Hello world,

In early 2015 I brought a 2012 CPO GTI Autobahn with 30k miles. After owning it for a couple of months I posed the hood to clean some leaves out and decided to check the oil for no real reason. No oil showed on the sick so I added half a quart, nothing. I added the rest of the quart, nothing. Then another quart, then anther. It finally registered after adding more than 4 quarts of oil. I looked up how much it should take in total and was shocked that I had been driving around with almost no oil in the engine. Holly crap, that's not good. Does the check oil light not work in GTI's?

The dealer dismissed this saying 'these cars just burn a lot of oil'. If that's case then they should make sure the check oil light works and tell you to check the oil frequently. I took it to a different dealer for long term testing which showed the engine burned virtually no oil. I did not want to keep this car with what I was certain was an engine destine for a very early death. VW refused to buyback the car. After running some long term tests a lot of back and forth with Bozzani VW
the offered a warranty extended to 10 years and 100k miles. With that being the best offer I took it, and regret it.

A couple of months ago the engine began making noise. I took it in and the new dealer, Downtown LA Volkswagen, found shreds of metal in the oil. The engine was eating it’s self. I got the car back on the last day of the CPO warranty - the service dept thought I should be very appreciative of this incredible ‘luck’. I didn’t feel good about any of this. The car barely made it several miles away before erupting in clouds of smoke. Popping the hood revealed many screws were not put back in place including those that were supposed to hold the bumper on. They hadn’t finished the job when the gave me my car back. The had the nerve to ask me to tow it back to them ‘tomorrow’ as it was getting late in the day. A) Collecting the car they broke is their job and b) I didn’t want to comeback tomorrow and deal with it. I had to argue to get them to come get the car. No apologies regarding the botched install job what so ever.

When I finally got my car back I noticed right way the interior of trunk had been take out then piled up in the read hatch. WTF? After not having my car for over a month now I was just glad to get it back.

The new engine sounded different, and it was harder to get it to start. I could hear valve chatter bouncing off parked cars when I drove down side streets with my windows open. Also the fan seemed to run more often and longer after I stopped the car. Noticing all of these things more and more I decided to pop the hood and check the oil, which was fine. However the top of the air intake was missing. After a good look around my friend noticed it stuck in the radiator fan. The fan belt was still going but the blades themselves were not moving. Ugh. I put the air intake cover back on and fastened it with a zip tie. I don’t think running your car through multiple heat waves with no fan is as bad as running a car with no oil but it is terrible for the engine and has undoubtedly damaged the engine, just how much only the future will tell.

Now what? I submitted the car again to VW for buyback but I don’t think they’ll take it now if they didn’t take it before. It’s the dealers fault so I guess I’ll have to deal with them. They want to ‘inspect it’ but can’t say for what. UGH!

What would you all do if you were in my shoes? What’s the best that can come of this?

Your advise is very much appreciated!

Jason

 

Welcome to the forum Jason.

The GTI should have Oil Level and Oil Temperature Sender (G266).


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