2011 Volkswagen GTI Transmission and drivetrain Problems

“I was merging onto the 5 south freeway from the 110 south freeway, shifting the automatic transmission manually. After shifting into third gear and depressing the throttle, the engine began to rev freely as if in neutral for several seconds. Since the car was coasting and unresponsive, I began to lose speed while merging. I was able to regain power by shifting into neutral, then shifting back into drive and downshifting manually. This could have been an accident very easily if there was more traffic.”

“False neutral with dsg transmission: I was in manual mode when I downshifted as I came into a corner. Once around the corner I depressing the throttle, the engine began to rev freely as if in neutral for several seconds. I was able to regain power by allowing the RPM to drop to idle, then down shifting into second. This issue has only happened once in 19k miles slow reaction with dsg transmission: while moving and coming to a rolling stop and then accelerating to proceed, the transmission would not shift into a lower gear. This issue happens all the time.”

“False neutral with dsg transmission: I had something scary happen this morning. Next to my house, where I pull out and make a left on to a 4 land road, traffic is coming around a mostly blind curve at 50mph. I have to pull out across traffic and go left onto this road (which has a median). This morning I pressed the gas for a very light acceleration, and it pulled out just a little bit and when it went to second it didn't engage... It went to neutral. I was only 1/2 way across the first lane of traffic. My car barely rolled out of the way of cross traffic. …”

“Check engine light came suddenly came on. Engine had a hard time starting. There was a noticeable roughness to the motor while running. Brought it to the mechanic the following day and found many codes were up. Diagnosis is broken timing chain tensioner. Resulting in an. Engine failure . Mechanic said it cannot be repaired and will need a new engine. Odometer is only 76k”

“Car has 67000 miles, driving home on a ~300 mile trip, received a warning that oil was low. Drove 8-10 miles to the closest gas station to check. Oil was leaking rapidly. Put in more to get to mechanic who confirmed rear main was leaking, was unwilling to do repairs. Drove to another mechanic willing to do repairs, who confirmed that the rear main seal/pcv valve had failed. This is a well-known and common issue in 2.0 tsi engines across vw and audi.”