DSG DQ381 woes on a 2.0 tsi 190

[Steve Caney]

This is a long story so bear with me.

I had my DSG serviced 2 years ago and everything was ok until last year when the DSG went into emergency mode with only gears R,2,4,6 available. I stopped soon after and switched the car off for a while, and restarted and the error went.

However in Feb I had 2 more failures same as above on a long drive. (Both there and back) and it seemed the error was occurring when the gearbox was warm/hot.
The error stored on the ecu was P173500.

I spoke to a local independant garage and their mechanic had seen this error a couple of times before and had done an experimental fix and had cured faults.

I researched this and basically he was going to do this....

Much better than sending the mechatronics away for repair, so last Friday I had the repair done.

Results... I went for a long drive on Sat and Sunday, no problems or faults reported.

There is one issue though that I think needs to be highlighted.
On the invoice from the original garage who did the DSG service, I noticed that they only charged me for 5 litres of oil.
This garage charged me for 7 litres, and I am wondering if the original garage did not carry out the DSG service correctly and hence underfilled it with oil.

Which is why maybe it was overheating and the error came up in the first place???

 

[nd-photo.nl]

The first question I had was: what does "service" entails when you went to the original garage?

I don't know if you are aware of it, but this is the procedure:

When I serviced my DQ250, I needed to pump in 6 liters of oil and then drain it out. 5 Liters is probably not enough....

 

[SuperV8]

This happened with a work colleagues 2020+ Passat TDI DSG.
He also determined one of the temp sensors in the mechatronic unit had failed. Whilst he was in there he changed both.
It's not a fault of actual over heating - just a failed temp sensor.
The refill qty is 6-6.5L - I would guess the first garage just let you off 1L. You need to refill using a VCI to set the correct level at the correct temp as is common with many auto gearboxes.

 

[Steve Caney]

Just an update on this thread.
The independent garage close to me carried out the clutch position sensors replacement in the mechatronic unit of the DSG, in house.
All in inc. labour and replacement DSG oil cost £750 inc VAT.
After 4 weeks no DSG errors.... all seems good.

 

[bhavik236]

Hi,

Just sharing my recent experiences on this.

Cupra Formentor 2021 7Speed Semi-automatic DSG

Had the same issue pop up on the dash “gearbox on emergency mode. You can drive on” along those lines. I could only drive in the even gears, (gears 2, 4 and 6). I did pull up and switch the car off and back on, which cleared the error and gave me access back to all the gears, but about 5 minutes later the error came up and again only drove in even gears.

Oddly on the way home I was able to drive normally, no errors and access to all gears.

On the following day when taking the car to a specialist garage I was only able to drive in gear 2, rest all were unavailable. From memory the reverse gear worked fine the entire time.

The garage diagnosed the issue to be an electrical fault on the control unit within the mechatronic unit, and suggested a replacement of the entire mechatronic unit. Total cost inclusive of labour being £3.4k, ouch indeed.

The car drove fine again, for maybe 10 miles… before getting another warning on the dash “error: selector lever. You can drive on.” Car did continue to drive on without any issues, was about to select all drive modes and no problems.

Back to the same garage, diagnosis showed it was a faulty solenoid within the gear selector portion of the gearbox, with a replacement including labour costing along £900ish. Ouch indeed. The garage insists the issue is not related to the mechatronic unit issue, and is coincidental. Also mentioned that this component is a very common fault across the VW/Seat/Skoda/Audi range and that the manufacturer have since redesigned the part 2 times since launch after acknowledging the faults. he cost of the replacement is for the newest version and hopefully with improved reliability.

New part is on order, to be fitted soon. Hoping that its a swift job and no more error warnings to greet me on my next drive. Will of course update on here.

 

[bhavik236]

Hi,

Just sharing my recent experiences on this.

Cupra Formentor 2021 7Speed Semi-automatic DSG

Had the same issue pop up on the dash “gearbox on emergency mode. You can drive on” along those lines. I could only drive in the even gears, (gears 2, 4 and 6). I did pull up and switch the car off and back on, which cleared the error and gave me access back to all the gears, but about 5 minutes later the error came up and again only drove in even gears.

Oddly on the way home I was able to drive normally, no errors and access to all gears.

On the following day when taking the car to a specialist garage I was only able to drive in gear 2, rest all were unavailable. From memory the reverse gear worked fine the entire time.

The garage diagnosed the issue to be an electrical fault on the control unit within the mechatronic unit, and suggested a replacement of the entire mechatronic unit. Total cost inclusive of labour being £3.4k, ouch indeed.

The car drove fine again, for maybe 10 miles… before getting another warning on the dash “error: selector lever. You can drive on.” Car did continue to drive on without any issues, was about to select all drive modes and no problems.

Back to the same garage, diagnosis showed it was a faulty solenoid within the gear selector portion of the gearbox, with a replacement including labour costing along £900ish. Ouch indeed. The garage insists the issue is not related to the mechatronic unit issue, and is coincidental. Also mentioned that this component is a very common fault across the VW/Seat/Skoda/Audi range and that the manufacturer have since redesigned the part 2 times since launch after acknowledging the faults. he cost of the replacement is for the newest version and hopefully with improved reliability.

New part is on order, to be fitted soon. Hoping that its a swift job and no more error warnings to greet me on my next drive. Will of course update on here.

Update:

New part has been fitted by the specialist garage. Have now driven for a week of light driving and so far no issues, so hopefully that’s it and no more new issues to surprise me on my next drive.