Just Purchased a 2012 VW GOLF R!

Hello fellow R owners!

Just last week I purchased a new/used 2012 VW GOLF R and have been loving it! Was wondering what recommendations or things that I need to look out for on these cars? I already kind of feel a little tug in the AWD when I take off in first gear turning left or right. Not so much in a straight line though. I took it to the local VW dealership for them to do an alignment, tire balancing / rotation, diagnostic check and brake flush. They said that everything checked out perfect and there weren't any fault codes coming back on the diagnostic test. Engine and Turbo came back all normal. So I know coming from my MK7 Golf TDI that the AWD is going to feel differently than the FWD........just wondering if you should feel a little tug coming out of first when turning left or right? Almost like certain wheels are engaging. Also the headlights kind of do a weird thing when I first turn them on.........they go left and right and up. Almost like they're calibrating themselves while the Bi-Zenon bulbs warm up for the first second. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Ronnie

That pull your probably feeling is just the haldex awd putting the power where it needs to be when your turning. And you have adaptive headlights so when you start the car they are basically checking themselves out and making sure there still functioning properly. They will angle towards a turn so there not just lighting the forest or whatever is straight in front of you

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ChurchXD said:

That pull your probably feeling is just the haldex awd putting the power where it needs to be when your turning. And you have adaptive headlights so when you start the car they are basically checking themselves out and making sure there still functioning properly. They will angle towards a turn so there not just lighting the forest or whatever is straight in front of you

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Okay cool! That what I was hoping for! Dealership said that if the Haldex AWD was acting up it would probably throw some kind of abs fault code. And I love the super bright Bi-Xenon headlights. They're a lot brighter than my MK7 Golf's halogen headlights.

Thank you for your input!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Golf R's have torque vectoring. So when you are turning, it applies more power to the rears to help with a sharper turn.

Congrats on your purchase. Golf Rs are a beast!


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Paytrose said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Golf R's have torque vectoring. So when you are turning, it applies more power to the rears to help with a sharper turn.

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Yeah I'm not sure? I'll have to pay more attention as to where I'm feeling the pull from after work.

MKJBM05 said:

Congrats on your purchase. Golf Rs are a beast!


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Thank you! Yeah I've always dreamed of owning an R and this one just kind or presented itself at the right time! My 2015 VW GOLF TDI is going back to VW for the dieselgate buyback so I had to find a replacement car a.s.a.p. I kinda pulled the trigger a little early as I probably wont get the buy back until November but the R's are so hard to find that I couldn't risk losing it by waiting.

Ronnie said:

Thank you! Yeah I've always dreamed of owning an R and this one just kind or presented itself at the right time! My 2015 VW GOLF TDI is going back to VW for the dieselgate buyback so I had to find a replacement car a.s.a.p. I kinda pulled the trigger a little early as I probably wont get the buy back until November but the R's are so hard to find that I couldn't risk losing it by waiting.

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That's awesome man enjoy it. One of the biggest issues on these cars if no one has mentioned are the cam followers. You would need to check on them every other oil change.

If you do plan on keeping this R for a long time, Id suggest check the thread below regarding a kit from INA that will convert the follower to a roller type cam that will bypass this. Have it on my R and no regrets.


cam-follower mod to roller type?

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...share_tid=7430034&share_fid=7951&share_type=t


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MKJBM05 said:

That's awesome man enjoy it. One of the biggest issues on these cars if no one has mentioned are the cam followers. You would need to check on them every other oil change.

If you do plan on keeping this R for a long time, Id suggest check the thread below regarding a kit from INA that will convert the follower to a roller type cam that will bypass this. Have it on my R and no regrets.


cam-follower mod to roller type?

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...share_tid=7430034&share_fid=7951&share_type=t


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Good info to know! Thank you so much. I'll read the CAM Follow thread to find out all of the specifics of it. Hopefully it's not too pricey to do this.

Cam follower is an hour of labor plus $50 for the part itself. I'm getting mine done professionally this time, but I plan to DIY it from now on.

Diy is 15mins tops after the first time. Do it every 20000 on stock and you will probably never even see it wear. As long as you use good oil.

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re: torque vectoring. Not available/enabled on Golf R by default. You might want to research the forums for "XDS". Conflicting reports as to whether it's a good thing to enable in our cars or not (some say that this setting might conflict with haldex/awd kicking in when car notices slippage). Personally i have it enabled and i feel a good difference on turns. A compilation of different notes i got from multiple sites back in the day:

XDS can be enabled provided you have an MK60 or MK70 ABS controller. It will say the adaptation channel is N/A if it is disabled in the controller altogether. This doesn't mean it's not available just means it hasn't been enabled. I enabled it successfully on my A3 2.0T Quattro doing the following.

Electronic Differential Lock (XDS) Strength
XDS is the electronic differential lock. On higher HP models (Scirocco R), this is set to 2, whereas the default on the GTI is 0. At 2, the system is more aggressive at applying brake pressure to the inside/slipping tyre.

Channel 36 XDS
There are 3 settings
0-center (stock setting)
1-weak
2-strong

What you do is go to long coding, Byte 17, Bit 3 (or wherever the Long Coding Helper shows you it is for your car/module). You have to check the box for that bit to enable PR-UG3/UG4 and then save the coding. On my car it told me the module was not initialised or whatever but then you can either use the "1234/123/etc." values by clicking "Yes" or by using the values in the module (clicking "No") and then you should get a "Coding Accepted!" message.

ChurchXD said:

Diy is 15mins tops after the first time. Do it every 20000 on stock and you will probably never even see it wear. As long as you use good oil.

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What exactly is the Cam Follower supposed to do?

Ronnie said:

What exactly is the Cam Follower supposed to do?

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it basically is a piece of metal that rides between the cam lobe and fuel pump that moves based on the cam lobe and tells the fuel pump when to push fuel to the engine.

Thats my basic understanding.

Ronnie said:

What exactly is the Cam Follower supposed to do?

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this guy

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