jason1972

That's just the point though, I dont think anybody can say with any certainty, at this stage, that any replacement steering wheel is a perminant fix? It certainty wasn't on mine, that's why I sold the car. It is even worse if the customer is having to pay for these experiments!

Apologies, I misunderstood your post and interpreted it to mean that you paid the 600 Euros which you were reasonable happy with. Fingers crossed it is a permanent fix for your car 👍

Wow, I cant believe people are relatively "happy" to spend 600 Euros to have something replaced that never should need replacing on any car. VW should be changing all these steering wheels for free until they manage to manufacture one that isn't defective and dosnt cause errors!!

Hi Andy, Yes, the wheels and DCC caused me a bit of a dilemma as you are correct, no DCC with 19inch. I initially was going to go for 18's with DCC, but after a test drive with 19's on passive I decided to go for that as the car does look so much better with 19's IMHO. With the 19's and passive the ride is good in my opinion. My R had 18's with the DCC and I always had it on the softest setting and I find the M135i on 19's and passive to possible be a tiny bit stiffer than the R but in my opinion the damping is better (and seems somehow a bit more refined) than the R and it soaks up the bumps well. Apparently, the damping on the passive set up was one of the things that was completely redesigned a few years ago when the M135i recived some updates. I got to say though, I am now even more terrified of pot holes with less tyre protection 🫣 I didn't pay anywhere near £50k and I got every package, did a carwow quote and my local dealer matched the best quote.

😄😄😄 Many thanks Rebecca. Yes, you are absolutely correct, for ages now people had been telling me to get rid but I guess I was stupidly hanging on to the hope that everything would one day get sorted. The damage to the car and the dealer’s final attitude to me was definitely the push I needed to move on!!! I will still keep an eye on this thread to see how everyone is getting on! Cheers Jason Edit ....... One thing I would say to everyone is despite all the problems we know the 8R has, one thing I can thank it for is it held its price well and I found that dealers are keen to take it off your hands as a part ex for a relatively good price if you finally have had enough of it 👍

Hi Andy, The one thing I would say about the 135i is the gear box is no way near as smooth as the 8R, that dual clutch gear box in the 8R is really amazing and it never finds you the "wrong gear". Apart from that, I have to say the build quality on the 135i is just on another planet to the VW and IMHO for a similar price bracket the car "feels" more quality. Everything is just solid, there isn't a creak or rattle from anywhere (well not at the moment anyway 😀) One of the many things I felt let the 8R down was the build quality, it is shocking at best IMHO. As far as power, I am still "running it in" so haven't gone too hard but I would say that you can definitely feel the slight increased torque the 135i has with normal driving but I think the power tapers of quicker than the 8R at higher revs, so all in all I think its a great comparable to the 8R. One thing I do miss though is the ACC as you cant spec that on the 135i anymore for some reason, apart from that everything just works how it should!

Hi everyone, I haven’t posted or been keeping up with this thread lately as I have had quite a lot going on these past few months, but I thought that I would just share the latest with me. I finally had enough of my R and VW and I traded it in for a new BMW 135i, the BMW dealer gave me a good trade in on my R and delivery time was very quick. (about 2 months), so the R is gone. A few months back my R was with my local dealer, Group 1 of Sevenoaks for top mounts replacement (I have reframed from naming them over the past 3 years but that ends now). After my car had been in their care for a few days It was hit by a member of the public while parked in their ridiculously busy/tight public car park and the car required a new front wing. The dealership "apparently" obtained the money for a new wing from the customer who had collided with my vehicle and we agreed that they would have it replaced at their body shop. (in Chelmsford some 50 miles away) I was obviously not very happy that my car had been damaged whilst in their care and was going to have to be driven to Chelmsford to be repaired, and I put the blame with the dealership for "storing" it in the busy public part of their car park instead of their gated private area. When I informed VW executive office of what had happened (as I had a case open with them) and my anger at this situation via email (and copied in the relatively new head of business at Group 1 Sevenoaks) he absolutely “throw his toys out of his pram” told me that he would no longer be having my vehicle repaired (he would instead give me the money obtained) and to find another dealership. After a bit of an argument with him he finally agreed to honour our agreement and have the car repaired but I wasn’t to use “his” dealership any more. When they returned the car to me the creaking from the front suspension was exactly the same so I don’t think they even replaced the top mounts whilst they had the car. So, you think that VW executive office would intervene here and tell the head of business at Group 1 to stop being such a child and carry on supporting the problems with my car, but no, they say “their” dealers are independent business and they have no influence over them!!!!! Even though its VW who award them the right to be a VW main dealer!!!! So, I had my car back (wing repaired) but still the same creaking noise from the front suspension, Travel assist/SOS pings occurring constantly with a few months of warranty left and now no support from my nearest dealership. VW executive office advised me to take it to another dealership, so I did (which is some considerable distance further from my house) The service manager at the new dealership looked at the history of my car and couldn’t believe all the warranty claims and parts that has been replaced and initially informed me that they were “reluctant to get involved in trying to resolve problems from another dealership” but eventually they informed me that my car needs new top mounts and another new steering wheel which they would order. I advised them that the one on my car is already supposed to be a “modified one” but they informed me that means nothing and mine wasn’t the first to be still having the errors with the “modified” steering wheel. OK, I thought, it is now definitely finally time for this car to go. Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to point out just how VW and Group 1 of Sevenoaks have been an absolute joke from start to finish cumulating in the dealer finally having enough of me and all the problems on my car and telling me not to come back!!! so it was time to move on from this nightmare. I would like to say many thanks to all the members on this forum for all the knowledge they have shared that have helped me in the past 3 years, this really is a great forum. Good luck to everyone that is suffering from these travel assist/sos errors, I really do hope that VW finally find a permanent solution (hopefully before your warranty expires!) Many thanks Regards Jason

On both my 1st year and 2nd year service I was told that I didn't have a Service Plan when I had definitely purchased one!! My local dealer is not my purchase dealer and when I took it for its first service at my local dealer (1 year old) I was informed by them that there was no record of a Service Plan on my vehicle. After many calls to the purchase dealer, they finally admitted that there had been a problem registering the Service Plan when I purchased the vehicle and informed me that they would cover the cost with the local dealer. They assured me that this had now been sorted and next year it would show up as having a service plan. Fast forward 1 year (2nd service, 2 years old) and guess what....local dealer - you don't have a Service Plan sir. This time it got worse, as when I phoned the purchase dealer again they swore blind that I never purchased the Service Plan in the first place!!! Thankfully I found the purchase invoice which clearly stated that I had purchased it (well paid for it anyway) and they ate humble pie and again paid my local dealer for the 2nd service. Anyway, just another update on my car. Took it to local dealers today. They informed me that they scanned the car and could see the numerous Emergency/Travel Assist errors that had occurred again but there wasn't any "live" fault codes. They also stated that there was no historic errors reported from the steering wheel this time, but... they found that a module that is in the roof "shark's fin" aerial apparently had no "coding" ie no config??? (god knows what that does then as everything was working correctly, ie gps, fm, dab as far as I was aware?!) Apparently this module is on the same data bus as the Emergency/Travel Assist system's and they say that this module not having any "coding" would have thrown up errors which would have resulted in the Emergency/Travel Assist errors. Funny thing is that I remembered something about this being replaced (amongst the numerous other things over the years) but it wasn't as a result of something that I reported. The dealer "head of business", who was dealing with me, checked back though their records and found that it was changed in August last year but he cant say why!!?? I asked him if this is now the cause of the errors, why didn't the errors start in August after this module was changed, and why did they just start again recently after the sub zero temps (which was the same as the first time), to which he could not give an answer. He also could not give an answer as to why a module would just suddenly "lose its coding" if this has indeed just occurred recently. They have now apparently correctly coded the module and they also carried out that latest safety recall. So.........who knows, I am sceptical to say the least, but lets see, but it could be that the steering wheel is not faulty again this time as it would seem that numerous problems can cause these same errors. Oh, and another thing he stated to me is, categorically, any problem which is reported to them before the warranty expires will be covered regardless of when the work is actually carried out AS LONG as the dealer logs it when you report it!!!! If they don't log it when you report it and then they try and log it when the work is carried out after the warranty expiration, VW will obviously reject it. Now..... what happens if a re-occurring fault rears its ugly head again (any thing that has been previously addressed by the dealer) after the warranty has expired is another matter and down to VW "good will", of which I wouldn't hold my breath personally, but he informed me that VW would normally look at it "very sympathetically", which would result in the customer paying a "small amount" towards the work and VW and the dealer covering the majority of the cost, but then he would say that!

Sorry if a little off topic, but if anybody ever wanted to know how most things bolt together in their R then watch this: - Check out the part where he removes the whole front dash and centre console !! All I can say is WOW, how on earth did he remember how everything went back together?!!!!! I wonder how many dash rattles it had after all that! 😅

Hi all, just an update on mine. Beginning of the week I sent another email of complaint to VW Executive Office stating, amongst many thigs, that the Emergency and Travel assist errors have returned on my vehicle. I also complained that my local dealer was unable to fit me in to investigate these errors with a replacement car until mid-March which is off great concern to me with my Warranty ticking down. I copied in the Service Manager at my local dealer but then discovered that he had recently retired, so I resent coping in the new Service Manager. The next day I received a call from the VW Executive Office saying they were dealing with my complaint and then a little later a reply to my email from the dealerships “Head of business”. He stated that he was unable to bring my appointment with a replacement car forward but has requested that I take the car to the dealers next week where he says that they will carry out diagnostics on it while I wait (he says this should take no longer than an hour), with a view to them then having the required parts in time for my appointment in mid-March. He says that he has discussed this with his Master Tech, and they believe that it won’t be the steering wheel which has failed again but the rear radar sensor? (where ever that is located?!) This could make sense as the errors always seem to kick off when the car is put into reverse, but it also behaved like this last time around and, personally, I am not 100% convinced. I can now, almost every time, start the errors by running my hands around the wheel or just moving my hands to the bottom of the steering wheel, which would suggest to me that the errors are being caused by the captative sensor system in the wheel again? I seem to remember people posted similar findings to this way back when the problem first started with the original steering wheels? Anyway, I have to say at least the dealer, so far, is proactively looking to resolve this as fast as possible this time, which is all I can ask from them presently. This is a marked difference to responses I have had from them in the past when I have complained! i.e NO response! It sounds very much to me like they may have had a bit of a management restructure, which if true couldn’t come soon enough imho. Anyway, I will keep the thread updated with what they find next 🙄

Totally SHOCKING, you should make a post pointing them to this thread.

Yes, spot on Rebecca, the out of warranty costs are totally unknown. Along with the VW dealers ability to actually perminantly fix any given problem. The service manager at my dealers admitted to me way back that they are totally out of thier depth with most of these problems on the mk8 golf and are totally reliant on VW coming up with potential solutions.

I personaly think that getting anything free as a good will gesture in the UK now is slim to non exsistant unless manufacturers are forced to by local consumer law(s) If they can legally wriggle out of anything, they will.

My point exactly regarding VW now apparently changing from haptics to physical buttons on the steering wheel, the fact it currently has haptic buttons is NOT the problem with it, the REAL problem is that it does not currently work if it is still to blame for the continued errors on my car. As regards to good will from VW in continuing to cover the cost of resolving this problem, I personally think this will be non exsistant given the money VW have obviously already spent in "trying" to resolve all these problems on the mk8 Golf. I think @Dannybear83's post regarding someone being quoted £1433 plus vat for a new steering wheel (something that is 100% known by them to be defective in probably every mk8 they have built) already suggests what their approach will be regarding continued support with this. Personaly I think 2.5 years of trying to chase a bug free car has been stressful and time consuming enough without then exposing my self to the added financial risk of having to pay for these "experiments" to continue!!! (especially when I have zero confidence in their actual ability to perminantly resolve these issues)

Hi Rebecca, Why, do you want to buy it? 😁 Seriously though, that’s the problem, yes I think the interior build quality is absolutely crap, but as a car to drive, I don’t hate it, I love it!!! but I think that I am reaching the end of the road with trying to persevere with getting all these problems sorted (the warranty expiring in June really marks the end) and I have zero confidence in the car, so now I don’t think I have a choice but to get rid tbh. I will see what the dealer says when it is with them in March but I am not holding out much hope of them giving me any kind of answer that will satisfy me (not even sure I know what sort of answer would satisfy me tbh) If they say it’s the same problem again and it needs another new steering wheel then what’s the point? Another replacement steering wheel won’t have been “modified” again in anyway. I know that my current steering wheel is one of the “modified” ones as the leather definitely felt different, I said this at the time and I think most people who have now had this “modified” steering wheel have said the same. But even with this “modified” steering wheel it has followed the same pattern as I think @Dannybear83 (and I think others as well) said all those months ago before they produced this “modified” steering wheel, in that the replacement will stop the bongs for maybe 6 months or so and then they will be back. Well, mine has lasted approx. 10 months and they are back. So, if my dealer says it needs another steering wheel then this problem will probably just return again when the car is out of warranty and I will be screwed. All these errors seem to start to occur after sub zero conditions (but then continue and get worse even in warmer temps), it was exactly the same for me last time with the Travel/Emergency Assist bongs in that they started just after we had a cold snap. So maybe the sub-zero temps somehow damage/change components characteristics that leads to them then operating out of specs? (which then gets worse and worse) The Travel/emergency Assist bongs continued today, but then tonight I also had this on multiple start ups: - https://youtu.be/Wrg1c_o49M8?si=XogZJjaG3IUtwiNq So who knows what I will get tomorrow? The funny thing is, when I think back to all the reviews by the “car experts” on the mk8 R when it was first released, the things they said they hated about it, lack of physical buttons, Infotainment system too complicated, Haptic buttons on the steering wheel that you will press by accident…….none of these have ever been a problem at all !!! Little did any of these people know at the time (including me!) what the “real” problems would be with the mk8 R!!! Edit....thinking about it more, by mid March, dealer will probably say VW are currently working on a software update to fix everything !!! 🤮