DSG Service with a Mechatronic Filter and Seals in Genuine Boxed

A DSG job: the internal filter and the seals as well, which most services leave alone and which are where the pressure loss starts.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not Volkswagen, Audi, Seat or Skoda, and we are not appointed by any of them. Those are their trademarks and what we sell are parts that fit their cars. The useful thing about this group is that four badges share platforms and share parts, so the same component fits a Golf, an A3, a Leon and an Octavia and costs four different amounts at four different counters. We list it once, at one price, and tell you which platform it belongs to.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: Golf Mk5 Mk6 Mk7 Mk8, Passat B6 B7 B8, A3 8P 8V 8Y, A4 B8 B9, Leon 1P 5F KL, Octavia 1Z 5E NX, and the other group cars on the same platforms with a DSG gearbox
• Platform: chosen above. This part is shared across the group. The Volkswagen, the Audi, the Seat and the Skoda all take it, it is the same component in four different boxes, and the price here is the same whichever badge is on your car. Choose your badge above for your records, not because it changes anything.
• Engine: not engine dependent, but the gearbox is: tell us whether yours is a wet clutch or a dry clutch box and we will confirm the kit. This group changes specification mid production and does it on a platform basis rather than a model year basis, so two cars registered the same week can take different parts. Send us the VIN with the order and we check the part against the build data before anything is dispatched. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 2003 to 2022 depending on platform and gearbox
• Quality: supplied in the group's own packaging with the group part number on it. Worth the premium where a warranty claim, a lease return or a full main dealer history depends on it, and not otherwise
• Part number: cross referenced to the group part number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not print one number against a listing that covers several supersessions, because on this group the supersessions are the whole point
• The failure this addresses: There are two families of DSG and they want different things. The wet clutch boxes have an oil and filter service that is genuinely due every 40,000 miles and is genuinely skipped. The dry clutch seven speed has a mechatronic unit with its own small fluid charge and a well known failure record, and the symptoms are a shudder from rest, a refusal to select, or a limp home in third. Tell us which box you have and we will tell you which of those it is.
• Labour time: two to four hours for a service, five to seven for a mechatronic unit
• Coding: a basic setting or adaptation is required after fitting, which is a five minute job with a proper diagnostic system and is not possible with a generic code reader. A mechatronic unit needs coding to the car and the clutch adaptation values reset, and a remanufactured unit from us arrives coded
• Also needed: the correct fluid in the correct quantity, a filter, a sump gasket and the fill plug seals, all in the kit
• Torque: sump bolts in sequence to a low figure. Overtightening the alloy sump warps the sealing face and you will be doing it again
• Interval: every 40,000 miles on the wet clutch boxes. The dry clutch seven speed has no scheduled gear oil change and does have a mechatronic fluid charge, which is a different thing and is where the confusion comes from
• Weight: approximately 13.1 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Wet or dry: the six speed and the later seven speed wet clutch boxes take a proper oil and filter service every 40,000 miles. The dry clutch seven speed does not, and telling people it does is how a lot of unnecessary work gets sold
• Filling to temperature: the level is set at a specified fluid temperature with the car level. A box filled cold and by eye is either over or under and both do damage
• Symptoms worth acting on: a shudder pulling away from rest, a hesitation before drive engages, a jerk between first and second, or a limp home in third. All four get worse and none get better
• Adaptations: reset and drive a relearn cycle afterwards, or the box shifts on pressures it learned from tired fluid

What arrives

• the correct fluid in the correct quantity
• the external filter and the internal filter where the kit includes it
• the sump, gasket and fill plug seals
• the mechatronic unit where the package includes one, coded to your car
• a fill adaptor and a temperature procedure card
• the labour and the adaptation reset where fitted

Fitting

Two to four hours for a service. The fill is what goes wrong: the level is set at a specified fluid temperature with the car level and the engine running, and there is no way to do it accurately with a jug and an opinion. Choose the fitted option and it is done properly with the adaptations reset and a relearn drive.

Which version to buy

There are two families of DSG and they want different things. The wet clutch boxes have an oil and filter service that is genuinely due every 40,000 miles and is genuinely skipped. The dry clutch seven speed has a mechatronic unit with its own small fluid charge and a well known failure record, and the symptoms are a shudder from rest, a refusal to select, or a limp home in third. Tell us which box you have and we will tell you which of those it is. The 40,000 mile service on a wet clutch box is the single highest value preventive job on one of these cars, and it is skipped on most of them because the service schedule does not shout about it. If your box is a dry clutch seven speed, do not let anybody sell you a gear oil change it does not need.