A 2012 VW CC with no engine compression is in the shop. Jonny already knows that lack of oil changes caused the catastrophic failure. Once inside the evidence is clear. CAR NINJA STORE: car-ninja-merch.myspreadshop....
Makes me apprehensive to buy a used car in case the owner followed those ridiculous manufacturer oil change intervals. They don’t care about your car as long as it makes it out of the warranty period!😔
The BMW dealer thought I was crazy for not following the 15k mile rule on my 335i. Never would I run a $20k engine that long on oil that costs $60 to change.
@@slscamggood man my 335 just spun a rod bearing 5 thousand kilometres after buying it im assuming since the previous owner did not keep a proper oil change interval on n54 super sad ngl
You can change the oil every day and fill with the most expensive fuel, but that will not save you from the carbon deposits that are the result of direct injection
This is why I do a fuel system service every 5k along with synthetic oil and 87 octane per owner's manual on my 2021 Hyundai Sonata Limited 1.6 T. Other maintenance items would include tire rotate and balance. 4-wheel alignment every 2 5k oil services.
@@jeffreycheng5984 fuel system service has no impact on direct injection, except maybe keeping combustion chambers cleaner. Valve are not touched by gasoline - extended oil change intervals CAN impact them due to oil vaporization/evaporation.
@@KM-ol5bs Ford uses on the Coyote (5.0)- the port injection is only used under high load, intake ports still get nasty- a 100k Coyote has valves and ports like a 40-50k DI engine. Good Oil is key. Not quick lube/Walmart cheap oil changes!! (Those ever, not just DI). QUALITY synthetic oils changed 5-7k will drastically reduce the garbage in the intake and ports/valve... Drastic as 25-40% improvement... Oil catch cans DO help... Again QUALITY IS KEY... Cheapest on Amazon/eBay is not going to do the trick....
My daughter owned a Tiguan. I told her not to get it. Needless to say she said she will never own another VW! And some of my hard earned money went to VW to fix it! I love her. She had to learn the hard way.
@@ayayoutuber VW took out the dual injection that the euro cars have that pretty much eliminated this problem... but its also part of routine maintenance... so as long as you get the valves cleaned every 60,000 miles is not a big deal. Many earlier direct injection systems did this the newer vw's it's not as bad.
Was about to say the same thing. Oil change intervals and quality of has don’t have anything to do with DI carbon buildup. This would have happened even if the oil was changed every 5k and premium gas was used.
Yup if you are getting Audi or VW get one that was manufactured after 2014. Those have the chain system that last for the life of the car supposedly and it has tension sensors. They were sued over a decade ago for the chains failing way before 100k.
@@au123ful yep. that said, there are other serious design failings that can brick the engine all the way into late teen years, not sure which exactly, but all 888 derived engines are not worth buying used as cars ,unless the price is way below e.g. the current US mkt prices for these Vw and audi cars here in USa.
The CC is the type of car that will absolutely punish you for giving it anything less than premium fuel & synthetic oil every 5k miles at the most. The problem is that the older ones can be picked up for about $4k now and the people that do are going to treat them accordingly
@nomenclature9607 haha I was about to add in my original comment that with a Camry you can get away with using low grade gas and being stingy on oil but never a turbo VW
@nomenclature9607 Not everyone wants a Toyota Camry and the owner of this vehicle could have avoided the repairs if they followed the manufacturer's maintenance and fuel requirement recommendations.
@@Rextraordinaire German engineering is overly complicated and not too robust. I had an 88 300E that cost the price of two Camry's to own and maintain. Maintenance alone was worth the price of a new Camry at the time and you could have bought two, put one up on blocks and ran the first one with little maintenance for the life of a VW.
I've always told myself that with every turbocharged car I've ever owned, a 5k mile oil and filter change interval with synthetic is cheap, cheap insurance. I bought a "sludged" 2004 Passat 1.8t wagon back in 2009 for $4500 and after rebuilding the head, doing a timing belt service and replacing the oil pump and cleaning the pan, it was a faithful servant to me for many years.
I bought a 2015 escape with the 2.0 turbo changed oil every 5k with supertec full synthetic and every other fluid changed ahead of time and now my son drives it to school. Still runs good at 235,000ish miles.
Well the 1.8 T is still a MPI type of engine that cleans itself from the carbon buildups. Later direct injection engines all suffer the problem of the carbon buildups that are caused by the fact that modern cars all recirculate the exhaust gases this means a modern car runs up to 70% of the air that's used to fill the cylinders has already been used in a previous combustion. In order to increase the filling rate of the cylinder the hot exhaust gases have to be cooled down and this is done in a combined valve cooler device that's connected to the cooling water cycle. However the cooler gas cannot contain the same amount of smut like the hotter gas and so you create the buildups. This is the mother of the problem the cooler you make the gas the better for the efficiency of the motor but the more carbon buildups you have and it seems the engineers of VW have put too much weight on fuel economy and not so much on durability. Others might have made other decisions. Regular oil changes help and there are also some additives available that shall help to clean the system but I don't know how good they are. Luckily my car doesn't have any of these problems since I am running it on LPG and when I am making an oil change after 10,000 miles the oil is still of a dark honey colour instead of the black you get from petrol or even worse diesel engines. However the LPG conversion is not cheap at first place and I don't know if LPG is available in the US here in Europe it is different for country to country.
Several gas and diesel turbos in the family. From an X1 to a Juke to Macan S to mini Duramax Colorado. The gassers get 10 k km (6 k miles) oil changes except the Macan. It has an 8 litre sump. It goes 15 k km 9 k miles). The diesel is 12 k km. Don’t EVER look at a diesel intake manifold. Looks like asphalt. Oh ya only 87 gas is all of them. Including the Moto Guzzi. Don’t bag drive them to red line and they’ll reward you with several hundred thousand miles like ours.
@@habi0187 Here in the US my dad had a farm tractor converted to propane back in the 70's, today it's not cost efficient compared to petrol. It's a popular fuel for home heating in rural areas.
@@londen3547 here in Europe it's different LPG is about 40% cheaper than petrol or diesel so if you drive enough it pays back. Additionally you can avoid many problems with the engines as long as the system is implemented professionally. Unfortunately there are not many shops that can do it really good.
In this year of CC, GTI, and such with the 2.0T was pretty common knowledge that the timing chain tensioners can fail. I think VW even had a recall on them. Most likely the timing chain tensioner failed causing this issue. Totally preventable which is sad.
and a common reason timing chain tensioners fail, is lack of oil. People not checking their oil. However in the VW's I think the problem was that it didn't have anything to stop the piston from exiting the housing of the tensioner, so it'd just keep pushing.
@@TougeSolo well we don't know exactly what the problem is with this particular car all I'm saying is that on this era of Volkswagen it was very common have timing chain tensioner failures it was a faulty part and was fixed with a revised part so if the person didn't get the revised part didn't care to get it done or bought the car used in didn't know about this problem then there you go.
This is a problem with direct injection engines where the valves are not washed with fuel. See it all the time here in the UK even though regular oil changes are carried out and the use of 99 RON fuel. Some of the V8 Audis can be horrendous and lose around 30 bhp because of it. Ford eco boost engines also suffer running issues because of it.
I've watched a VW/Audi mechanic on Twitch for over 6 years work on this model engine many times and the main cause of the deposits on the intake valves is the direct injection. No fuel going over the valves to keep the intake part of the head clean as you would have in a non-DI engine. He does the walnut blast cleaning on these and they always run better afterwards.
Yes, considering he doesn't know what he's doing and is just winging it without following the factory procedures. Also, disappointed in how it looks like he plans to repair the head -- by just plopping in new valves. This car should have a rebuilt head, and new tensioners, chains, cam bridge, possible turbo, etc.. This is a hack repair. Not impressed.
I really enjoy your channel. Hope you make videos for a long time. I am pretty good do it yourself mechanic and enjoy this content. Thanks for sharing.
Ninja, a couple of things about these engines... A trick for pulling the turbos off these transverse mounted Volkswagens is to get under the car and remove the fore/aft torque bar and use a ratchet strap hooked to something like the hood latch to pull the engine forward a few inches. Plenty of space back there to work when you do that. Working under the car is also a viable angle. Also, take care with the bolts that secure the turbo to the engine because at least one of them is prone to snapping off. Fuel quality doesn't seem to matter much when it comes to carbon deposits on the EA888s, and as far as I can tell neither does the oil change interval. I think what matters most is the kind of driving you do... city driving gunks them up faster than freeway driving. My GTI went 90k miles of mostly freeway driving without issues and I only had them cleaned because the intake manifold was off. My last 30k has mostly been city driving and now my car is stuttering and misfiring under part throttle driving conditions. Also, these cars are very nice to drive, so wanting to keep it on the road makes sense.
@@JohnAbrahamsenI’m afraid that’s not true, to my knowledge no EA888 has come with port injection. Mine certainly doesn’t have it as I like to think I’d have noticed when I pulled the intake manifold to deal with a faulty (stuck open) injector.
No offense, but suggesting that oil change intervals make no difference is one of the most ill-informed things I've ever read in a YT comments feed. If that's actually the case, then you should be able to change the oil every 100k miles without consequences (which is clearly a ridiculous statement). Oil change intervals are there for a reason, and these days manufacturers are optimistic (to put it politely). I'd rather change my oil more often than the book says and spend an extra $50-$70 a year on oil and filters than $5k or more on major repairs because the oil gummed up and led to engine damage.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. I was speaking strictly in terms of carbon deposits on the valves, and when I read that paragraph again it’s pretty obvious. Of course oil change interval matters, just not for the reason stated in this video.
Remember it is reverse thread... (begin percussive maintenance using socket wrench) 😃 Nice video and wow this really illustrates the need for regular oil changes!
I’m not sure I’d blame that on oil changes, that’s one of the cleanest looking engines I’ve seen under a valve cover. On the valve stems themselves it was disgusting, but that’s what to expect with some VW DI engines. IMO.
This is from people that believe the 10K OCI on the jug of oil. Ahmed from the Car Care Nut channel showed a Camry that was burning through oil like there's now tomorrow because of it. The customer was rewarded with a new short block.
That was a good episode. And not only mileage on the oil, but some of these odd new oil specs that can "flat spot" [as in fail to maintain a minimum of 8 psi per 1k rpm]. Who cares what meager fractional fuel economy "gain" is when it makes the engine fail prematurely? I respect design for cold viscosity - they want 0w, then ok. Flow is worth more than pressure at start up. But that is not where an engine lives: 30 [hot] seems to make the most sense, except for the tightest of engines. I will definitely never trust 16 except I need to run in Antarctic or the nether regions of Canada midwinter.
I find it amazing that you still have the lower half of the engine still in decent shape....seeing all those bent valves, thought the engine was toast.
Thanks for another informative video, Ninja. Just crazy to see all those bent valves. It makes me very glad I have been changing LiquiMoly 5W-40 out of my 2013 328i every 5K miles. I also use only Shell 93 octane fuel. At 149K miles, my timing chain is still quiet.
I enjoy Jonny's video's too but I think if he had a choice he wouldn't be doing them. I just get the feeling that being in front of the camera isn't his thing.
I wouldn't say that engine has had a lack of oil changes? All components look pretty clean and free from sludge apart from the direct injection carbon build up on the valves.
I had the CC after this generation purchased new and it depreciated like a rocket powered stone thrown off a cliff. I haven't looked at Gen 1 CC values on pre-owned market but this looks like a pretty big investment. That CC must have some sentimenal value to the owner. 😮
Change oil once a year, even if you put less than 5k miles on it. Change at 5k at the max with manual demanded oil. Ignore that 10k mile nonsense. Also, don't ignore your trans fluid. "Lifetime" means you're going to rebuild that bugger, or replace it, at some point. They have filters for a reason. Also, don't neglect radiator flushes and plugs/wires or coils. Maintenance can be expensive, but nowhere near the cost of a new engine and/or transmission.
Gas didn’t do that. Ignoring obvious timing chain slap did that. Gas shouldn’t make a difference. If you’re not changing the oil, then the tensioners stop working and the chain can work it’s way loose. Known issue on VAG engines. That said, I’ve run both my TDIs and Hybrid Jetta on the factory oil change schedule. But I was driving 30k miles a year. IMHO the big issue is time between oil changes. The stuff just gums up over time. This is where disuse is worse than running the crap out of an engine
9 months/7k mile oil changes with the correct spec oil are about right. Any earlier and it's overkill but leave it longer and the oil loses the properties required to lubricate and protect the various components adequately
I like Johnny, but how does cheap gas = carbon on a DI motor? Since fuel never hits the valves, it makes 0.0 difference on carbon buildup. Next, oil changes. Does clean oil burn off valves better? Deposits on the valves are the direct result of a poor performing PCV system; sometimes from lack of maintenance, and many times from simply poor design. Oil hitting the valves + no fuel to wash it off like a port injection motor = this.
its designed that way so this repair eventually happens to all GDI's , its called planned obsolescence . So essentially, Greta grenaded this guys engine .
I'm no mechanic, but if the oil change interval was too long wouldn't we also have expected to see some varnishing on the heads? Or is that only old oil and doesn't happen with fully synthetic?
I think lack of oil changes allows excessive carbon build up in the oil. This jams the oil control rings starting a cycle of oil burning and carbon build up. Detergent in the gas helps keep the rings free a little bit also less EGR necessary with the right octane. All these modern engines are a bit sensitive with small clearances and passages.
In Europe walnut blasting the intakes is standard maintenance. Oil changes and the correct fuel prevent exessive carbon jamming the oil control rings.@@5thelementcannabisproduction
@@jbphilly1234 Skin is the largest organ, by surface, of the human body. It will absorb to varying degrees ANY fluid that is placed on it. Hydrocarbons/petroleum distillates are not substances that are recommended for human contact. Used hydrocarbons, even more so. Having one's hand soaked in it for hours and hours on end, every day, day after day, is just asking for trouble...Modern day humans are sometimes exposed to dangerous chemicals in situations that cannot easily/cheaply be avoided. Wearing protection gloves is not one of them.
I like how you explain things quickly...this reminds me of an old tv ad about car maintenance... " You can pay me now, or you can pay me later...." i guess the owner chose " later.."
would note if you think cheap gas saves you money, go see how many miles you can go on a tank on cheap gas vs quality gas, the difference might surprise you and actually make the quality gas the cheaper option.
I agree. I have burned nothing but regular for 15 years in my Toyota’s and Lexus’s and no carbon issues at all. Computers can compensate for lesser fuel. If a car is having carbon issues it’s die to the fact that the engine was designed properly and gas and oil changes can only do so much. At the end of the day, folks…if you want reliability and durability I would not be buying anything from Germany.
@@jbphilly1234 My wife’s lx570 calls for premium, guess what, we run it on regular and it runs great. It’s a 100k vehicle and I don’t lose any sleep that regular fuel is detrimental. The computer, again if designed correctly, compensates. Instead of having 381hp it puts out 376hp according to a Toyota engineer I have spoken with.
@@maxheadroom224 Even the Toyota’s and Lexus’s that use direct injection run just fine with regular gas, because why,,.they know how to engineer them correctly. Oh and they use port and direct injection together so they don’t have the carbon issues in the first place. BMW and Mercedes, please stop your insanity. We all know you make crap cars and most people lease them and then the poor guy who doesn’t know better buys it used and thinks he’s getting a great deal. Look I just bought a 70k bmw for 25k, then over the next year he spends 10k in repairs, and repeat every year after until someone like Hoovie comes along and buys it 10 years old for peanuts to make a video to pay for all of the repairs while caught on camera to make us all laugh.
@@jbphilly1234 High octane fuel is only necessary to achieve the power rating advertised by the manufacturer. Otherwise, the PCM is listening for knock all the time and will just pull timing if it is detected and you make less power. That's it, that's all. The low octane/high octane thing is a myth that just will not die... it has not been a thing since the advent of EFI.
Hearing ninja stress about the turbo is another reason why a slightly larger n/a (naturally aspirated) engine is much better for reliability than a smaller turbo engine
That isn't what caused the timing chain to jump. When oil changes are too infrequent it causes the timing chain to wear and "stretch". This causes loss of tension, and that loss of tension on the timing chain is what allows it to "jump" teeth. The cheap gas doesn't have some of the detergents better gasoline has which helps cut down on carbon deposits and other contaminants inside the engine. Combine that with infrequent oil changes and you're just circulating a lot of extra abrasive material inside the engine, wearing critical parts sooner.
@@costasmandylor7252 lol, how does a lack of detergent in the fuel help carbon buildup on a direct injection engine, where the valves never see ANY fuel. Talk about some bad info.
Oil circulates throughout the engine. And there are more wear points in the engine than just the valves. Re-read the original question. What doesn't get burned off in combustion ends up in the oil. The more contaminants in the oil, the more abrasives grinding on the working parts of the engine. Better gas burns cleaner and the better additive package reduces the particulate contaminants in the engine that then ends up circulating around in the oil. Better gas and better OCI's = less timing chain stretch, which keeps it from jumping teeth and bending your valves.
The issue on the 09-12 Passat and CC is the shitty camchain tensioner. There was a class action lawsuit over it, and VW revised the design at least three times.
@@jondiaz3475 Unfortunately tensioners going bad is pretty common. Some manufacturers make it easy to replace them, like Honda on their K series engines.
LOL the expressions on your face was worth watching as you progressed through the horror of it all. Thinking if only they serviced this car properly! My wife drives a 2020 Toyota Camry SE and we just had the coolant and transmission serviced at 45k miles and the service tech at Toyota says they recommend transmission service at 80k miles and I was yeah they do because they want to sell me a new transmission at some point. For years I have always serviced my transmissions every 45k and never had problems and always got 200k or more out of them. I have a cousin who purchased a Nissan Maxima with a CVT and I told him service it every 25-30k and he did and he now has 220k on a Nissan CVT!
Well I don't know about the repair history of your vehicle but hopefully the previous owner did a lot of repairs so you do not have too! Take it from me I have a VW 2012 with the 2.0 T engine and those cars are really problematic with high repair cost! Hopefully you have a little extra money in the bank and a good cheap mechanic that works on VW
This happened on my 2014 Jetta GLI at 105K Miles. All scheduled maintenance was done early and premium top tier gas was always used. It's just a bad design and is a common problem on this motor. VW lost a class action lawsuit regarding timing chain failure on this motor. Also, You will see carbon build up on the intake valves of Direct Injection Motors no matter what kind of fuel you use,. As the fuel never touches the back of the valves like a Port Injected Motor.
A rule of thumb that I have found helpful. -Non-high performing vehicles (Camry, Corolla, Altima, etc, change oil every 7k-7.5k miles (if using full synthetic. -High performing vehicles (mustangs, Lexus, Challengers, Chargers, Camaro, etc, change oil every 5k-6k miles. Also, intervals will change depending on how your drive, driving conditions in your area, idling time, quality of oil, average temperature of oil (high temperature can break down detergents in oil more quickly), and quality of oil filter. There are other things as well. Keep your car healthy y’all!🫡
I change my oils every year, including transmission oil 🤔Dunno if its overkill but its a volvo with aisin automatic, not most reliable autos and im at 333whp, and alot of people said they can handle around 300whp 😔
I do 3000-5000 changes on my Porsche and 5000 on my daily. Blows my mind that boxsters/caymans used to have 20k oil service intervals. No wonder they had a reputation for destroying engines
Hi Jonny. You would have been a great orthopedic surgeon. Maybe you will change the name of your RU-vid channel from Car Ninja to Car Surgeon. I love watching you work.
Ninja changed the timing chain on my 2013 cc at 101k miles , i was happy to spend the money and save this problem , and saved over 3000$ , don’t wait for this to happen and change oil every 5K miles , my new vw 2017 Touareg only comes here
Regular oil changes are necessary, change the oil more frequently then what is stated in the owners manual. Gasoline is Gasoline, just follow the owners manual as to what octane the vehicle requires
Did cyl head recon as a job 40 years ago. Saw a mini that covered 35k town miles without GDi. Owner used the choke knob to hang her handbag. Exhaust valves were cone shaped solid. Bimbling an engine isn't healthy, emissions are designed for part throttle PCV. EGR is another part throttle pita.
I never go over 3k ever, full synthetic. And I own a tuned mk7 golf with the 1.8t . And I'm a Ford mechanic well aware of all the phaser and chain issues on the newer cars!
John gave the customer the correct answer but engines are designed to run on low octane US fuel even if they run better on higher octane fuel. The stretching jumping timing belt is the main issue. No engine can run that way. Just hope the new chain doesn't stretch like the old one.
I would have stopped once I saw the sludge and bent valves. Called up the customer, and quoted a new engine. Even if this one is repaired, it’s still going to open a can of worms for problems in the future.
