1.5 tsi ongoing problems, please help

[BoomerBoom]

I don't understand why anyone goes to a dealer anymore, they make a great cup of coffee and pretend to be friendly but the only thing they want from you is at least £4k in commission and profit, even more if you agree to buy the 'lemon of the week' they have all been told to shift.

With so many other options now, where you can compare and find a great deal then have it delivered directly to you, the joy of popping into your local showroom and choosing the shiny object they are going to crucify you with financially has gone for ever - for me at least.

 

[matthab]

I don't understand why anyone goes to a dealer anymore, they make a great cup of coffee and pretend to be friendly but the only thing they want from you is at least £4k in commission and profit, even more if you agree to buy the 'lemon of the week' they have all been told to shift.

With so many other options now, where you can compare and find a great deal then have it delivered directly to you, the joy of popping into your local showroom and choosing the shiny object they are going to crucify you with financially has gone for ever - for me at least.

My last two cars were through carwow, literally went in signed the paperwork and drove away. My 300 I found on Auto trader did it all over the phone went to see it and paid deposit. I did a little more haggling as it was the spec and colour I wanted.

Presonally in this day and age I struggle to see why dealers exist. Position centres where I can test drive the car and get servicing done. I'm happy purchasing online.

Any experience where I have just dropped in to test drive and quote has been stressful and horrendous experience.

 

['& Son' managed]

I'm raising this thread from the year-dead as there have been some recent developments with my 1.5 TSI,
(150 EVO, code DADA) Golf that may be of interest to others on here with SEATs using the same engine.

A quick recap to save people searching, my late 2019 Golf had a mild case of hesitation from new, the dealer
applying the official VW 'fix/update' without argument when the car was about 6 weeks old after I had raised
the issue.
This update did go a long way to reducing the problem and the engine felt livelier/more responsive, but it's
running for a few seconds after a cold start was still not brilliant.

Since then, the car has behaved itself and returned impressive average economy figures, but it's 3rd birthday
is looming and I wanted to get it a 'Stage 1' remap - to be done at the same time as insurance renewal that
was due earlier this month for convenience.

Eventually I chose a small outfit near to where I live on the South Coast that have upto-date equipment and
a good rep AFAIK.
The car is stock standard apart from a modest Golf GTE-style airbox mod and snow grate removal - and of
course the 'VW fix' remap mentioned earlier.

The tuner requested a tank full of 97-99 octane fuel, (I went with ethanol-free Esso Supreme) and although it
was a hot day, (31 deg. C) the engine was quoted as producing 160 HP, (119 KW) and 196 lb/ft ,(267 Nm) - an
increase of around 8% from VW quoted figures for a DADA of 148 HP/184 lb/ft. This post is getting long, so
the next will reveal the results of 'after'...

 

['& Son' managed]

We had discussed what sort of remap I was looking for, I said that I wasn't too bothered about fuel
economy, nor extracting every last HP at the top end - but did want the 'peaks' of max. power and
max torque to be as far apart as possible.
My thinking was to achieve the broadest spread of power which always works well and so is satisfying
to drive on a road car IME - effectively I was asking for a middle-ground 'blended' remap, between the
usual maximum economy and the max power remap options.

The 'before' 160 HP & 196 lb/ft Test Run had a range spread of 1506 RPM - the remap produced
figures of 173 HP, (128 KW) & 231 lb/ft, (314 Nm) - with a range increase of over 38% to 2087 RPM
between these peak values. Which is nice.

The figures themselves may look unremarkable taken at face value, but the effect of the extra 47 Nm
of torque in particular is very noticeable, along with the smoother running and, (so-far) curing of the
cold-start hesitation issue.
I'm still mostly in the 'playing with the extra grunt' phase, so recent economy figures aren't the most
reliable, but it all seems fine so far. I've just returned from a week's holiday upto North Wales and the
car certainly picked-up speed smartly on the motorway when required - really gets going in the 2.5K -
5K rev range as I'd hoped.

A nice little bonus is that the car's 'Performance Monitors' meters have been re-calibrated, (either
automatically or by the tuner?) and are now showing the extra 18 KW being produced at full throttle
- compared to the standard reading of 110 KW it always indicated before when run on 95 unleaded.

 

[BigJase88]

I don't understand why anyone goes to a dealer anymore, they make a great cup of coffee and pretend to be friendly but the only thing they want from you is at least £4k in commission and profit, even more if you agree to buy the 'lemon of the week' they have all been told to shift.

With so many other options now, where you can compare and find a great deal then have it delivered directly to you, the joy of popping into your local showroom and choosing the shiny object they are going to crucify you with financially has gone for ever - for me at least.

I bought my last car on cinch.

Absolutely painless. I can't see me returning to a dealer. Completely refreshing. Wasn't even knocked down on my trade in. The fella that picked up my trade in didn't even look at it

 

[RUM4MO]

@'& Son' managed , just to acknowledge your posting, good result and a sensible plan, that might give hope to anyone left with a kangerooing 1.5!

 

['& Son' managed]

Thanks for the acknowledgement - I'll post some more details if anyone's that interested.

Earlier this evening I did my first 2nd gear 'hoon' full-on acceleration. The lower ambient
temperature of 18 deg. C must have helped, as the Performance Monitor 'KW' gauge hit a
'steady' high of 135 KW, (181 HP) - although I'm dubious as to how accurate the gauge is.

In any case, it offers comparison to the highest reading of 110 KW before, (when it was
running on only 95 unleaded) and the car certainly delivers some welcome extra urgency...

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Thanks for the acknowledgement - I'll post some more details if anyone's that interested.

Earlier this evening I did my first 2nd gear 'hoon' full-on acceleration. The lower ambient
temperature of 18 deg. C must have helped, as the Performance Monitor 'KW' gauge hit a
'steady' high of 135 KW, (181 HP) - although I'm dubious as to how accurate the gauge is.

In any case, it offers comparison to the highest reading of 110 KW before, (when it was
running on only 95 unleaded) and the car certainly delivers some welcome extra urgency...

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Hi,
Looks like you had a good result in all.
My FR 150 DPCA is going back in to the dealer tomorrow for rechecking the kangaroo issue.
They said there wasn’t an ecu fix available.
Did you get a TP number for the ecu fix?
I’m hopeful they will get a response from Seat technical dept.
Would be interested in any info re which company you used for the remap.

 

['& Son' managed]

Looks like you had a good result in all.
My FR 150 DPCA is going back in to the dealer tomorrow for rechecking the kangaroo issue.
They said there wasn’t an ecu fix available.
Did you get a TP number for the ecu fix?
I’m hopeful they will get a response from Seat technical dept.
Would be interested in any info re which company you used for the remap.

From what I've read, VAG consider engine code DPCA to be the proper fix for the DADA,
so little surprise that there isn't an official upgrade for this engine.

I did ask the VW dealer at the time, (early 2020) which TP number was applied, but they
didn't tell me. Pinnacle tuning stated that the car's history indicated an official remap had
been installed - but then I had already informed them about that.

When researching about the remap, I noted some 'leading-name' tuners stating that they
couldn't access the ECU through the OBD port, but Pinnacle confirmed that's how they did
it and that mine wasn't the first DADA they'd done. I suspect there may be some outdated
info out there on other tuner's sites.

My car's before and after print-out with Pinnacle's address details is below - the results
reflecting the high ambient temps of that day.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

From what I've read, VAG consider engine code DPCA to be the proper fix for the DADA,
so little surprise that there isn't an official upgrade for this engine.

I did ask the VW dealer at the time, (early 2020) which TP number was applied, but they
didn't tell me. Pinnacle tuning stated that the car's history indicated an official remap had
been installed - but then I had already informed them about that.

When researching about the remap, I noted some 'leading-name' tuners stating that they
couldn't access the ECU through the OBD port, but Pinnacle confirmed that's how they did
it and that mine wasn't the first DADA they'd done. I suspect there may be some outdated
info out there on other tuner's sites.

My car's before and after print-out with Pinnacle's address details is below - the results
reflecting the high ambient temps of that day.

View attachment 33465

Hi,
Thanks for your info.
My latest update is that the garage now want to apply a walnut clean of the valves to shift any carbon. Only done 4k miles so i don’t think this will achieve anything.
Now also looking for a mild remap hopefully done locally.

 

[BigJase88]

Hi,
Thanks for your info.
My latest update is that the garage now want to apply a walnut clean of the valves to shift any carbon. Only done 4k miles so i don’t think this will achieve anything.
Now also looking for a mild remap hopefully done locally.

‍

 

[Big Vinny]

I have based my understanding of this problem on YT video "TSI misfires explained" by Diagnose Dan. For me the best bit is the explanation of the six fuel injector profiles and how they change to give the different combustion cycles including cold startup.

He does however go down the carbon fouled inlet valve route. I'm not totally convinced by this approach as my 1.2 TSI Leon did sometimes hesitate on startup and cold drive off pretty much from new yet my 1.5 TSI 150 dsg Evo does not and has never done it. I suspected the 1.2 TSI must have had some issue with the air direction flap shown in the video or an injector or injectors not reliably performing the profile used for startup/cold running ?

 

['& Son' managed]

I'm a fan of Diagnose Dan and have seen his vid where the walnut clean is tried on an older/high KM TSI-engined VW.
Can't see how a 4K-mile old engine would be needing this though - maybe CN's garage has just run-out of ideas/other
options available to them.

Interesting about your previous 1.2 litre Leon sometimes hesitated when cold. Dad's 2018 1.2 Leon, (CYVB) does 90%
cold starts/short journeys and has been flawless and I've not noticed this issue jumping-out on posts on various VAG
forums regarding 1.2 litre cars like the way the 1.5's do everywhere.

Overall, the impression I've gained from research is that the 20% or so '150' EVO DADA engines that are afflicted can be
sorted to most people's satisfaction with the official VW update/fix remap. It may not always be perfect, but does seem
certain to deliver an improvement.
Owners lumbered with the greater proportion of misbehaving/gutless '130' DACA's seem to have no choice than find a
good remap, (around £300) outside of the VAG network - which is a poor reflection on VW's customer service given that
they've had well over 4 years now to have fixed or at least improve on it.

The fact they fitted DACA's to relatively few models probably indicates they soon realized it was a lemon and couldn't
be fixed easily/cheaply/quickly enough - not that it excuses them for not trying harder to for their customers.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Do we know if there is a tried and trusted non vag remap that stops the kangaroo problem?

 

['& Son' managed]

Finding an indie tuner/remap outfit with a decent track record and good rep in your area seems the
strongest option - worked for me so far.
Asking a few searching questions beforehand will help confirm if they understand what you want and
know what they're doing. In any case they should be charging under £350, unless they are offering
extra functions/disablements.

The remap should do the trick and any reputable firm will tweak/modify the map if you're not satisfied
with the result. As a last resort they would re-instate the car's original VAG map without quibble, a
record of which they will retain before they start the remap.
Deliver the car to them with the grade of fuel you intend to carry-on using afterwards. They will rightly
encourage you to use 98-99 octane for 'best' results, but if you have no real intention of continuing to
use this higher-octane petrol then there's little point and is a better idea to have the remap tailored to
the 95 octane grade instead.

Overall a very low-risk plan really, as most likely the car will end-up cured, or at least much-improved
for relatively little money - and at worst it will be no worse-off than before.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

Finding an indie tuner/remap outfit with a decent track record and good rep in your area seems the
strongest option - worked for me so far.
Asking a few searching questions beforehand will help confirm if they understand what you want and
know what they're doing. In any case they should be charging under £350, unless they are offering
extra functions/disablements.

The remap should do the trick and any reputable firm will tweak/modify the map if you're not satisfied
with the result. As a last resort they would re-instate the car's original VAG map without quibble, a
record of which they will retain before they start the remap.
Deliver the car to them with the grade of fuel you intend to carry-on using afterwards. They will rightly
encourage you to use 98-99 octane for 'best' results, but if you have no real intention of continuing to
use this higher-octane petrol then there's little point and is a better idea to have the remap tailored to
the 95 octane grade instead.

Overall a very low-risk plan really, as most likely the car will end-up cured, or at least much-improved
for relatively little money - and at worst it will be no worse-off than before.

Hi,
That sounds like great advice, i’ll see if anyone local not only get access to the Ecu (via OBD),and understand the problem, but also be able to tweak what is required.
A lot of tuners just download off the shelf ecu maps.
If this just so happens to fix the problem, happy days.
Assumption that the issue is simply not enough fuelling, due to latest emissions restrictions.
My previous car was a 2l petrol, no turbo, which was seamless, albeit a little gutless.
2 options left, attempt a rejection or take a chance with a remap.

 

['& Son' managed]

I assumed it was an inadequate fuelling issue as most do - logically enough given the symptoms experienced.
Unsurprisingly, these engines are set-up for ultimate fuel economy/lowest emissions, so it seems margins are
squeezed a little too much to ensure always perfect performance.

However, I've also read the culprit is the engine's electrical system causing excess load drain at times, causing
the engine to momentarily stumble/hesitate at low revs.
Whether slightly extra fuelling is a complete enough solution on it's own I couldn't say, but then I don't recall
reading about anyone having a remap on a VAG 1.5 TSI and then regretting having done so.

The only negative experience I recall was a member on here being underwhelmed by a base-spec. Tuning Box
when fitted to a his DACA-engined Audi some time ago. I understand why anyone might try one of these as
a cheap/reversible option to improve things, but personally the more I learnt about them the less I liked the
concept of that type of solution and so couldn't recommend it - but for sure some will disagree.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

It does seem that I am now very much in the minority with PCDA engine having problems. The loan car I have been driving the last week, a 1l Arona seems to have the same issue, and I’m beginning to think that this a VAG feature on some of these small capacity engines i.e hesitancy/kangarooing on low revs

 

[RUM4MO]

It does seem that I am now very much in the minority with PCDA engine having problems. The loan car I have been driving the last week, a 1l Arona seems to have the same issue, and I’m beginning to think that this a VAG feature on some of these small capacity engines i.e hesitancy/kangarooing on low revs

Just purely a comment from someone that has no experience of the 1.5TSI or the 1.0TSI engines, the 1.0TSI engines are known to be a bit "weaker" at low revs than the 1.2TSI engines that they replaced, so maybe this is what you experienced on that 1.0TSI Arona. Also, as far as I know, the valve timing on these 1.0TSI engines is the same as most other petrol engines, whereas the 130PS 1.5TSI is not.