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MK6 quirks

king1138

Go Kart Champion
Hello all, after recently purchasing a mk6 GTI, I have found a few interesting quirks with it. You know what I mean, stuff that isn't exactly broken, but also isn't right. I was curious if anyone else has some odd quirks they would share.
I'll share two of mine:
First off, my ATA confirmation will only chirp (and show up in the cluster options at all) if the HVAC fan is turned off BEFORE the car is turned off... that one took some time to figure out, haha. I must have gone through the owners manual, forums, and instrument cluster a hundred times each scratching my head.
Second, when I turn on my heat first thing, it will always blow cold regardless of what the knob is set on. Turning the knob slightly cool then back to warm, and presto it works fine.
I'm new to VWs, so for all I know that's normal operation. Just... weird.
What quirks with the mk6s have you all seen?
 

torga

Autocross Champion
Turning on your heat first thing... when? First thing after starting the car? Any car's vents will blow cold air at first if the engine hasn't been warmed up. That's not a mk6 thing at all.

ATA confirm only chirping if HVAC has been switched off is definitely a quirk. Never heard of that one before. Mine certainly doesn't care whether I've left HVAC on or off -- I always get a chirp.
 

king1138

Go Kart Champion
Nope, even waiting for the t-stat to open and it will blow cold until I give the knob a little twist.
The ATA thing sure took some trial and error to sort. I even scanned and have no codes, so no where to begin, haha.
 

Thumper

Autocross Champion
Yeah, I disable ATA on every car I have, but never had to do anything with the HVAC before accessing. Unless someone else has seen that I'm going to say that's a quirk of YOUR mk6 for some reason and not all mk6s lol

What do you mean turn the heat on? You mean you have the fan completely turned off or just switching from cold to heat? I seem to recall someone else mentioning this back when I first joined when my GTI was new but don't recall if I tested it. I've had a LOT of cars since then, hard to keep them all straight.
 

sterkrazzy

Autocross Champion
The only quirk I can remember about my mk6 was every once in a while it just wouldn't start the first time I turned the key over. Sometimes it would happen 2 or 3 times a week and sometimes I could go for a while without it happening. If it didn't start on the first attempt it would always start on the 2nd attempt.
 

torga

Autocross Champion
The only quirk I can remember about my mk6 was every once in a while it just wouldn't start the first time I turned the key over. Sometimes it would happen 2 or 3 times a week and sometimes I could go for a while without it happening. If it didn't start on the first attempt it would always start on the 2nd attempt.
I heard there was a weird thing with KESSY that would do this at times. I've got turn-key start and have never had this issue.
 

sterkrazzy

Autocross Champion
I heard there was a weird thing with KESSY that would do this at times. I've got turn-key start and have never had this issue.
I didn't have kessy either. It never stopped me from going anywhere so I never really bothered to look into it. If it decided it didn't want to start on the first attempt it would crank over for as long as you held the key in the ignition without ever starting, but it always started on that 2nd attempt.
 

king1138

Go Kart Champion
Yeah, I disable ATA on every car I have, but never had to do anything with the HVAC before accessing. Unless someone else has seen that I'm going to say that's a quirk of YOUR mk6 for some reason and not all mk6s lol

What do you mean turn the heat on? You mean you have the fan completely turned off or just switching from cold to heat? I seem to recall someone else mentioning this back when I first joined when my GTI was new but don't recall if I tested it. I've had a LOT of cars since then, hard to keep them all straight.
I have been leaving the knob on hot lately as it's winter and Wyoming and cold as sin, and of course turning off my fan so my ATA works. So when I turn on the fan after the car is warm, it will always blow cold air. I give the temp knob a little twist back from full hot, then back to full hot, and it works perfectly... 🤨
 

king1138

Go Kart Champion
I didn't have kessy either. It never stopped me from going anywhere so I never really bothered to look into it. If it decided it didn't want to start on the first attempt it would crank over for as long as you held the key in the ignition without ever starting, but it always started on that 2nd attempt.
Yeah, that's damn fine quirk. Kind of annoying, but also not really broken.
 

king1138

Go Kart Champion
Mine will sometimes chirp significantly quieter than usual. If I lock it again, it will chirp at normal volume.
That actually might indicate that the ATA horn is failing. I believe it's in the right front fender, and is separate from the main horn. It could also have some corrosion built up in the connector pins, so sometimes makes a better connection than other times...
 

torga

Autocross Champion

king1138

Go Kart Champion
The best quirk is when the timing system fails and destroys your engine
Hey, any vehicle can have a huge design flaw. At least VW has a new part to correct the issue and an access port to inspect for the update. My last car was a Ford Escort POS, the 1.9 produced from 1980-2004 had bad valve seats, which would without warning drop into the engine and destroy the cylinder head and pistons. Ford never even acknowledged the fault, and there were no steps to fix it before failure short of replacing the cylinder head on a vehicle worth next to nothing. So I'll take that "quirk" from VW! :D
 

Chisel_86

Go Kart Champion
Hey, any vehicle can have a huge design flaw. At least VW has a new part to correct the issue and an access port to inspect for the update. My last car was a Ford Escort POS, the 1.9 produced from 1980-2004 had bad valve seats, which would without warning drop into the engine and destroy the cylinder head and pistons. Ford never even acknowledged the fault, and there were no steps to fix it before failure short of replacing the cylinder head on a vehicle worth next to nothing. So I'll take that "quirk" from VW! :D
Reminds me of my last car, an 07 Mercedes E63 AMG with the classic camshaft and cam adjuster failures. They were even sued and the case was dropped, but everyone knows in the AMG world that they were garbage. I mean, what other engine would need a cam replaced at 35k due to worn lobes?
 
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