2.0T TSI Ongoing Issues (Water Pump)

[veedub64]

Maybe someone can held me shed some light on the issue. Just to give a little back story. I brought my 2010 Tiguan new in July of 2010. Everything worked great, no issues. Then come the end of September 2011 I have a really bad coolant leak, bad enough for the coolant dash light to come on and beep. Got it towed to the dealership and it was my water pump. I was still under he 36,000 mile warranty so it was cover at no charge.

This past Thanksgiving week I noticed coolant leaking again and smelt it. It wasn't as bad this time to make the dash light come on. I took it to the dealership again and it was the back housing of the water pump and seals, yes the same one they replaced in September. The original only lasted 33K miles, this one lasted 4,500. They also replaced my radiator and throttle module.

Fast forward to yesterday, two weeks since it was replaced the second time and I think it's about to go bad again. I pulled into my garage yesterday and heard a constant high pitch whistle - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HWS2YmsGjo

I crank it up this morning and run to the gas station and no sound. On my way back, after the engine has had time to get warm it starts again. I don't have any white smoke from the exhaust, it hasn't started leaking YET, however, the passenger side of the radiator has a burn like smile coming from it, no smoke under the hood though. You have to get close to smell it. There is no smell on the inside of the car, even running the heat. I'm going take it back in the morning on the way to work to see if they can give it a quick check over, but in the meantime I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this or know of someone how has and what the issue was. If it's the water pump it will be the third one, 38K miles, second one in two and a half months.

[shawng]

There have been reports of a few water pump failures, but you win the award for the most failures. i feel for you, this really sucks. This is very uncommon. Weird that they changed the rad and throttle body. I can't see the connection, unless they found other, unrelated failures.

[veedub64]

Went to the dealership today and 9.5 hours later and it is still doing the same high pitch sound. They just charged me $541 to replace the intake manifold because he saw my cold air intake and said it was the manifold, this was on the receipt. This even after I mentioned the only way the sounds goes aways is removing the coolant reservisor cap. I will be trying a new VW dealership.

[shawng]

That is just disgusting. Here a shop cannot charge you for a part that does not fix the problem.

[NeedsMoreBoost]

Sorry about your bad luck. Would you mind disclosing which dealership you've been going to for a fellow Atlantan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej98FGPFFCE
^this youtuber has the same whistling, I'd recommend commenting or messaging that person and asking them if they found a fix.

The coolant reservoir cap is designed to hold back lots of coolant pressure to a certain, pre-determined threshold pressure where it will release into the overflow tank, I presume. If removing that cap makes the whistle go away, my initial thoughts tell me that there may be air in the coolant, meaning the dealership didn't bleed the cooling system properly after installing that new water pump.

It also makes sense to me that the whistle is only audible when the car is warm, hence the coolant is warm and the possible air pockets have expanded/pressurized to the point where they are whistling. The videos sound like the whistle is coming from around the water pump. Try to visualize an air pocket at or around the water pump impeller, which would allow the sound to be louder than normal, where the impeller SHOULD be completely surrounded by coolant muffling that impeller noise. I could be completely wrong but based on your details it's the only conclusion I can draw.

Hope this helps.

[Apexxx]

Air getting in could kill the WP.

[shawng]

Horrific thought, that the head gasket is going and forcing gasses into the coolant. If we had a rad cap, you can remove and watch for bubbles.

[veedub64]

The dealership was Heritage in Union City. I'm taking it the Jim Ellis Marietta tomorrow. I know it has something to do the water pump. And with the water pump, radiator, throttle module and now the intake module all being replaced since the end of September anything they come up with will now be covered at no charge under the parts and labor warranty. They are bull****ting if they think it's anything other than what's already been replaced.

[veedub64]

Jim Ellis had the car two days trying to figure it out. They submitted a ticket to VW and VW came back and suggested the water pump be replaced for the third time in 2.5 months. Picked it up today and so far so good.

I also filed a complaint with VW regarding the first dealership charging me for unnecessary repairs and a rep called me back today and said after their research I will be getting my $541.00 I had to pay for the intake manifold back.

[shawng]

Excellent, way to go! And now you have found a dealer that cares.

[Jstig]

Same issue here. I picked up my brand new Tiguan comfortline 2012 just 2 weeks ago, and have already heard a few times of this high pitch whistle noise coming from the engine bay. It usually happened when the engine was warm and the car had been driven for a while. It also has happened a few times when the brake was applied. *So I took video and showed it to the dealer on Monday. They told me that they did not have time to check my car at the moment because they were in a rush of winter tires changing for other clients. I got an appointment for the next week and will be posting an update after taking it to the dealer. I absolutely will suggest them to take a look on this thread.

[BarryT82]

So you had to spend $541 on parts for a car under warranty? What the hell are they thinking? I had to pay for an alignment check on my wife's JSW that had a bad alignment from the day it was new. I called VW and they said they don't warranty alignments at all no matter what the mileage is. There are numerous instances of it happening to others on myturbodiesel.com

[veedub64]

^^^^

Yeah. They where trying to say the high pitch sound was being caused by the Intake Manifold, not the water pump, and that my intake manifold will not be covered under warranty because of my aftermarket intake and crankcase (catch can). Will lets just say VW corp disagreed.

Second day after the 3rd water pump and so far so good!

[veedub64]

The high pitch sound has come back, however, it's not as loud before. The only time I can now hear it is when standing next to the car with the engine running.

Air pressure is getting in somewhere causing air bubbles to build up around the housing seal causing the sound, however, no one knows how the pressure is building up.

Removing the coolant expansion cap once again relieves the pressure and the sound goes away until the pressure builds back up.

I'm going to drive it for a few hundred more miles which is when my next service is. I'm going to ask them to replace the coolant expansion tank, maybe the seal is gone bad there and that is where the air is getting in? It's only $25.00 for the tank and it's about the only thing that hasn't been done.

To recap, over the last 6,000 miles I have had the following done:

Water pump, housing, seals - (3 times)
Radiator
Throttle Module
Intake Manifold

I will keep update the thread until a true solutions is found.

[shawng]

Head gasket leak!!!!!!!!

[veedub64]

I'm not losing any coolant and not leaking any oil, nor is there any oily mixture in my coolant and there is no coolant mixed in with my oil. The coolant level is perfect. The coolant system was just pressure tested 7 days ago and no leaks were found. I don't have any smoke coming from my exhaust, no engine power loss, have never leaked any oil and not leaking any coolant either. I've never overheated either, even when my coolant was leaking the first time back in September. Isn't it more common that a bad water pump can cause the a head gasket to have issues, not a head gasket causing a new water pump to have issues. I could be wrong though.

Other than the high pitch sound I don't have any head gasket symptoms. The sound goes away with every new water pump installed. What are some other symptoms of a head gasket issue on our TSI engines?

I don't want to jinx myself but I removed my coolant cap and squeezed on the radiator and coolant hoses for about five minutes trying to see if there was any trapped air. I then drove around for about an hour doing some Christmas shopping and the sound never came back. I will continue to monitor and if it's still happening when I take it in for the 40K service in a few weeks I will mention the head gasket to see what they think. I hope that squeezing on the pipes removed any trapped air, but at the same time I can't bring myself to think a simple 5 min squeeze solved my recurring problem.

[shawng]

A tiny head gasket leak will present itself as some white smoke on start up, and then bubbles back into the cooling system once running. Depending on where it is, you might not get coolant into the oil . Now the other thing it cold be is just residual air in the system that the tech did not get out when the pump was last changed.

[veedub64]

I don't recall bubbles in the coolant tank but I will check closely if the noise comes back.

[shawng]

Engine needs to be hot and running, and the cap needs to be off. Please be careful. Wouldn't want you to scald yourself.

[veedub64]

The sound came back this morning. With the engine warm and running I removed the coolant cap for a few minutes and there were no bubbles. Since removing the cap the sound has not returned but once it cools and I run it again it will.

[shawng]

Try this, once the engine is stone cold, remove the cap and reinstall it. Then see what it does. If it is developing a vacuum when cold, this will relieve it. I know the sound goes away once the cap is removed and pressure is relieved, but I just don't trust what we are observing.

[veedub64]

Will do before I start the car on my way to work in the morning. And if the sounds is not there by the time I get to work, 30 min drive, what are you thinking it could be?

[shawng]

Not sure, and there is not a lot of info available, but I have seen on some very 'closed' systems that a vacuum is almost as bad as over pressure. A bizarre example is on certain Satruns, if you put on the cap when hot, the vacuum when cold can implode the overflow tank. I just can't see that many water pumps being bad. So now we look elsewhere, try everything.

[BarryT82]

Maybe there's an issue with the block where the water pump seals to it? I'd call VW customer service and throw a fit. Tell them you're going to drop it off and refuse to pick it up until its corrected or replaced with another vehicle. Demand a rental car comparable to your Tiguan too. They tried to give me a Jeep Patriot with not much leg room in the back. With my sons car seat his legs would be up again the front seat. They swapped it for a new Durango.

[veedub64]

Not sure, and there is not a lot of info available, but I have seen on some very 'closed' systems that a vacuum is almost as bad as over pressure. A bizarre example is on certain Satruns, if you put on the cap when hot, the vacuum when cold can implode the overflow tank. I just can't see that many water pumps being bad. So now we look elsewhere, try everything.

So I removed the cap from the coolant expansion tank this morning before I cranked the car. There was some light pressure that released, nothing major. Driving the first 10 to 15 minutes and everything was fine. Stopped to drop my kids off at school, within 30 seconds after cranking it back up the sound returned, and was constant all the way to work - another 15 minutes. I got to work and removed the cap and it had a wripple effect, no bubbles though. I called VW and have an appointment to drop off the car next week. Our service rep said he will reach back out to VW once I drop it off to see what the next course of action is. He said something down there could just be defective and they just might have to replace the entire engine given all the parts I have had replaced in the last 6,000 miles, non of them fixing the issues. As long as VW is going to step up and cover it I don't care, just want it fixed. I'm now over my 36,000 mile warrantly, however, my water pump issues started back in September when I was still in warrantly, 33,000 miles. Hopefully VW won't be a prick about it and try to say I'm not under warranty now so they won't cover anything that hasn't already been covered.

[shawng]

Interesting observation of pressure when cold. Glad to hear the dealer is stepping up to the plate for you. good luck and keep us posted.

[veedub64]

So I was cleaning out my catch can tubing and I lift up the engine cover and what do I see, some oil seepage at the cylinder head, valve cover gasket or Cylinder head gasket?

Likely what is allowing air to enter the cooling system causing my constant problems.

[artronics]

We need some closure here. Did they fix it?

He he, I am being selfish here - I have the same noise and I'm wondering what the outcome was.

[veedub64]

My fourth pump was put in shortly after my last post, 12/27/11 and so far so good *knock on wood*.

At that time though VW/Audi Germany had just started to get a lot of complainst, mainly with the audi's. I was told the sound is being make by the seals, not the pump itself. They were supposed to begin development on a new version, however, I haven't kept up with it so see if they have. I will ask when I go in for my 50K service sometime next month.

[artronics]

Thanks man. I sure hope the new pumps they install have better/redesigned seals.
I will post my results after I get it sorted out.

[enojado]

My fourth pump was put in shortly after my last post, 12/27/11 and so far so good *knock on wood*.

At that time though VW/Audi Germany had just started to get a lot of complainst, mainly with the audi's. I was told the sound is being make by the seals, not the pump itself. They were supposed to begin development on a new version, however, I haven't kept up with it so see if they have. I will ask when I go in for my 50K service sometime next month.

Thanks for all of the updates, and sorry you have to go through all of this. I bought a 2012 Tiguan SEL Feb 18 and within a few weeks I heard the whistling sound. Thankfully, I had seen various posts on this issue, so I felt I had an idea on the cause. It took 3 trips to get resolved. Fingers crossed it's permanent, but keeping an eye on this thread just in case the sound returns.

First trip: tech said sound was caused by high pressure fuel pump (filter?) and replaced that and some valve, I think. Going off of memory, so I may not have the terminology right. Sound returned within hours of picking it up.

Second trip: problem diagnosed as being caused by air in the coolant system. Coolant system bled. Sound returned on the way home from the dealer.

Third trip: water pump replaced (finally - I mentioned it during my first visit) and coolant system bled again. Sound has yet to return.

[angelvb]

I had the same problem on 470 miles/2012 Tiguan/.After water pump replacemend no more sound,1000 miles so far .

[artronics]

Well, it's confirmed. The water pump makes that squealing noise when the engine is hot. The mechanic used his stethoscope (an 18" pry bar) to listen to it.
The good news is that VW came up with a procedure to install the water pump without messing up the seals. Apparently, the seals fry if there's any air going into the system, so they immerse the new pump in boiling water to prep the seals and then install it.
The procedure is new so it may be the reason why some had to have several pumps installed.
I sure hope this takes care of the noise for good.

[garethusa]

it would be interesting to know what the production dates were for these tiguans with "crappy" water pumps.

[veedub64]

it would be interesting to know what the production dates were for these tiguans with "crappy" water pumps.

March 2010