The current trend from Euro car makers to create big power out of 2.0 litre turbocharged four cylinder engines could be showing the first real signs of stress. Last week we brought you news of a Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG on fire in Sydney and now there’s reports of turbo dramas affecting the latest range of Volkswagen Group hot hatches.
While the cause of the fire in that A45 AMG is yet to be established, getting 265kW from a 2.0 litre with such high boost has raised many eyebrows for those considering long-term reliability. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but a quick look at relevant forums will show there’s plenty of A45 owners with issues of varying types.
Similarly, the latest EA888 engine from the Volkswagen Group which is tuned to produce up to 221kW and used in the Audi S3, Seat Lean Cupra 280 and Volkswagen Golf R is attracting a number of complaints, mostly to do with turbo failure.
According to an article published by Motor Authority the part number of the faulty turbo is 06K 145 702 N which they report is made by IHI Turbo. The relevant engine codes are CJXB and CJXC.
Motor Authority’s investigations point to a production fault for turbos made between April and May 2014, where there is a fault with the manifold sealing surface. Outside of this date range some owners of 2013 S3s are also reporting similar problems.
It’s been suggested Audi will be fitting a new turbo design for future S3s and has in turn delayed the launch of the TTS until the problem has been satisfactorily resolved.
Which begs the question, is the Mercedes v Volkswagen four-cylinder war one that is really worth winning?
[Source: Motor Authority | Thanks to Wayne for the tip]
8 replies on “Turbo dramas for Volkswagen Group EA888 engine?”
That’s because they use cheap sh@# turbos from cheap sh@# manufacturers. I bet they aren’t even full ball bearing roller turbos. Even when Ford was designing the XR6T way back in the day they did not skimp on turbo quality, choosing a full ball bearing roller turbo built by the best in the business GARRETT. Every one bags the Falcons, but turbo failures was not one of the problems they ever suffered. In fact the turbo and turbo manifold in terms of strength and reliability was over engineered to the point that the slightly modded OEM turbo and manifold can be used to produce insane amounts of power.
When making these performance cars it would be nice if cost cutting was put on the back burner and more attention to parts quality was used. Otherwise they should not promote them as performance products. Things use to be over-engineered once upon a time to provide long term reliability. Not any more it seems.
Good to see BMW has resisted going down this path, be interesting to see the M2 specs.
Bob you have no idea what your talking about get back in your Ford and drive away, manufacturing issues are present in everything, has nothing to do with the quality of the turbo which is one of the best.
i have a 2015 golf tsi 1.8 and i have almost 10,000 miles on my car and the turbo has failed i am realy annoyed.
I have a mate who’s extremely eminent legally taking VW to court over the performance of their (including Audi and Skoda) turbo-chargers. He claims 25% failure rate with massive fuel and oil consumption and VW is hiding it. That’s aside from the sudden change to the “limp” mode during normal driving which he is also pursuing them over. He’s subpoenaed VW and their ducking for cover
Look at a Beemer M135,
3 litre 6 not so highly stressed.
2 litre with lots of boost = poor reliability and lots of heat.
More heat = lower engine life.
Its simple really.
I cant believe people buy into this crap, Mark if VAG had a 25% failure on turbos across their range they would be out of business. I personally have owned Skoda, VW (petrol and Diesel) and Audi turbo models and never had any major issues beside the usual wear and tear. If anything the Skoda has been the most reliable of the lot. As for over engineering, what reality are people living in these days. No business in their right mind would do this when mass producing products otherwise they would not be able to compete. As long as parts are build to the required design standard then they should suffice unless their was a production quality control issue which happens from time to time.
All things breaks and every now again the fail early, just unlucky if it is your car…
Will keep up dated on the ‘reduced size’ EA888 1.8T that I will have in my MY15 Polo GTI.
My MK6 GTI was faultless in 3.5yrs of ownership…