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Carbon Build-up at 26K Miles

lawbench191

lawbench191

Let's Autocross!
Carbon Build Up on my 2011 GTI MKVI

I do have fun with my car in Autocross. And I like to drive the car aggressive. I have 48k on the vehicle. Two weeks ago my check engine light came on. When I cranked it up early in the morning it would idle a little rough at 1100 rpm then drop to 900 and drive fine all day long with no issues. My friend had checked the code it appeared I had a random miss fire on cylinder one. I had it cleared and thought it might have been bad gas. Well by the following week the code was back. I have an extended Warranty up to 72,000 so I brought it back to my dealer. They checked it and replaced a fuel pump and the number one injector. It was strange also that the Dealer reccomended cleaning the carbon build up but that would have been about 230.00 dollars. I declined this after talking to a mechanic friend of mine.The service manager kind of indicated they have been seeing this carbon build up problem in several models. I got the car back yesterday from the dealer. It drove fine but this afternoon the check engine light came on again. The dealer checked it again and said there was a random miss fire on cylinder one. I love my GTI but quite aggravated with the problem. I think VW knows they have a problem with this and should pay for the cleaning. IM filing a complaint with VW of America. Ill see if I get anywhere with this. If not Ill be riding with a check engine light on.
 
B

BarryT82

Go Kart Champion
Use Seafoam. If it doesn't work you will still succeed at pissing off your neighbors with a huge cloud of stinky white smoke.
 
Kyle Butler

Kyle Butler

Ready to race!
lawbench191 said:
I do have fun with my car in Autocross. And I like to drive the car aggressive. I have 48k on the vehicle. Two weeks ago my check engine light came on. When I cranked it up early in the morning it would idle a little rough at 1100 rpm then drop to 900 and drive fine all day long with no issues.
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I get this issue fairly often, almost daily, sometimes a few times a day. It happened when i bought the car and my dealer said if its not throwing a CEL not to worry about it :| Im at 30000kms and its still happening.
 
sethdude

sethdude

Pobody's Nerfect.
Carbon build-up is normal in DI cars. Either pay for a cleaning, or better still, pull the manifold and clean the valves yourself. It will only cost you a few dollars in seals and a few hours time, and you'll have a much better understanding of how your engine works.
 
zrickety

zrickety

The Fixer
Part of the problem is 'internal exhaust gas recirculation' related to valve timing for emissions. I agree the pcv and blow by add to it. The fact that dealers would rather charge you than warranty it sounds like it was planned by vw. I wonder about the exhaust valves as well. I haven't had an issue at almost 80k but regular cleaning of the head is unacceptable to me. This issue alone could make me sell the car and go to another brand. Maybe even an older model before direct injection.
 
mattdibart

mattdibart

Go Kart Champion
lawbench191 said:
I do have fun with my car in Autocross. And I like to drive the car aggressive. I have 48k on the vehicle. Two weeks ago my check engine light came on. When I cranked it up early in the morning it would idle a little rough at 1100 rpm then drop to 900 and drive fine all day long with no issues. My friend had checked the code it appeared I had a random miss fire on cylinder one. I had it cleared and thought it might have been bad gas. Well by the following week the code was back. I have an extended Warranty up to 72,000 so I brought it back to my dealer. They checked it and replaced a fuel pump and the number one injector. It was strange also that the Dealer reccomended cleaning the carbon build up but that would have been about 230.00 dollars. I declined this after talking to a mechanic friend of mine.The service manager kind of indicated they have been seeing this carbon build up problem in several models. I got the car back yesterday from the dealer. It drove fine but this afternoon the check engine light came on again. The dealer checked it again and said there was a random miss fire on cylinder one. I love my GTI but quite aggravated with the problem. I think VW knows they have a problem with this and should pay for the cleaning. IM filing a complaint with VW of America. Ill see if I get anywhere with this. If not Ill be riding with a check engine light on.
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at 48k on the car and a chance to get them cleaned for $230 I think you messed up. Everyone knows that this car has carbon build up problems from the DI, if you don't want to pay up and get them cleaned you shouldn't have bought the car.

48k Does seem a bit early but at the same time if it didn't pop up now you would probably need it 10k from now. Now you are going to have to shell out a lot more money to have them cleaned, should have just had it done when you had the chance.
 
abalinka

abalinka

Go Kart Champion
I blame it all on that damn EGR. When I pulled the head off of my MS3, that EGR was almost entirely clogged, and the valves were disgusting. Took me 2 days to clean everything.

I dread the day that this becomes routine maintenance.

Tempts me to just block it on the R so I don't have to deal with it later on.
 
stuck24

stuck24

so?
haymest said:
Thanks, Geoff. I'm willing to pay (reluctantly) if this is somehow my fault but I've done everything by the book so far. I've even had my services done (marginally) early 8K, 18K, and now 26K. I've used Premium gas as well. This car does have a repair history involving the radiator, radiator fans, a mis-installed air hose to the filter, and a cracked clutch but I don't see any of those being related to this issue. I live in Houston where it's hot but we generally don't get dust storms or anything else that might be defined as unusual "driving conditions."

I was trying to get a second (or third) opinion about the timing of this issue. I have a friend with a 2007 MKV and he's got 56K on it without having this service done and that's with the older engine which seems to have a bigger problem with than the one in the MKVI.
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which dealer bro?

I just think they wanna gouge you. They have the manifold apart.... may as well get some money out of you. I'd tell em to suck balls and do it under warranty/
 
stuck24

stuck24

so?
raaalph said:
The "Italian tune up" doesn't prevent all carbon buildup on our DI engines. Check out this thread for more info: http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?p=146579
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I subscribe to the italian tuneups for DI engines. Been doing them on 3 consective DI engines and have had no problems with carbon BUILDUP. The high heat and movement make sure v little sticks to the valves. The high heat and super fast movement is supposed break awaycarbon debris.

There is technical paper written on this VW engineers. They maintain drivers of their DI engines can ward off carbon buildup via consistent Italian tuneups. Here ya go..enjoy. Go to pages 5 and 6 for instruction on how to reduce carbon buildup

http://www.google.com/patents?id=fL...q=valve+coating+carbon+VW#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
Last edited:
philly624

philly624

Ready to race!
haymest said:
My dealer just told me that I need to do a cleaning at 26K miles. When I asked why it was building up they said it was gas or driving conditions. I don't really buy that given that I have yet to see anyone who needed it this early. They claim it's so bad that it's causing misfirings on three cylinders. They are replacing the intake manifold under warranty.

I've always put 93 octane premium in the car from reputable gas stations. I drive aggressively but don't redline it with regularity. Anyone else have this come up so early? Any other theories (preferably warranty-related) that might cause carbon to build up so quickly? They want $800 to do the cleaning. Is that excessive?

Any input would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom
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Unfortunately our cars are prone to these problems because they are direct injected rather than port which means that the detergents in fuel are not able to clean above the valves and in the intake ports. It's a little for that to happen but its better to do an injector and head cleaning every 20k just to prevent any problems.
 
S

SweetJones_29

Ready to race!
230 for a cleaning. Sign me up.
 
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