Lucifer's ultimate guide: 1.4tsi fundamental problems

[Phlom]

Thank you for your post. I can tell you that some of these problems apply to 1.2 TSI also. On my Ibiza with 1.2 TSI one piston cracked as you described. If you don't mind i've linked you to a blog.

In my case SEAT decided to replace the engine with 100% payment from them. And i am out of warranty for 8 months now.

 

[lucifer666]

Wow, now that's a really cool guide! I'll post this on a Greek ibiza owner's forum if you don't mind.
Looking forward to your tuning guide. Is your car ready now? I hope mine will be in a few days as I had the mechatronic and clutches replaced.

Hi queen, been thinking about you.........bad luck with the clutch, strangely mine has been 100% fine. I think though that if your mechatronics dosent function 100%, then you will end up with clutch slip. My timing chain jumped, I had problems with blowby at low rpm which the pcv couldnt handle, which was just a feature of the pistons as they have not fully expanded. Then my ecu blew lol (I may have accidentally made a cut in the wiring loom)

Did you go for a ko4 64 in the end, I have the wheel from a golf r,never been done before so we still dont know 100% how it will work but its good for well over 300bhp.

Feel free to copy all this, its here to help people

 

[lucifer666]

Thank you for your post. I can tell you that some of these problems apply to 1.2 TSI also. On my Ibiza with 1.2 TSI one piston cracked as you described. If you don't mind i've linked you to a blog.

In my case SEAT decided to replace the engine with 100% payment from them. And i am out of warranty for 8 months now.

That's completely fine. Its crazy that the 1.2TSI have piston problems too, being a newer engine I would have thought they would have learnt. Think VW need to address their manufacturing and testing process

 

[rev1]

great article.
also nice to hear the internals are working

cheers

 

[Dan FR]

Some awesome info there mate. I've never owned a 1.4TSi and like many, have heard of the countless problems with the older engines. That is a fantastic guide/write-up, read through every word with great interest!

 

[queen]

Hi queen, been thinking about you.........bad luck with the clutch, strangely mine has been 100% fine. I think though that if your mechatronics dosent function 100%, then you will end up with clutch slip. My timing chain jumped, I had problems with blowby at low rpm which the pcv couldnt handle, which was just a feature of the pistons as they have not fully expanded. Then my ecu blew lol (I may have accidentally made a cut in the wiring loom)

Did you go for a ko4 64 in the end, I have the wheel from a golf r,never been done before so we still dont know 100% how it will work but its good for well over 300bhp.

Feel free to copy all this, its here to help people

No I still have the hyrbid with both k04-023 wheels. I changed the tuner though as overload couldn't solve the misfires and were blaming my car. So I went with e-tuners and voila misfires gone! It is down to tuning like you'd told me before. A scirocco with my setup with water-meth dyno'd 310hp, so right now I'll have mine tuned around 280hp and when the weather cools down a bit and save some money I'll get a water-meth kit and a boost controller for two settings, low boost (everyday no meth) around 280hp and high boost (for the occasional race) 310hp with meth.
Fingers crossed both yours and mine will turn out great without any more problems!

 

[lucifer666]

queen, do you know exactly what e tuners are doing to solve misfires? Greek mappers are much more successful than ours in britain and although I trust my tuner, I am worried when he does push things I will get misfires. Could you pretty please with sugar on top find out what your tuner did to solve this? thank you

 

[Jbocanegra12]

Oh dear..

Probably gonna drive mine off a cliff now.. 5 years finance with warranty till June

 

[jonbagg]

Prevention rather than cure!!?

Hi Mark
Just purchased a ibiza cupra 2010 which as I type is fault free so far !
Tell me the car is stock with no modifications, what would you recommend I do to limit the chance of problems going forward? Is it worth changing the Spark plugs to the ngk ones you mention? And is there anything else you think I should do?
Could you also give me advise where to get the spark plugs and any other parts etc

Thanks so much in advance
Jon

 

[ibiz4]

Hi Lucifer,
thank you for that great guide!
I'm also running on a CTHE Engine, and I've done some of those things mentioned in the past!
Altough it's a great Engine!

I'll repost this to the german ibiza-forum!
Thx!

 

[Stevoz03]

Great post Lucifer,

Another common fault that I know and suffer from is boost/fuel cut under Revo and APR software, do you have any info about that?

 

[rawcpoppa]

First up GREAT GUIDE. I've been looking up mods for this engine and was getting annoyed at the lack of info then came across this.

I noticed that this guide pertains to CTHE/CAVE engine variants of the 1.4 TSI. What about CAVD? I have a 2012 CAVD engine and there are loads of CTHD ones here now but engine failures have been scarce after 2010/2011 basically.

 

[thermalp4]

Hi Mark
Just purchased a ibiza cupra 2010 which as I type is fault free so far !
Tell me the car is stock with no modifications, what would you recommend I do to limit the chance of problems going forward? Is it worth changing the Spark plugs to the ngk ones you mention? And is there anything else you think I should do?
Could you also give me advise where to get the spark plugs and any other parts etc

Thanks so much in advance
Jon

I've just bought a 2010 Cupra with 24k on the clock.

After reading this guide I decided to swap the plugs out for the NGK 7s just as a precaution.

Standard plugs weren't in good shape so good job I did really.

Idle is far smoother too.

 

[bocanegra_1987]

ibiza cupra bocanegra 1.4 tsi- APR stage 1- consults

looks like you have the CTHE engine as its the facelift car in your pic. If its not mapped and it is the revised CTHE engine you'll be fine. I would suggest changing the plugs to the bkr7eix regardless just because they are colder and make the engine run healthier.

Hey bro, I have a cupra bocanegra fab 2010/ mod 2011- APR stage 1 -98 Ron(230hp) with this upgrades: turbo back milltek, twin intercooler forge, diverter forge and NGK spark plugs ( I think with all this my car is prepared for stage 2),

I send it to Seat because I had a problem with the gearbox and and I have the check engine on. So they scan and the car throw a lot of failures. So after 10 days, they told me that I have to change the mecatronic and the double clutch kit ( all in warranty), so i'm only waiting for the spare parts.

Yesterday I went back to APR to try to remap the car to stage 2 -98ron , but they couldn't get in the ECU, we erase the failures with the scan, but for the second try, we couldn't.

So we stopped on trying because they told me that the car ECU could block I maybe the car would not start.

My question is: when Seat finishing installing my new mecatronic and clutch kit, I think with that the car will be perfect so they will be no more failures, do you recommend me that I could get the remap ton stage 2 and there will be no problems. With the gearbox? Because I read on some forums that dsg7 only can hold 300nm of torque(stage 1), putting stage 2 will go up to 340 nm so maybe you could damage the. Gearbox...

Please, help me with these doubts

Thanks

Mike

 

[IbizaFr150]

"I send it to Seat because I had a problem with the gearbox and and I have the check engine on. So they scan and the car throw a lot of failures. So after 10 days, they told me that I have to change the mecatronic and the double clutch kit ( all in warranty), so i'm only waiting for the spare parts."

This is unbeilevable for a tuned car. You are lucky or we are getting sc... here .

 

[Alexanderrr]

Lucifer FYI,

There is an solution for the timing chain. It is a big problem in the Netherlands and Germany. There are new parts to solve the problem and VW will compensate you if you're car always went to the "stealers". Loud thicking noise at cold starts will warn you for the problem.

Costs will be between £500-1500 without compensation.

 

[thermalp4]

What is loud ticking at cold start a sign of?

Timing chain wear?

 

[Alexanderrr]

The noise is a sign for the tensioner building up oil pressure and the chain itself which can grow up to 2cm longer. VW/Seat will install new parts with a new chain. The longer/harder the noise, the more f*** you are.

2.0 T(F)SI is known for the same problem. So now the belt is back like the ED35 and R.

 

[thermalp4]

So If the noise is literally for 1 to 2 seconds on startup then it is the chain and not the hydraulic tappet system building pressure as described in handbook?

 

[Alexanderrr]

You will always here noises with a cold start but there is a certain point you cannot agree with. Here is one: http://youtu.be/q5EVcMfoYyA (Yes 1.2 tsi has it as well)