Car shaking, EPC light on, CEL flashing, all cylinders misfiring

General Discussion
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22

Mental flexibility and cultural empathy has never been a trait of German engineers. Years ago a friend had a MB dealership and he had some cars on the floor. I asked for a maintenance manual for a typical vehicle.

Among the many detailed instructions in a very thick book , there was a requirement to add 10 drops of lube oil in each of the tiny holes in the door hinges EVERY 500 MILES!!!

I had a sister living 600 miles away who I visited regularly. A asked my friend whether I should oil the hinges 100 miles before I got there (even though I had opened only the driver’s door) or the “doors would fall off”? His answer was funny but unprintable here.

As pointed out the inward looking aspect of their designers frustrates otherwise happy owners. The air suspension on the S Class (not all that reliable to start with) gave no end of trouble to Minnesota drivers in cold weather. One final example, in the 60s a Canadian oil sands company bought German Krupp excavators to dig up oil sands. The material was softer that the braun coal they dug up in Germany, so the Germans said they would work OK in Canada


The first machines were commissioned in February at -40F. Oil sand, because it has sand and water in it then becomes like a grindstone and the teeth, weighting 170 lbs each, wore off in exactly one hour, to the surprise of the owner and Krupp alike! Testing the teeth under winter conditions would have helped. The owner located a firm in California specializing in hardening the teeth and the rest is history.

Brilliantly engineered German tanks did very poorly on the Russian front in the winter.

By way of contrast, Nissan had one of their engineers LIVE with a US family for a year to get a handle on how Americans use and treat their cars, so they could consider that in the design.

I teach maintenance workshops and one adage is “The best maintenance is maintenance you don’t have to do.” To a German engineer that might sound like blasphemy!

2 Likes
23

Lol. That’s completely asinine, yet so Deutch-technologie. I really do wonder how German engineering managed to get such a stellar reputation for excellence. Building something to tight tolerances is great and everything, but it’s pretty pointless if the thing still doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

24

Yeah I have a 50k/6year powertrain warranty:)

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There’s an old joke I heard many years ago now that goes something like this- American engineers were quite proud that they had extruded the smallest wire diameter ever made and were touting it around the world. So the Germans got wind and drilled a hole in it to prove their superior skills. Then the Swiss tapped the hole and put a screw in it


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26

Lol there are 4 other German cars in my family and I’m the only one with constant issues :sweat_smile: but I’m also the only one who gets the most out of my car and pushes it to its limits at times :grin:

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I have engineering friends who own MBs. They have a proactive reliability focused mindset and don’t mind all the maintenance checks.
I also had a friend who was in the food wholesale business and found all this intrusive and time-consuming.

28

For anyone with a similar issue, as I know it’s pretty common, I got the timing chain replaced and she’s been running smoothly ever since I picked her up yesterday :grin:

29

I’m really glad that this problem was resolved for you–apparently under the terms of the warranty. However, if this is “pretty common” after just 2 years/40k miles, I would be very concerned about the longevity of these newer VW engines. You might want to consider selling/trading the car as soon as the Powertrain Warranty expires.

:thinking:

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It usually happens around 60-80k, but after doing some research I discovered a lot of people with the same issues take their car some other place than the dealership and after getting their oxygen sensors and other stuff replaced, which can cost a lot of money, still have the same problem :laughing:

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Good for you for getting your Jetta fixed under the warranty Natalia. Best of luck.