had the car fixed and selling it.

But to address the OP's comment,,, VW won't put that in writing anywhere. That would admit liability.

Edit: A piece of my follower:

MBorVW said:

Things that make you go hmmmm?

Is there a way to import euro spec oil?

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Umm...German Castrol. Autozone.
LubriMoly
Pentosin
Motul

All high-zinc oils easily available in NA.

But running those high-zinc oils is not going to prevent wear and failure, ultimately. You guys already know about the roller cam option discussed in numerous other threads, right?

DBESTGTI said:

Imagine that, a bad design that hasn't changed is still a bad design?

FYI you can thank the government for the FSI cam follower problems. The EPA banned zinc zinc phosphate from engine oil and swore it wouldn't effect engine wear. Low and behold the final result was FSI's eating intake cam lobes, cam followers, and HPFP. Ever notice it's not much of an issue ROW? It's US oil.

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What? The EPA has it's head up it's butt and has no idea what it's doing?

No way.......no idea why we haven't risen up and stripped that department of it's so called authority.

This is one reason that I'm waiting until later for power/engine mods. I'm doing suspension and cosmetic mods on my R, I'll prolly get an intake and cat back after and wait there while I have a warranty. Is shitty no doubt but VW will cover it if it aint modded and we all know you got to pay to play, once you touch the engine you might as well have signed a waiver telling VW they aren't responsible any more.

davesxx01 said:

Well, in my case, the follower actually fractured. It didn't wear down. It ate my cam and my HPFP. I have bits and pieces of the follower I will be posting soon. Clearly there was no excessive wear the follower simply broke apart.
What the cause is/was has yet to be determined.
If ya all seen my other post about this yes, VW completely denied any warranty and said the causable part was the APR HPFP. APR, of course says it is a known issue and has been for years and is a VW fault.
All I know is all this denial of fault at a minor 17K miles has turned me off of this platform. Had the car fixed and selling it.

But to address the OP's comment,,, VW won't put that in writing anywhere. That would admit liability.

Edit: A piece of my follower:

Click to expand...

So, take them to court. The burden of proof is on VW.

Update:

Car is back together, and has been traded in. I will sorely miss that car, it was painful driving it for the last time on my way to the dealer. Even bone stock it felt really awesome.

Now, for the upsetting news,,,, after analysis and putting all the little broken pieces together (that were found) and looking at the wear patterns of the follower bits it is completely clear that my APR HPFP lost a clip somehow and fractured my follower which in turn took out my cam. Yes, it's a one in a million fault but a fault never-less. It is clear with just the last pic I posted how thick the cap still was showing very little wear from the cam.

I will be in touch with APR soon after I get final analysis from a metal expert. I will be posting all my pics in a different thread.

davesxx01 said:

Update:

Car is back together, and has been traded in. I will sorely miss that car, it was painful driving it for the last time on my way to the dealer. Even bone stock it felt really awesome.

Now, for the upsetting news,,,, after analysis and putting all the little broken pieces together (that were found) and looking at the wear patterns of the follower bits it is completely clear that my APR HPFP lost a clip somehow and fractured my follower which in turn took out my cam. Yes, it's a one in a million fault but a fault never-less. It is clear with just the last pic I posted how thick the cap still was showing very little wear from the cam.

I will be in touch with APR soon after I get final analysis from a metal expert. I will be posting all my pics in a different thread.

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looking forward to the interesting details. oh, are you talking about your GTI or your R? now im confused.

2013R said:

looking forward to the interesting details. oh, are you talking about your GTI or your R? now im confused.

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My "R". GTI is long gone!

Interesting... Always thought it looked like it was the hpfp; let us know what happens


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I owned a 2007 GTI with the FSI motor. I loved that car because that motor was a gem.

I was bone stock, but I checked my cam follower near 25k miles and the dlc coating had all but worn off and scratches were evident. I really did not want to deal with this "maintenance" item, and I no longer wanted to deal with a car that required a follower change every 25k or so. After a premature timing belt change under warranty at 35k, I traded it in on a 2010 mk6 GTI TSI with no follower nor belt.

I was active on the golfmk5 forums and there were a legion of us who were digging into the
motor to fetch a part that would be ok in Europe...but not here in NA.

The biggest issue with follower wear is not necessarily the oil in the USA. Castrol 5w-40 syntec has just enough zinc in its additive pack to resist wear on follower for 5k miles.

The problem is that The FSI NA spec motor here never runs in lean burn mode often, like it does in Europe. The reason why fuel dilutes the FSI here in NA is because it is constantly running rich mode and dumping fuel into the oil, causing the oil to thin out and wear to proliferate, especially on the cam follower.

An oil change prior to 5k miles and high zinc oil helped most of us mk5'ers, but wear still happened and replacement was necessary eventually.

When I found out the Golf R was being saddled with the FSI motor, my boner went limp.

I loved the way the old FSI made its power up top, but like all great things, the drawback was just too great.

I thank the OP for quoting me in the initial post: I maintain that this should be an intervaled maintenance item clearly listed in the owners manual. (Here in North America anyway)

My wife should not have to lift the hood and replace this piece every 30k. She can barely hammer a nail.

So what did you trade it in for? What are you driving now?

ibid said:

So what did you trade it in for? What are you driving now?

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traded the 2007 GTI in june of 2010 for a "steal" preowned 2010 2 dr GTI with only 250 miles. 2 years later, traded the 2010 2 dr for a 2012 Autobahn 4 door.

No regrets today.

I'm new to the VW world so forgive me if this has been asked/answered (I searched here and on other forums and couldn't find an answer):

Would adding Liqui Moly oil additive help the cam follower wear issue? People rave how Liqui Moly 2009 (or the new Ceratec) helps reduce engine wear. I understand using an aftermarket HPFP increases wear on the follower, but what about us noobs who are completely stock? Would an additive help or would it be a waste of money? I bought a bottle of 2009 just to CYA.

HMCS JK said:

Would adding Liqui Moly oil additive help the cam follower wear issue?

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I have not heard of anyone using that additive. You can try it and let us know how it goes. Problem is that would take a while to notice results.

I used to avoid ever putting anything in my oil, but, these days I'm not so sure.

Bozz said:

I have not heard of anyone using that additive. You can try it and let us know how it goes. Problem is that would take a while to notice results.

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Liqui Moly arrives next week and I'll give it a try. You're right, I have no idea how I'd be able to tell if it works besides leaving it in there for 100k miles, which I'm not willing to do lol.