MK7 GTI, Golf and Golf R Common Problems

For many years people have been asking if the MK7 was a reliable car, and for many years I have not have a definitive answer.  Determining reliability of a car can’t come when a car is 2,3 or even 4 years old.  From my perspective, relatability of a vehicle can’t be determined until you have a fairly large sample site of a specific model with over 60-70k miles.

Now that the MK7 has been out for 8 years I feel confident to give you the common problems you might see on a MK7 model.

To be clear I consider the MK7 and MK7.5 models to be the most reliable GTI models in decades.

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This info applies to the following models

• 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 VW GTI – 2.0t
• 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 VW Golf R – 2.0t
• 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 VW Golf/Alltrack - 1.8t

Water pump/Thermostat Housing – DIY Difficulty: Moderate

In a very clear 1^st place this is really the only problem with MK7s that I would consider to be common. 

Possible Symptoms:

• Coolant Leak
• Check Engine Light - “Malfunction in cooling system”

This issue generally results in a slow coolant leak.  As with many coolant leaks this leak can potentially get worse over time and will eventually turn into a large leak if ignored. 

Less commonly you can get a check engine light from a “Malfunction in cooling system” fault code.  This would generally be a result of a failing thermostat.  Usually when this happens the thermostat will be stuck open making your car not warm up in the winter.

The thermostat on these cars is electro-mechanical and the water pump bolts directly to the thermostat itself.  The water pump is belt driven by a rubber belt on the intermediate shaft.  The water pump and thermostats are going to be replaced together. We offer 2 different replacement kits for this issue.

How to Diagnose: The water pump/thermostat is located in the center of the engine underneath the intake manifold.  The leak from this will be in the center of the vehicle coming down the front side of the engine and hoses.  Leaking coolant will leak a white crystalline residue behind once its dry. 

Purchase - MK7 Thermostat/Water pump Kit - Genuine VW/Audi

Purchase - MK7 Thermostat/Water pump Kit – INA (an OEM manufacturer)

Purchase - MK7 Thermostat/ Water pump Full Explanation and DIY - Video

Purchase - How Electro Mechanical Thermostats Work – Shorts Video

Intake Camshaft - DIY Difficulty: Advanced

Possible Symptoms:

• Loud Noise on Top-Passenger side of engine. 
• Vehicle Running Poorly
• Check Engine Light Fault – P052A “Cold Start A Camshaft Position Timing Over Advanced”
• Check Engine Light Fault – P0016 “Crankshaft/Camshaft Correlation”
• Check Engine Light Fault – P0341 “Cam Sensor Ranger Performance”
• Check Engine Light Fault – P0300, P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304 “Cyl 1,2,3,4, or Random Misfires”

The camshafts on your vehicle have an adjuster at the end of them to change timing when needed.  There are 3 components related to the timing adjustment that can fail.  The Spool Valve, the Cam Magnet and the Adjuster itself, which is part of the camshaft.  Both the Intake and Exhaust camshafts have adjusters on them, but the Intake cam is the only one known to fail.

The adjuster at the end of the camshaft is generally what fails. This means most commonly you will need a complete camshaft for this repair.  VW has an updated version of this part which is what you would be purchasing from our site.  In some cases, the updated cam will take a different spool valve than the one that came in your original camshaft.  I would not recommend trying to replace your own camshaft as its very difficult, but you can consider replacing the Cam Magnet and Spool valve to eliminate them as possible failure before paying someone to do the cam. 

How to Diagnose: Check Live Data with OBDeleven "Camshaft adjustment Intake Bank 1 Specified and Actual” The actual value should be close to the specified.  This means the value will fluctuate within a few decimal points.  A bad cam will range 5-10 points off spec and hunt all over the place.  We also show this in the video below.

Purchase - MK7 Intake Cam Replacement Kit – Verify by VIN before order

Purchase - Cam Magnet

Spool Valve Versions – Varies by Cams found in your Car

Purchase - 06L109257G

Purchase - 06K109257H

Purchase - 06L-109-257-F

Tools

Purchase - T10355 Crank Holder Tool

Purchase - Gen 3 Spool Valve Socket (V2)

Purchase - Gen 3 Spool Valve Socket (V4)

• MK7 Intake Camshaft Failures Explained and the Process – Video

Ignition Coils and Plugs - DIY Difficulty: Easy

Possible Symptoms:

• Vehicle Running Poorly
• Check Engine Light Flashing
• Check Engine Light Fault – P0300, P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304 “Cyl 1,2,3,4, or Random Misfires”

Ignition Coils sit on top of the spark plugs.  These parts work together to ignite the air and fuel inside your engine.  When they are not working properly you can have a misfire in the cylinder that isn’t working. 

The spark plugs in your MK7 should be replaced every 60k for the standard service interval. 

On higher performance applications some people choose to go with a heat range or 2 colder spark plugs.  Our advice is to follow the guidance of the tuner you are working with.  Tuners have a better idea of what spark plugs work with their flash than we would. 

Side note: While not common we have seen circumstances where electrodes break off spark plugs.  From our experience this seems to be corelated to aggressively tuned vehicles, and/or drivers who beat the hell out of their cars.  If either of these seems like you, consider much more frequent replacement as a broken electrode can cause internal engine damage. 

How to Diagnose: If you are having a misfire on a single cylinder the easiest way to determine what component is failing, is to swap parts from one cylinder to another.  You can then see if the misfire moves to a different cylinder to determine if this component is responsible.  I advise swapping the ignition coil and spark plug separately to ensure you pinpoint which of the two has failed.  You will need an OBDeleven scan tool to read faults and check the misfire counter. 

Purchase - Ignition Coil for MK7/MK7.5 GTI and Golf R

Purchase - Spark Plugs MK7 GTI

Purchase - Spark Plugs MK7 Golf R

Purchase - Spark Plugs MK7.5 GTI

Purchase - Spark Plugs MK7.5 Golf R

Purchase - Spark Plugs MK7 Golf

Tools

Purchase - MQB Ignition Coil Puller

Purchase - MQB Ground Hold Tool

Purchase - OBDeleven Scan Tool

How to Install MK7 Spark Plugs - Video

How to Diagnose MK7 Misfires - Video

Make Sure You Do This When Removing MK7 Ignition Coils - Video

Wheel Bearings – DIY Difficulty: Moderate

Possible Symptoms:

• Loud noise come from exterior of vehicle while driving.  Generally, this noise will get louder with speed increase.

Wheel bearings on your MK7 are a bolt on unit that includes the wheel hub.  When wheel bearings fail they will make noise.  If a bad wheel bearing is driven on for long enough, it can separate from the wheel hub allowing your wheel to come off.  This is a pretty extreme example and unlikely, but is possible. 

How to Diagnose: Most noises that get louder as you drive are generally either cupped tires or a bad wheel bearing.  If you have a noise that started right after a tire rotation, its likely tires.  If you have a bad wheel bearing, the key is trying to pin down which corner (since you have 4 of them). 

To locate the wheel bearing making noise, you will need to shift the weight of the car by turning. 

Example: When you are making a right-hand turn at 25mph, the weight of the car transfers to the Left side shifting the weight of the car to the left side wheel bearings.  If the noise gets louder, this means the left side wheel bearing has failed. 

You can also run the car on a lift or jack stands and use a stethoscope or screw drive to listen for the noise.  This can be a much more dangerous and shouldn’t be attempted by anyone without experience.

Purchase - Front Wheel Bearing for MK7

Purchase - Rear Wheel Bearing for MK7 (Front Wheel Drive)

Purchase - Rear Wheel Bearing for MK7 (All Wheel Drive)

How to Diagnose and Replace a MK7 Wheel Bearing- Video

 What a Wheel Bearing Failing Looks like – Shorts Video

Oil Burning (1.8t Issue) – DIY Difficulty: It Depends (Easy or Advanced)

Possible Symptoms:

• Excessive oil consumption

This problem is becoming more common but let me be clear, this issue is likely a result of using low quality oil, and extending maintenance intervals.  If you are using quality oil and changing you oil every 5k miles as we recommend, this problem is much less to happen.

The oil burning problem on the MQB 1.8t is mostly a modern engine issue.  Modern engines use low tension piston rings to improve the overall fuel efficiency of the engine.  Low tension rings, as the name states, have less tension against the cylinder wall which means more oil will be allowed past the rings.  This can lead to carbon build up on the piston rings.  The only way to 100 percent fix this would be to install the updated pistons and rings, which is a very expensive endeavor and isn’t really a DIY. 

Our Advice:

First, you can attempt to replace the PCV valve, as a poor performing PCV valve can contribute to oil burning. 

Second is to do an engine flush.  An engine flush additive mixes with your oil and will have you run your car for a period of time before changing the oil and filter out. The chemicals in the oil flush can help break the carbon up to free up your piston rings. 

While our advised solutions are unlikely to completely eradicate your oil from burning, the goal would be to potentially do a few engine flushes over time to improve it. 

Purchase -  Liquimoly Engine Oil Flush

Everything you need to know about Oil Burning (Engine Flush Tested) - Video

Less Common MK7 Problems

HVAC Flap Motor – DIY Difficulty: Easy

Possible Symptoms:

• Clicking noise under dash on start up or when adjusting HVAC settings. 

Your heating and air conditioning system uses motors to adjust the flaps inside your dashboard.  When these motors start to fail on MK7 models they make clicking noises and sometimes will not work. 

The most common one to go bad was the recirculation flap motor on early 2015-2017 models. 

How to Diagnose: These motors can often times store faults in the system, so scanning the faults (with OBDeleven) to determine which one is bad can be helpful.  You also should be able to run output tests or basic settings to actuate each motor. 

If your motor is clicking its also possible to get under your dash to pinpoint exactly which motor is the cause of the clicking so you can determine which one has gone bad. 

How to Install a Recirculation Flap Motor on a MK7 - Video

Purchase - Most Common MK7 Recirculation Flap Motor

Upper Timing Cover Leak – DIY Difficulty: Medium

Possible Symptoms:

• Oil Leak on Passenger side of Engine

The upper timing cover is located on the top passenger side of the engine.  You will be able to locate this easily as the oil cap is located on the upper timing cover.  This cover is plastic and has 3 gaskets.  2 on the cam magnets in the front of the timing cover and 1 for the main cover itself.  Most commonly, this timing cover will leak from the cam magnet seals.  Something to keep in mind that there are O-rings where the cam magnets seal into the cam bridge.  You may consider doing these as well if your cam magnets are leaking oil. 

How to Diagnose:

Oil leaking from the timing cover will run down the passenger side of the engine, and can make it to the rear part of the oil pan.  When trying to determine an oil leak you are looking for the highest point you can notice wet oil residue.  If you have had an oil leak for an extended amount of time its often difficult to pinpoint the leak.  When this happens, we suggest getting a couple cans of brake clean to remove as much dirt and oil in the area of the leak.  Once all oil residue is gone, continue to drive the vehicle checking periodically for the location of the leak.  This will allow you to be sure where you oil leak is coming from. 

Purchase - Upper Timing Cover with Gaskets and Bolts

Purchase - Upper Timing Cover Main Gasket

Purchase - Cam Magnet Seal in Timing Cover

Purchase - Screw with Seal

Purchase - Seal in Cam Bridge for Magnet

Accessory Bracket Leak – DIY Difficulty: Medium

Possible Symptoms:

• Oil Leak on Passenger side of Engine

The accessory mounting bracket for the alternator and the A/C compressor on the MK7 models houses the oil filter hosing and the Oil cooler.  This means that the oil flows from the engine block into the accessory bracket.  There are gaskets for this channel, which can potentially leak.

How to diagnose:

In this case you would be looking for oil leaking from the passenger front of the engine below where the oil filter would be mounted.  This likely will be coming down the oil pan area as well, so ensuring you properly clean off the oil to pinpoint the leak will be needed.  

Purchase - Gasket Accessory Bracket to Block 06L117070

Sunroof Leaks – DIY Difficulty: Advanced

Possible Symptoms: 

• Water leaking inside car

Water leaks can often be difficult to pinpoint.  Often times you will need to remove many of the interior panels and/or the headliner to locate the source of the leak. 

First thing you should know is that sunroofs don’t seal at the roof.  They direct the water into essentially a gutter system, that drains the water out of the car.  This sits below your sunroof inside the car.  At each corner, there are hoses that drain the water out of the gutter system to the outside of the vehicle.  The fronts generally run down the A pillar and come out in front of the front door jam, which can be seen when you opened.  The rear hoses generally will come out behind the rear bumper. 

Most commonly these hoses can get clogged with dirt leaves etc and back up.  This will cause that gutter system to back up causing them to leak into the car. 

An alternative way your sunroof can leak is due to the frame or gutter system cracking.  This gutter system is a composite material that is glued into your car.  Bigger sunroofs can make it so the frame can crack under heavy body flexing.  If this is your problem you will need to replace the complete sunroof frame as it’s the only way to correctly repair this.

Turbo – DIY Difficulty: Moderate

Possible Symptoms:

• Low Power
• Billowing Light Blue Grey Smoke out of the Exhaust
• P0299 Turbo Underboost Fault

Turbo failure can happen on much higher mileage turbo cars.  On the MK7 GTI and Golf R I wouldn’t expect to see premature failure as this isn’t a super common issue.  With that said as these cars age and mileages are rising this is something that is possible. 

If you have a engine mods on the car, you’re pushing the turbo harder.  If you drive your car hard often, I would expect this to have an impact on the life of the turbo. 

How to Diagnose: 

If your car is low on power, a simple way to know if your turbo is working properly, is to compare requested boost vs the actual boost being put out by the turbo.  This requires a scan tool like OBDeleven Pro version, where you can compare data in a chart to see if they match.  We have done a detailed video showing you how to diagnose boost leaks which shows these data blocks in more detail. 

If your car is smoking badly, you will want to make sure it’s coming from the turbo and not the engine.  To determine engine health, you can do a compression check, and/or a leak down test.  You also can pull off the turbo inlet pipe and see if you have excessive play in the turbo shaft.  The turbo compressor wheel should have little to no movement if it is good.  Excessive play would determine your turbo is failing.

How to find a boost leak – Video

Purchase - IS20 Turbo (Stock GTI Turbo)

Purchase - IS38 Turbo (Stock Golf R Turbo – often installed on GTI)

Fuel Injectors – DIY Difficulty: Moderate

Possible Symptoms:

• Vehicle Running Poorly
• Dark Smoke from Exhaust (if injector stuck open)
• Check Engine Light Flashing
• Check Engine Light Fault – P0300, P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304 “Cyl 1,2,3,4, or Random Misfires”

Since these cars have direct injection, the fuel injector port is directly in the cylinder, just like a spark plug.  This means your injectors are under extreme pressures and can get carboned up.  A failing injector can stop opening - meaning no fuel is coming out or gets stuck open. 

How to Diagnose: 

If you have a misfire, you should first rule out spark plugs and ignition coils as the cause.  Once you have done that you can move injectors from the cylinder with a misfire to a know good one(see misfire diagnosis video).  This takes a fair amount of labor and often makes sense to just replace the injector.  This is especially true if you are paying someone labor to swap them. 

If your injectors are stuck open, it would be leaking into the cylinder.  You can test this by checking high pressure fuel “actual” with an OBDeleven Pro.  The fuel pressure is supposed to spike up when the car is turned off.  If it does not, it means something in the system is leaking down.  If it is the fuel injector you would be leaking fuel into a single cylinder.  To pinpoint this you would remove the spark plugs from the engine and use a borescope to inspect which cylinder might be leaking.  

To replace the injector you would need to remove the intake manifold first, which we have a video on how to do so below, and we also have a video which shows you how to install new seals on your fuel injectors with the special tool we offer.

Diagnosing a Misfire – Video

How to remove the intake manifold (part of waterpump diy) – Video

Purchase - MK7/MK7.5 GTI Fuel Injector

Purchase - MK7/MK7.5 Golf R Fuel Injector

Purchase - MK7/MK7.5 Golf Fuel Injector

Purchase - Injector Seal Install Tool

Oil Pan Gasket – DIY Difficulty: Moderate

Possible Symptoms:

Oil leaking under vehicle

VW and Audi has been using RTV to seal oil pans to engines for many years.  On the MK7 models, they went back using an actual oil pan gasket.  Over time we have seen them leak more than we would expect on a properly sealed oil pan with RTV. 

How to Diagnose: 

Like any oil leak, you will need to completely clean off the area until is it oil free with brake clean and rags, then run the engine to locate the origin of your leak. 

Since the MK7 uses a plastic oil pan which uses a gasket, most people prefer to swap to the steel version that is stronger and uses RTV to seal.  Its possible that the plastic pan could crack or warp which means replacing only the oil pan gasket will not fix your vehicle.

How to replace the oil pan on a MK7 - Video

Purchase - MK7 Steel Oil Pan w Oil

Purchase - MK7 Steel Oil Pan w/o Oil

Purchase - MK7 Oil Pan Gasket