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Unfortunately I missed this appointment due to a hospital appointment the same day. so recently tried to rebook my car , earliest appointment I can get with a courtesy car because they will need my car for 2 days (any warranty/ investigation is now min 2 days , Where did that come from all of a sudden) is August ! , now come on. So I phoned VW customer services direct (who are now not based in the uk) to air my frustrations , made all the right noises but still waiting for a reply , been 2 days so far. VW of today reminds me of the hideous SEAT customer care of old. My preference is to use this dealership because they are large and have a large stock of both new and used VW , including 4 R’s so plenty they can compare to. (I also have a engine knock on cold start up , which I confirmed didn’t exist on 2 of their cars in stock) anyone else had issues trying to get their car booked in? Or dealt recently with VW customer services ? im really thinking about selling , and walking away after my 12 years of ownership of 3 R’s.

Mines going in on the 26th for them to fix the manual mode stopping working mid drive , it’s booked in for 2 days , managed to catch a video of the issue happening while out on a drive , with the paddles doing nothing. hopefully they will sort it out , I’m going to ask them how much to upgrade to the new alacantra steering wheel with physical buttons which is being offered offered on new order GOLF R’s , it’s currently a £250 option when ordering new.

Thanks Becs took the car back to the stealers , master tech 🤐 says exhaust is louder in race and Nuremberg mode , I laughed and said that’s not why it’s here , so had to show him the issue , car is booked in for 2 weeks time to plug it in and cycle the exhaust valves , they need my car for the day , I laugh so much at dealers , it’s like they use words that are supposed to put you under some sort of spell , master tech being one of them, let’s hope I have better luck. that said I’m going to crawl under it hike taking advantage of the weather and see if I can diagnose it myself instead of wasting a day at VW.

Unfortunately I have had flu , nasty strain going around. im going back to the dealership tomorrow , hopefully it’s just a valve , but very strange it was fine before the service (even on the way there it was fine). will report back once they have a look.

Nope the technician had gone home when I collected the car , the service advisor didn’t know. waiting for a phone call tomorrow to have it confirmed. my car is that quiet now , I had to look to see if someone had taken my Akra off and put a standard exhaust on.

Childish as it may seem , but since picking my 8.5 up from its first service today , my Akra pops and bangs have gone 😡🤬 the service guy can’t tell me if they did a software update , but they were deffo there before it went in for a service and now gone , tried every mode , even manual mode where I knew the sweet spot was for them to really pop and bang and NADA NOTHING. my software version is 2632 Car built January 2025 now I remember Audi did something like this on TTS and RS models.

Mine is still there , my first service is due in 40 days , will raise it with them , along with the other gremlins. I will tell them to have the car overnight and I will come back for the cold start so there is none of the “we couldn’t replicate the issue”

And today it’s back ! more glitches than the matrix

Got in the car today went through the usual routine turning off the assistance features before setting off. was auto pilot , lane assist off , stop start - wtf where has my start stop gone ? it’s missing from the menu ? was there yesterday now gone ???? anyone else had this ?

My 8.5 harman system is awful , I mean VW should be sued for false advertising. how they get away with charging that much , especially compared to dynaudio system I had in my 7.5 is any one’s guess. the only way to really upgrade it is to change the speakers and bypass the Harmon dsp, which means adding something like a Audison dsp amp. im actually looking into doing that now.

Did you have parking sensor faults ?

Funnily enough , the first thing I checked was the oil level , mines sitting halfway between min and max. the noise just doesn’t sit right with me , it must be something oil pressure related that’s is affected as the cold start eases off. thanks for sharing

Yes exactly that ! thanks for the clip

A bit of back ground , this is my 3rd R , (mk7 , 7.5 and now 8.5) , so when you hear something that doesn’t sound normal (to me) it plays on your mind a bit. as the cold start up cycle just phases out into the normal engine rhythm , i have a loud ticking noise , probably lasts 2-3 seconds , but is very noticeable , which then dissipates and you can hear the normal high pressure injector rattles. This is only on the cold start cycle , so every morning or at the end of the day while the car has sat in the office car park all day. just wandered if this a normal with the new engines , being an engineer just doesn’t sound right with me. i have a video I will try and upload a little later.

Thanks for the quick reply, I have never thought about removing the case, will try that tomorrow. can’t say I have listened out for a fan , will have a listen tomorrow.

My 8.5 R charging pad doesn’t work , says it’s charging and doesn’t do crap , except makes my phone get hot. i thought the 8.5’s pad was cooled as well? anyone else had an issue with it not charging ?

Look good , where did you order them from ?

I test drive the new M2 before I purchased the golf it’s a brilliant car and would have purchased it except it was rear wheel drive , great for summer , but anything wet or icy and it would be a real handful. as soon as the x drive version is announced (circa Autumn 2026) then I’m afraid it’s goodbye VW. I really can’t believe how shocking the simple things VW have just fuc*ed up , by law you can’t use your phone while driving , so Bluetooth is a must , but every time it disconnects I have to fiddle with the screen , then reboot the screen to let it connect again , bloody dangerous. seriously the software engineers at VW need firing , I can’t believe they have been allowed to go to market with such a crap architecture running the system , it’s 2025 ! Not 1980 with a Sinclair spectrum at the heart of the system.

The Bluetooth dropping out is getting worse on my car , I see to get it within a few miles of driving , where it dropped out for 20 seconds or so , but now happens 3 or 4 times on the same journey , now dropping calls which won’t reconnect , it tells me to turn WiFi on by pressing the button on the screen , then tells me it can’t do the operation 😡🤬 totally unacceptable on a £50k + car was this ever an issue on the mk8. , I never had an issue with this on my mk7.5

Can’t remember , woke up to find it in my inbox a couple of weeks ago , they also had a paragraph on the Bluetooth consistently dropping out oh and my sunroof woes (which haven’t occurred again *touch wood*)

Did anyone get the VW customer service survey to take part in ? was basically different sections about your ownership , looks driving experience , entertainment ect obviouly they have a paragraph on the paddle fault from me. so they are aware of the issue in different guises , if they choose to ignore it that’s one thing ,but blandly lying is unacceptable.

Finally got it sorted today , but forced me to use the new app , which requires you to use secure authorisation, which meant I had to download new apps 🤬to use double authentication, settled on google authorisation. but all sorted now

I emailed racingline last week , to ask about when stage 1 maps will be available for the 8.5. didnt hear anything back at all. Any reply would have been nice but nothing.

Thanks for that , going to have another go today and see if I can get it sorted.

Mine won’t work at all , contacted OBD11 and they are working on an update to allow scanning. have you updated recently ?