Volkswagen newb here

Hey all. I’m a new owner of a 2012 golf R that has 80k on the clock and am curious as to what I need to be replacing/looking for at this mileage. I read a lot of people replacing the cam follower every 20k so I know it’s due for a replacement. The car is stock, no tune or anything. I drive like a grandma so I don’t plan on abusing it when I drive it. It’s more of my weekend warrior while I still putt my Hyundai around throughout the week. With that said, any insight would be helpful! Thanks!:dnftt:

Marky Mark said:

Hey all. I’m a new owner of a 2012 golf R that has 80k on the clock and am curious as to what I need to be replacing/looking for at this mileage. I read a lot of people replacing the cam follower every 20k so I know it’s due for a replacement. The car is stock, no tune or anything. I drive like a grandma so I don’t plan on abusing it when I drive it. It’s more of my weekend warrior while I still putt my Hyundai around throughout the week. With that said, any insight would be helpful! Thanks!:dnftt:

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Welcome to VW owners club,

If it does not have an updated tensioner, that would be the first thing you should update, as the old tensioner can fail and lead to totaled engine. You should also update the PCV, and maybe a new CAM Bridge spool valve.

m0j0jojo said:

Welcome to VW owners club,



If it does not have an updated tensioner, that would be the first thing you should update, as the old tensioner can fail and lead to totaled engine. You should also update the PCV, and maybe a new CAM Bridge spool valve.

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Did the tensioner issue affect the EA113 in the Golf R as well? I thought it was only bad in the gen 1 EA888 in the GTI?

Welcome to the club! These cars will treat you fine, but they require a bit more attention than your average auto.
Goes without saying, but oil change is a good idea. Depending on the color of the coolant, I'd flush the system. As well as flushing the brake fluid - VW recommends every 2 years for that.
Get it up on jacks or a lift, take the tires off and inspect all your CV boots, axles, bushings, ball joints and tie rods. Replace anything that looks sketchy.
Is it a DSG? If so, it'll be worth looking into the DSG service. If manual, go ahead and flush out the gear oil - it's even easier than an engine oil change if you're manual.
Cleaning the carbon off of the backs of the intake valves is another thing to look into that can plague higher mileage GTI and R.

Thanks for the replies so far. I’ll have to take it to my buddies shop when I have the time to use his lift and inspect the underside. Car only had 1 owner prior to me and it was a lady in her 40s so I doubt she was driving like Toretto everywhere she went�� and it’s a 6speed sorry

timing belt and cam follower for sure... a bad cam follower and you can kiss your motor goodbye--thankfully its a cheap and easy maintenance item but for some reason often neglected on the fsi engines

zef said:

timing belt and cam follower for sure... a bad cam follower and you can kiss your motor goodbye--thankfully its a cheap and easy maintenance item but for some reason often neglected on the fsi engines

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I’ll have to check out my belts this weekend and replace the follower then

zef said:

timing belt and cam follower for sure... a bad cam follower and you can kiss your motor goodbye--thankfully its a cheap and easy maintenance item but for some reason often neglected on the fsi engines

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Is the cam follower still a point to check frequently on TSI engine's? I've got a 2013 R with about 120k. Are there any symptoms I should be aware of?

SHABAZZ X said:

Is the cam follower still a point to check frequently on TSI engine's? I've got a 2013 R with about 120k. Are there any symptoms I should be aware of?

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Mk6 Golf R uses the timing belt driven EA113 engine. Same as the older 06-08.5 MKV GTI engines but upgraded in the R, commonly referred to as the "FSI" engine.

The EA888 engines are referred to as TSIs usually and are timing chain driven 2.0Ts and found in other 08.5+ cars. The Golf R still uses the cam follower design from the older MKVs so it should be an item that should be checked on.

Strangely though they put TSI on the MK6 Golf R engine cover so it gets kind of confusing lol.

BudgetPhoenix said:

The EA888 engines are referred to as TSIs usually and are timing chain driven 2.0Ts and found in other 08.5+ cars. The Golf R still uses the cam follower design from the older MKVs so it should be an item that should be checked on.

Strangely though they put TSI on the MK6 Golf R engine cover so it gets kind of confusing lol.

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So confusing lol I'll make sure to check the cam follower soon.

SHABAZZ X said:

Is the cam follower still a point to check frequently on TSI engine's? I've got a 2013 R with about 120k. Are there any symptoms I should be aware of?

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Whoa! Waay overdue if you haven't done it yet, swap it out asap! it's a 15 minute job and well under $100, just swap it and don't warry about getting symptoms.. Sometimes by the time you get the symptom, the damage is already done..

To the OP and all, for peace of mind, you can get rid of the failure prone cam follower design and replace the cam follower with a roller cam follower conversion kit (conversion to the MK7 Golf R cam follower set-up) which eliminates the problem in the FSI motors.

Makes for one less thing to check on and/or give you problems if failure happens prematurely..