DSG Reliability

[matt21]

Seen an ex lease 2007 Passat 170 TDI SEL DSG Estate with 104k for just over 7 grand which seem cheap.

Should I be worrying about DSG reliability on a car on this age / mileage?

I have a 530iA and the possibility of the gearbox going bang at any point has slightly tarnished my time with the car!

[snoopstah]

The DSG oil and filter generally has quite a regular service schedule (every 40,000 miles on my parents' A3, I think more on some engine/gearbox combos).

Worth checking to make sure that that servicing has been followed (especially since, in my experience, Audi aren't very pro-active in actually doing it when the car is in for other work).

[theboss]

A mate of mine was just telling me this week that the DSG has let go on his 55 plate TT (3.2), not sure of the mileage. He's been quoted in the region of £4-5k by Audi to get it replaced. I appreciate this is meaningless statistically but just thought I'd mention it to highlight the fact that (1) they can and do let go on <6 year old cars and (2) if you do get unlucky, it will cost a bomb to put right

[bodhi]

I would stick with the 530i to be honest, as the bills if it goes wrong are likely to be far less than if a dsg box goes bang. Plus, the 170 tdi engine is fairly horrible. It sounds awful (especially after a bm straight 6), the turbo lag is horrible and the power band is ridiculously narrow.

[DaveL86]

theboss said:

A mate of mine was just telling me this week that the DSG has let go on his 55 plate TT (3.2), not sure of the mileage. He's been quoted in the region of £4-5k by Audi to get it replaced. I appreciate this is meaningless statistically but just thought I'd mention it to highlight the fact that (1) they can and do let go on <6 year old cars and (2) if you do get unlucky, it will cost a bomb to put right

Yep sounds about right, my old boss had an A4 just out a warranty when he started feeling a slight jerk when pulling away, he took it to audi and they quoted £5-6k, he made a fuss and they offered to contribute half towards it!

In the end he traded it in at Ford for a C-Max or something.

[B3Svert]

I've gone from a BMW/Alpina 6 into that 170 vag unit and agree it's ste. The lag is fking awful, 3 months in and I hate every minute of driving it.

Are you sure it's the dsg box? Fwd it's multitronic, quattro it's called something else. The multitronic box is pretty ropey by all accounts, I wouldn't want to run one out of warranty. Take a look in the Audi forum there's a long thread on it.

[GreenMan]

The A4 never came with DSG, as the previous poster says.

As far as DSG reliability is concerned: Firstly, remember that the Mk1 3.2 TT was the first car to be fitted with the VAG DSG gearbox, and so has the very first generation of the technology. Failures of the mechatronic unit seem to be relatively common on those... tt-forum.co.uk will give you more info.

Secondly (and of course completely subjectively) when in Berlin a few weeks back I was struck by the number of DSG-equipped VW Tourans operating as taxis with 200,000+kms on the clock. Generally taxi drivers tend to gravitate towards vehicles that will take high mileages easily and without excessive expense, so I'd guess that they don't consider DSG to be too big a liability as mileages rise?

[CraigyMc]

B3Svert said:

I've gone from a BMW/Alpina 6 into that 170 vag unit and agree it's ste. The lag is fking awful, 3 months in and I hate every minute of driving it.

I was surprised by the lack of torque below 1500rpm. In all my cars I've been able to pull away without touching the gas pedal EXCEPT on a vag 170bhp diseasel... it just stalled.

I found that really odd.

C

[Tallbut Buxomly]

Stick with the fiver. The box is "meant" to be sealed for life however the box oil can and realistically should be changed to reduce the risk of the gearbox going wrong iirc.

[matt21]

I am talking Passat not A4 so yes is DSG.