1.5 tsi ongoing problems, please help

jimmyjimmy

Active Member
Jan 27, 2020
21
10
Hi what Dyou recommend for this as I have the exact same issue. Baught this car outright not knowing about the issue these stupid engines have and now I have the car I’m so annoyed and upset how it drives. It’s awful and horrible.
first I thought it was just me thinking the car is like this but this is definitely not right.
It feels like it’s bouncing back or feels like it’s jumping back doesn’t it ? Like it’s hitting something. I went to dealer 3 times one was software update and this cured for week and then back to normal and now more worse than ever. Absolutely dread driving my car and hate owning it :( the dealer have asked me to fill in a form this time round after I made a further complaint. It’s a diagnosis sheet asking when it happens what fuel I use etc and speed.
The kangaroo issue plagued my car for two years and was never resolved. I had to get ombudsman involved and dekra before vwfs refunded me in full. How you proceed depends on how you bought the vehicle and how long ago. Get dekra involved so you have an independent inspection of the vehicle. Citizens advice might be a good starting point too https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-or-repairing-a-car/problems-with-a-used-car/
 
Jan 15, 2021
5
1
The kangaroo issue plagued my car for two years and was never resolved. I had to get ombudsman involved and dekra before vwfs refunded me in full. How you proceed depends on how you bought the vehicle and how long ago. Get dekra involved so you have an independent inspection of the vehicle. Citizens advice might be a good starting point too https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-or-repairing-a-car/problems-with-a-used-car/
My car was Baught by a private dealer. I Baught this last year October 2020. The car is facelift 2018 1.5tsi evo engine. The thing is it’s not the dealers fault but seat as a company for selling these cars as it’s clearly a known issue within community !
 

Vag8

Active Member
Jul 5, 2019
57
34
My car was Baught by a private dealer. I Baught this last year October 2020. The car is facelift 2018 1.5tsi evo engine. The thing is it’s not the dealers fault but seat as a company for selling these cars as it’s clearly a known issue within community !
I empathise with you on this one, I owned from new a facelift 2018 (68) Leon FR 1.5(130) from new, had issues from day one, returned to dealership in first week with the issue of hesitation and kangaroo, they denied issue and fobbed me off with driving style etc.. after 18 months of ownership I’d had enough and traded it out for a golf gti, but only as I categorically wasn’t having another Vw 1.5.
The issues with this engine now well documented but it was only really Honest John from the motoring press that challenged it, your only option is to keep on at you dealership and threaten ombudsman action, alternatively get the dealership to offer you a sympathetic traded in and get shot !!
 

BigJase88

Jase
Apr 20, 2008
3,767
1,076
Hi what Dyou recommend for this as I have the exact same issue. Baught this car outright not knowing about the issue these stupid engines have and now I have the car I’m so annoyed and upset how it drives. It’s awful and horrible.
first I thought it was just me thinking the car is like this but this is definitely not right.
It feels like it’s bouncing back or feels like it’s jumping back doesn’t it ? Like it’s hitting something. I went to dealer 3 times one was software update and this cured for week and then back to normal and now more worse than ever. Absolutely dread driving my car and hate owning it :( the dealer have asked me to fill in a form this time round after I made a further complaint. It’s a diagnosis sheet asking when it happens what fuel I use etc and speed.
Just keep pushing the dealer.

wonder if you have purchased my old one, i had to get shot of it as it was undriveable!
absolute lemon of a car

when i got mine the 1.5 TSI was just replacing the 1.4 TSI

I test drove the 1.4 TSI 125bhp and the dealership were like yes the new one is the same (1.5TSI) but you get 130bhp and it is a much better engine with better economy....

Oh how they lied
 
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Jan 15, 2021
5
1
Nah mines in blue, and it’s a 150 model with DSG. I read manual was worse but this DSG one is absolute garbage.

Iv been once they updated the software on car saying there was a fix for it.
week later it started again.
I thought must be me so ignored it to a point I was not having it so took back again and they reset injectors saying it wasn’t in time and then also the timing of the engine was out too.

after all this I’m still having issues so they got me to fill in the form for diagnose and what issues I keep coming across and now I’m expecting to go back again on end of March. They adamant in getting to the bottom of this and want to make this problem happen so they can find out what it is. So far iv told them drive it on a cold engine which is when I predominantly use the car (in the morning or on evening).
Really disappointed and ashamed with seat on this car. My actual first brand new car I have Baught after owning an e46. And must say it drove 100x better :(
 

black_sheep

Active Member
Mar 10, 2013
1,255
586
We had a 150 ps / S-Tronic A3. One of the most disappointing cars I’ve ever owned, and after ECU flash and injector calibration it was still poor, so much so my wife refused to drive it and we sold it after just 4 months.

More info on this thread too:

 

'& Son' managed

Third Party
Mar 2, 2018
270
89
South Coast
My car was Baught by a private dealer. I Baught this last year October 2020. The car is facelift 2018 1.5tsi evo engine. The thing is it’s not the dealers fault but seat as a company for selling these cars as it’s clearly a known issue within community !
Thing is, under UK law, it IS the dealer/retailers responsibility, (if not 'fault' as such) for the issue you have. Seems they are being straight with you so far and trying their level best to sort it. Is it a VAG dealer you bought it from? If not, they may well not have access to the service bulletins/updates that any VAG dealer would, so it could be they simply can't fix it no matter how hard/honestly they are trying.

I was probably one of the luckier ones, mine, (a 150 DADA Golf from new) didn't play-up too badly, I just drove-around the issue and the upgrade/fix was done within 5 weeks by the supplying VW dealer and that sorted it well enough. The information I found about the 1.5 kangerooing issues here on seatcupra.net did prove very useful when communicating with the dealer.

Main point for me was the mild surprise how noticeably the car 'livened-up' afterwards, but as the car was new/very low miles before it wasn't obvious there was anything amiss as the engine had seemed to pull well enough, albeit not feeling particularly eager.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,705
953
I spoke to two Seat dealers about this in the last couple of days. We are thinking about changing car and I really want to know the score on this.

First said he was not aware of any problems.

Second said it's wasn't really a problem. He said that there is a system which tries to stop the car stalling should you pull away without enough revs. This can cause the car to stutter but a dab more power and it's fine. It's a driving style issue and not a fault with the car as such.

Don't shoot me, just telling you what they said ;0)
 
Jan 15, 2021
5
1
I spoke to two Seat dealers about this in the last couple of days. We are thinking about changing car and I really want to know the score on this.

First said he was not aware of any problems.

Second said it's wasn't really a problem. He said that there is a system which tries to stop the car stalling should you pull away without enough revs. This can cause the car to stutter but a dab more power and it's fine. It's a driving style issue and not a fault with the car as such.

Don't shoot me, just telling you what they said ;0)
Absolute rubbish if ask me, it not only does it when driving off it does it whilst cruising too. So my argument would be is the car trying to prevent stalling when cruising along too? No, it’s something else and dealers can’t seem to source what without an explanation just an excuse
 
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'& Son' managed

Third Party
Mar 2, 2018
270
89
South Coast
Hmmmm.... mine had a comparatively minor case that could be 'driven around' most of the time, but the point is that on such modern fuel injected cars you simply shouldn't have to do that. The fact that the 'update/patch/'fix' on my 150 worked ok and
also livened-up the response of the engine demonstrates it obviously wasn't quite 'right' in the first place.

I think owners of the 20% or so kangerooing '150' versions can at least get their cars sorted easily enough with a trip to a VAG dealer, but I'd be wary of the '130' as I've not read that anywhere that VW's fix for these has been properly effective.
 
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Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,705
953
The fact that the 'update/patch/'fix' on my 150 worked ok and also livened-up the response of the engine demonstrates it obviously wasn't quite 'right' in the first place.
Yes, I said this to the dealers. The first, who said he wasn't aware of a issue, didn't really say much when I asked why VW would release a fix for an issue that didn't exist?
 

martin j.

Active Member
Feb 11, 2007
1,997
894
Fife
Have they solved the kangaroo problems in this variant? Herself won’t drive an auto box.
 
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black_sheep

Active Member
Mar 10, 2013
1,255
586
I think owners of the 20% or so kangerooing '150' versions can at least get their cars sorted easily enough with a trip to a VAG dealer, but I'd be wary of the '130' as I've not read that anywhere that VW's fix for these has been properly effective.
It depends - we still had the issue even after two attempts to fix on an 150 PS S-Tronic A3. You could drive with constant throttle position and the revs would rise then drop with no change to throttle input. Even the master tech who test drove it with me agreed, then completed back to back test with their courtesy car with the same engine/gearbox and it did the same.

It was dangerous; on two occasions my wife had pulled away from stationary at a roundabout only for the car to cut the power (in a similar fashion to ESP kicking in) about 2 meters past the give-way line only to be nearly t-boned by traffic already on the roundabout. After this she refused to drive the car.

We noticed the issue on the initial test drive on collection, but were fobbed off by the salesman, stating that the ECU fix was due to be released imminently.
 
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Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,705
953
It was dangerous; on two occasions my wife had pulled away from stationary at a roundabout only for the car to cut the power (in a similar fashion to ESP kicking in) about 2 meters past the give-way line only to be nearly t-boned by traffic already on the roundabout.
Isn't it staggering that a company the size of VW can have a fault like this get past all of the stages of development and testing and end up in customers car? Really bad.
 

Vag8

Active Member
Jul 5, 2019
57
34
Isn't it staggering that a company the size of VW can have a fault like this get past all of the stages of development and testing and end up in customers car? Really bad.
Yeap, staggering that they are blatantly ignoring the issue, yes they’re have been software fixes that may have in some cases helped - In my 1.5 130 it didn’t, and every time the dealership either denied it was a problem or said they are awaiting a fix that VW are working on or said they’d never heard of the issue, or my favourite “it’s a characteristic of the car”

I unfortunately had to replace my preface lift 1.4 150 Leon, but had opted for the 1.4 125 as its replacement, only to be told I was getting the new 1.5 130 which I was told is the newest engine and a marked improvement on the outgoing engine, at the time their was very little known or any reviews about it,so I’d hoped it would be as promised, but what’s I got was a lethargic, wimp of an engine that although efficient, struggled to keep up with traffic, was geared to long, and flat as a witches t*t for acceleration just got noiser not faster!

And all of this before mentioning hesitation and kangaroo issues,
The kangaroo issues happened every morning, evening and come rain or shine and although software fixes were applied it never, never totally fixed it. Mine also had what i would describe as a hiccup with mild acceleration at a around 50mph.

But by far the most unnerving thing was the rolling flat spot - the rolling into a roundabout seeing a gap, committed to going for it and the car deciding like a stubborn dog it’s going nowhere fast, full depress of the accelerator but nothing, nowt, nano it ain’t moving anywhere in a hurry this happened on at least 3 or 4 occasions, with potential T bone accidents extremely possible the hesitation isnt a pain but this is bloody dangerous!!

So less at less than 2 year old, decision made, It was going, and I wasn’t having a another 1.5 vw engine in any variation, so a Mk4 was out, as was golf 8, A3, Octavia etc...

So I traded mine for a golf 7.5 with 2.0 petrol and haven’t looked back.
I’m afraid to say this is the only way to truly put the issue behind you if you have a VW 1.5 powered car...
 
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