VW TSI Intake Manifold - Garbage?

[pezzy669]

Don't even check in on the magnesium intake manifold on the Mercedes M272 V6 - has a common tendency to break the plastic mechanisms that operate the tumble valves and variable intake runner flaps and the whole mainfold assembly has to be replaced as the plastic parts that break cannot be replaced separately. New manifold assembly alone is like $600-700 - can get refurbished ones for $300-400. I have not experienced failure so cannot comment on labor cost.

Look at all that plastic fantastic gear - the flaps and tumble valves inside are plastic as well. There are two metal arms in that entire assembly - it is all the other smaller plastic arms that can snap.

 

[JOD]

The Gen 3 EA888 is not plagued with the intake manifold issues of the Gen 1 and 2, so the part has been redesigned. Most of the information above is relative to the Gen 1/2 version. The 3rd generation, despite the name, is quite different. The cylinder head is totally different, as is the IM.

The Tiguan uses the B-cycle version though, so it may have it's one problems (clearly, VW's engine naming conventions are pretty confusing).

There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with composite intake manifolds.

 

[silveravant]

There is a 10 year, 120,000 mile extended warranty on the intake manifold. If you replaced it yourself or paid to have it done you should apply for reimbursement.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by WhizkidTN
Such wonderful German engineering at its finest indeed!


I think it's utterly stupid. My M5 had 8 throttle bodies and it didn't have anything approaching this level of idiocy going on under the hood. I think it's more a VAG thing than a German thing.



BMW did have a swirl flap issue with the old M57 diesels. The soot from the EGR would sandblast the flaps which would break and go down into the valves and/or combustion chamber.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by silveravant
There is a 10 year, 120,000 mile extended warranty on the intake manifold. If you replaced it yourself or paid to have it done you should apply for reimbursement.


As per the OP, the vehicle isn't mine, and it's 6 months old, it was covered. He just found it alarming for this to be needed so soon in the ownership.

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by silveravant
There is a 10 year, 120,000 mile extended warranty on the intake manifold. If you replaced it yourself or paid to have it done you should apply for reimbursement.


As per the OP, the vehicle isn't mine, and it's 6 months old, it was covered. He just found it alarming for this to be needed so soon in the ownership.


Parts fail all the time on any vehicle. Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.

In USA they have 6 yr/72k bumper to bumper on vehicle.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by madRiver
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by silveravant
There is a 10 year, 120,000 mile extended warranty on the intake manifold. If you replaced it yourself or paid to have it done you should apply for reimbursement.


As per the OP, the vehicle isn't mine, and it's 6 months old, it was covered. He just found it alarming for this to be needed so soon in the ownership.


Parts fail all the time on any vehicle. Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.

In USA they have 6 yr/72k bumper to bumper on vehicle.


This seems to be a something that fails with alarming regularity and there are numerous posts in this thread that confirm that. There was no concern expressed about the warranty but rather the frequency of this issue with this engine and the fact that it appears to not have a permanent fix at this juncture.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by madRiver
Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.


BTW, here's his newer 2017 video covering the updates made to the intake, and yet it obviously still fails, or of course I wouldn't have had a reason to create this thread.

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by madRiver
Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.


BTW, here's his newer 2017 video covering the updates made to the intake, and yet it obviously still fails, or of course I wouldn't have had a reason to create this thread.


Again, not the same engine, not the same intake manifold, not the same cylinder head... This has not been a commonly reported issue with the Gen3 engines. There's no 10 year recall, and there are no massive reports of failure. The water pumps and thermostat housings still like to leak though...

This goes into the differences a bit:
https://www.alexsautohaus.com/blog/vwaudi-ea888-gen-3-mqbmlb-engines-explained/

 

[Andrew1972]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by madRiver
Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.


BTW, here's his newer 2017 video covering the updates made to the intake, and yet it obviously still fails, or of course I wouldn't have had a reason to create this thread.


Unfortunately you took an outdated video and made a conclusion that all the revised parts are your words "garbage" based off a single failure of a revised part. You can emotionally feel that way however on the basis of statistics no conclusion can be drawn about a part failure that is potentially in its mean failure rate. ALL PARTS fail on vehicles however the failure rate in unknown at this point in time however will soon be known if VW is in an acceptable range.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by madRiver
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by madRiver
Not sure your outdated now 2014 you tube video is relevant to this vehicle with a different manifold.


BTW, here's his newer 2017 video covering the updates made to the intake, and yet it obviously still fails, or of course I wouldn't have had a reason to create this thread.


Unfortunately you took an outdated video and made a conclusion that all the revised parts are your words "garbage" based off a single failure of a revised part. You can emotionally feel that way however on the basis of statistics no conclusion can be drawn about a part failure that is potentially in its mean failure rate. ALL PARTS fail on vehicles however the failure rate in unknown at this point in time however will soon be known if VW is in an acceptable range.


There was no conclusion, this thread was a query, look at the title. The video and the information I presented, that I noted, was just from a quick Google, as well as the anecdote presented by the dealer, which alarmed my friend.

There apparently is a history of failure on this engine, as others have noted. Does the current version have the same record of failure as its predecessors? Perhaps not, but it isn't confidence inspiring that there have been issues with these over multiple generations. And you'll kindly note the question mark after the word "garbage" in the title of the thread. I don't wrench on VW's, and the purpose of the thread was to present the video, which detailed some of the history, the scenario that played out with my associate, to provide some context, and get some feedback from folks on here.

You'll also note that it wasn't even mentioned that her 2018 would be the 3rd gen version of this engine until JOD's post only a few above this one:

Originally Posted by JOD
The Gen 3 EA888 is not plagued with the intake manifold issues of the Gen 1 and 2, so the part has been redesigned. Most of the information above is relative to the Gen 1/2 version. The 3rd generation, despite the name, is quite different. The cylinder head is totally different, as is the IM.


Which is useful information. However, I do find it worrisome that the dealer appears to contradict JOD that it isn't common on the 3rd gens

Do you have anything of value to add to this thread like JOD has done or are we going to continue down this road of mis-framing the thread and my intentions? I'm well aware that there is a failure rate for every component, that's not a revelation. I don't own a VW, so I'm not emotionally invested. I am simply looking for feedback on the issue of intake manifold replacement on this engine. So far JOD has been extremely helpful, if you have information that can complement his, that's what I'm looking for.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by JOD


Again, not the same engine, not the same intake manifold, not the same cylinder head... This has not been a commonly reported issue with the Gen3 engines. There's no 10 year recall, and there are no massive reports of failure. The water pumps and thermostat housings still like to leak though...

This goes into the differences a bit:
https://www.alexsautohaus.com/blog/vwaudi-ea888-gen-3-mqbmlb-engines-explained/


Thank you, your posts have been extremely helpful! I had no idea we were on Gen3 of this engine and you were the only person to point this out. The dealer (apparently, as I wasn't there) didn't remark on that either.

 

[Andrew1972]

You are asking the impossible of any real feedback because the application is too new and 2018 only with a brand new engine variation of the 2.0. I'd suggest going to the MQB Tiguan forum and seeing how many failures there. I believe Consumer Reports had the 2018 Tiguan with average reliability however do not know if within that average rating the intake itself was a factor.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by madRiver
You are asking the impossible of any real feedback because the application is too new and 2018 only with a brand new engine variation of the 2.0. I'd suggest going to the MQB Tiguan forum and seeing how many failures there. I believe Consumer Reports had the 2018 Tiguan with average reliability however do not know if within that average rating the intake itself was a factor.


Contextually, within the scope of this thread, keep in mind that until JOD pointed it out, I had no idea this was the 3rd generation variant of this engine. So my originally query hadn't been predicated on that factoid. Now that this has been identified, I am in agreement, that any sort of reliability/failure data is going to be difficult to qualify.

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by madRiver
You are asking the impossible of any real feedback because the application is too new and 2018 only with a brand new engine variation of the 2.0. I'd suggest going to the MQB Tiguan forum and seeing how many failures there. I believe Consumer Reports had the 2018 Tiguan with average reliability however do not know if within that average rating the intake itself was a factor.


Contextually, within the scope of this thread, keep in mind that until JOD pointed it out, I had no idea this was the 3rd generation variant of this engine. So my originally query hadn't been predicated on that factoid. Now that this has been identified, I am in agreement, that any sort of reliability/failure data is going to be difficult to qualify.


Well, keep in mind that the Gen3 engine has been out in some vehicles since 2014. It was used concurrently with the Gen2 depending on the model. (Yes, the naming conventions are ridiculous. There are 4 letter codes that identify the actual engine).

You're right though, the B-cycle version is brand new, so there's really no telling. On the EA888 in general, they've been pretty reliable overall. The most common problems seem to be related to coolant seeping--either the water pump or t-stat housing. There were some rear main seal issues on the first 1.8T version, but that seems to have since been resolved. Besides that though, most other issues on stock engines seem to be isolated random things.

I'm a long-time VW hater, and I now own two cars with the engine. If you're looking for a manual transmission wagon, not many options out there so I decided to give it a chance. Having researched this to death prior to purchasing, I think the above is pretty accurate. Hope the new B-cycle provides reliable for her Tiguan.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by JOD
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by madRiver
You are asking the impossible of any real feedback because the application is too new and 2018 only with a brand new engine variation of the 2.0. I'd suggest going to the MQB Tiguan forum and seeing how many failures there. I believe Consumer Reports had the 2018 Tiguan with average reliability however do not know if within that average rating the intake itself was a factor.


Contextually, within the scope of this thread, keep in mind that until JOD pointed it out, I had no idea this was the 3rd generation variant of this engine. So my originally query hadn't been predicated on that factoid. Now that this has been identified, I am in agreement, that any sort of reliability/failure data is going to be difficult to qualify.


Well, keep in mind that the Gen3 engine has been out in some vehicles since 2014. It was used concurrently with the Gen2 depending on the model. (Yes, the naming conventions are ridiculous. There are 4 letter codes that identify the actual engine).

You're right though, the B-cycle version is brand new, so there's really no telling. On the EA888 in general, they've been pretty reliable overall. The most common problems seem to be related to coolant seeping--either the water pump or t-stat housing. There were some rear main seal issues on the first 1.8T version, but that seems to have since been resolved. Besides that though, most other issues on stock engines seem to be isolated random things.

I'm a long-time VW hater, and I now own two cars with the engine. If you're looking for a manual transmission wagon, not many options out there so I decided to give it a chance. Having researched this to death prior to purchasing, I think the above is pretty accurate. Hope the new B-cycle provides reliable for her Tiguan.


Well, thank you. Your input in this thread has been appreciated. You've provided some much needed clarity and insight