Turbo failure after 50,000 miles

[cduggan3658]

So I just bought a 2015 gti at 50,150 miles and within 4 days of ownership my turbo failed. I was about an hour into my road trip to Asheville from Charlotte and I did a pull and at the end of it my EPC light came on. The car is completely stock other than the muffler delete I did the day before. Once I saw the light I pulled over, turned the car off and turned it back on but I was confused because I had to give it some gas to turn it back on. Once started again the light went off and I continued my drive. About 20 minutes later while I had my cruise control on the light came back on, the RPMs began to drop and it eventually died. I coasted over to the shoulder and tried to start it again thinking the light would go away like the last time. After starting it again it now sounded like metal clunking around in the engine bay. The car wouldn’t idle and died every time I got it started. Considering this is my first turbo VW I don’t know what to expect from them or symptoms of bad turbos. My first thought was that the current from the welding could have caused something to go wrong electronically but after talking to some people at work I ruled that out. Does anyone have any input on what could have caused the turbo to fail after me only putting 150 miles on the car?

 

[JerseyDrew77]

Yeah, 2015's are a bad year for the MK7's because they have a lot of blown turbos. For the following year, VW made some revisions to the turbo to fix that issue. Do a search on this forum and you will find plenty of threads talking about this.

 

[cduggan3658]

Yeah, 2015's are a bad year for the MK7's because they have a lot of blown turbos. For the following year, VW made some revisions to the turbo to fix that issue. Do a search on this forum and you will find plenty of threads talking about this.

Ok thank you! Will I be okay after it’s replaced?

 

[JerseyDrew77]

Yes. If you bought the car from a VW dealership, it will be covered under your warranty.

 

[jimlloyd40]

Yes. If you bought the car from a VW dealership, it will be covered under your warranty.

What was the warranty on a 15 GTI?

 

[cduggan3658]

What was the warranty on a 15 GTI?

60k powertrain but I still have a 30 day warranty from the dealership.

 

[JC_451]

May want to look into if this car had previously been tuned. I know you said its stock but many people pull all their aftermarket pieces before a trade.

The near immediate failure makes me think the previous owner knew problems were on the horizon. Mayhap he ditched it instead of dealing with a potentially expensive repair.

When the car started stumbling did you see any smoke come out the tailpipe? Like, every blown turbo story on here cites blowing white smoke in addition to the powerloss and the dash lighting up.

 

[cduggan3658]

May want to look into if this car had previously been tuned. I know you said its stock but many people pull all their aftermarket pieces before a trade.

The near immediate failure makes me think the previous owner knew problems were on the horizon. Mayhap he ditched it instead of dealing with a potentially expensive repair.

When the car started stumbling did you see any smoke come out the tailpipe? Like, every blown turbo story on here cites blowing white smoke in addition to the powerloss and the dash lighting up.

Honestly it happened so quick that it didn’t even run long enough to tell. The dealership said it was the turbo that failed but they could be hiding other stuff that could’ve went wrong considering I’d only put 150 miles on it after picking it up before it failed.

 

[JC_451]

Apologies for the nervous nature of my post.

The dealer is most likely correct about it being the turbo. I would just want to confirm that the car wasn't tuned and then make sure they're going to do a good job getting everything cleaned up. If they're honoring the 30 day warranty or the car still carries the balance of the factory warranty then it's not a huge deal to clean things up and put a new or refurbished turbo in.

Pieces of the turbo have likely traveled to visit the intercooler and oil pan. If they (the dealer)know what they're doing you'll be fine going forward.

 

[cduggan3658]

Apologies for the nervous nature of my post.

The dealer is most likely correct about it being the turbo. I would just want to confirm that the car wasn't tuned and then make sure they're going to do a good job getting everything cleaned up. If they're honoring the 30 day warranty or the car still carries the balance of the factory warranty then it's not a huge deal to clean things up and put a new or refurbished turbo in.

Pieces of the turbo have likely traveled to visit the intercooler and oil pan. If they know what they're doing you'll be fine going forward.

Ok thank you lol I need some comforting words, I do not want this car to be a huge financial mistake.

 

[2slowvw]

Seems likely that the turbo was the only issue. The fact that it went immediately after you got it leads me to believe the person who traded it in knew the turbo was on the way out either by noise, loss of power etc. On the plus side if they fix it all at no cost, you will get a newer revision turbo and should be good.

 

[cduggan3658]

Seems likely that the turbo was the only issue. The fact that it went immediately after you got it leads me to believe the person who traded it in knew the turbo was on the way out either by noise, loss of power etc. On the plus side if they fix it all at no cost, you will get a newer revision turbo and should be good.

Awesome! Do you guys think I’ll be safe to tune it?

 

[Navi]

in before used dealer car comes back as TD1

 

[Navi]

Awesome! Do you guys think I’ll be safe to tune it?

get the turbo replaced and don't tune it for a couple thousand miles. Make sure it's all good and in the clear. Also, you might as well wait until you're out of warranty before you tune it since you are so close to it. Make sure all the kinks are ironed out of that 2015 engine and blown turbo recovery. Most say the 2015 is the worst year to tune.. not sure if it really matters though.

 

[Chogokin]

in before used dealer car comes back as TD1

That would suck...but I guess it would be on the dealer that sold the car?

I remember a case on Audizine where someone got a CPO RS6...had engine problems and Audi USA would not warranty the engine because they found a tune in the ECU. I don't know what happened with the car.