Otto Explains — Engines & Drivetrains

Iconic Volkswagen Engines & Drivetrains

Short Answer

Volkswagen began with the Beetle’s air-cooled boxer engine at the rear and moved from 1973 to water-cooled engines at the front. Since then it has become known for its TDI diesels from 1993, the compact VR6 and the W12, TSI petrol engines that combine turbocharging with direct injection, the DSG dual-clutch gearbox of 2003 and 4MOTION all-wheel drive, and since 2019 for the electric ID. family on its MEB platform.

What was the Beetle’s boxer engine?

The Beetle used a four-cylinder boxer engine, with its cylinders lying flat in two opposed pairs, mounted at the rear, cooled by air rather than water and driving the rear wheels. The first series engine had 985 cc and 22.5 hp. It grew to 1131 cc and 25 hp in the wartime Kübelwagen, then to 1192 cc and 34 hp, to 1.5 litres and 44 hp in 1965 and to 1.6 litres and 50 hp in 1970, and the Transporter of 1950 started out with the same type of engine and 25 hp. In Mexico the 1.6 received fuel injection and a catalytic converter with a lambda probe in 1993.

Why did Volkswagen switch to water-cooled engines?

By 1970 the air-cooled rear engine was losing customers to cars with water-cooled engines and front-wheel drive. Volkswagen’s first answer was the K 70, an NSU design built from 1970, and the Passat of 1973 and the Golf of 1974 followed with water-cooled four-cylinder engines at the front. Volkswagen cut its production of air-cooled engines, expanded water-cooled engine capacity with new manual and automatic gearboxes, and built a modular kit of shared components, which let the Passat share its basis with the Audi 80.

How did Volkswagen develop its diesel engines?

In 1976 Volkswagen put a 1.5-litre diesel with 50 PS into the Golf; it was then the smallest and most economical diesel on the market and made Volkswagen the world’s largest producer of diesel engines. A 1.6-litre turbodiesel with 70 PS followed in the Golf GTD in 1982. The TDI of 1993 was a 1.9-litre turbodiesel with direct injection controlled by an electronic distributor pump. From 1999 the TDI used pump-nozzle injection, reaching 150 PS from 1.9 litres in 2000, and the EA288 diesels of the Golf VII use common-rail injection. A TDI also made the Lupo 3L of 1999 the first production car with standard consumption under three litres per 100 km.

What are the VR6 and the W12?

The VR6, first fitted to the Golf III in 1992, combines features of an in-line and a V engine: its cylinder banks sit at only 15 degrees, so both share one cylinder head and a six-cylinder fits across the engine bay of a compact car. It had 2.8 litres and 174 PS, then 2.9 litres and 190 PS with syncro all-wheel drive, and 3.2 litres and 241 PS in the R32. The W12 study of 1997 joined two VR6 engines at an angle of 72 degrees, the Passat W8 of 2001 arranged eight cylinders in a W formation for the first time, and the W12 petrol engine with 331 kW (450 PS) powered the Phaeton and the Touareg W12.

What are the G-Lader, TSI and twincharger engines?

Volkswagen has used several ways to push more air into its petrol engines. The G-Lader was a belt-driven spiral supercharger that compressed the intake air to about 0.6 bar, and the 60-millimetre depth of its spirals gave the G60 its name. It powered the Polo G40 of 1986, with 113 PS the first car with such a charger, and the 160 PS G60 engines of the Corrado and Golf. Direct petrol injection arrived as FSI in 2002, and the Golf V GTI of 2004 combined it with a turbocharger as Wolfsburg’s first TSI, with 200 PS. In 2006 the 1.4 TSI with 170 PS in the Golf GT became the world’s first twincharger: a supercharger worked at low engine speeds and a turbocharger at higher ones.

Which petrol engine families power today’s Volkswagens?

Two families do most of the work. The EA211 made its debut as a three-cylinder in the up city car and in four-cylinder TSI form in the Golf VII of 2012, with an aluminium crankcase, a toothed belt driving the camshafts and the exhaust manifold built into the cylinder head; its 1.4 TSI with 140 PS was the world’s first four-cylinder TSI with active cylinder management (ACT), which shuts down two cylinders under light load. From 2016/17 the EA211 evo used 1.0 and 1.5 litres, a variable-geometry (VTG) turbocharger and 350-bar injection. The larger EA888 is the 2.0 TSI of the Golf GTI: in its fourth generation (evo4) it produces 195 kW (265 PS) and 370 Nm, or 221 kW (300 PS) in the Clubsport.

How did Volkswagen’s gearboxes develop, and what is the DSG?

Before the dual-clutch era the Golf offered a three-speed automatic from 1975 and, from 1980, the 4+E gearbox, which added a long fifth gear to lower engine speed and fuel consumption. Volkswagen introduced the DSG dual-clutch gearbox in 2003, first in the Golf IV R32, and offered it with six speeds in the Golf V from 2004. It presented the world’s first seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox in April 2007 and began series production at Kassel at the end of that year; that 7-speed DSG weighs about 70 kilograms and uses two dry clutches, one for the odd-numbered gears and one for the even gears and reverse. Because the next gear is already selected, a change takes a few hundredths of a second without interrupting drive. Otto explains how a DSG works, and how to treat it, in the DSG gearbox explained.

How does 4MOTION all-wheel drive work?

Volkswagen first called its all-wheel drive syncro: the Transporter syncro of 1985 used a visco clutch to share torque between the axles. With the Golf IV in 1998 the name changed to 4MOTION and the system to one based on a Haldex multi-plate clutch, which sent 90 percent of the power to the front axle as standard and shifted it towards the rear when the electronics detected a change in driving behaviour. 4MOTION was standard on the Golf R32, and the Touareg of 2002 added a lockable centre differential for off-road driving.

How did Volkswagen move to hybrid and electric drive?

Volkswagen built small series of electric Golf CitySTROMers long before electric cars were common, and in 2014 it launched both the e-Golf and the Golf GTE, a plug-in hybrid that combined a 1.4 TSI with an electric motor for about 50 kilometres of electric range. The XL1 of 2014 paired a 0.8-litre two-cylinder TDI with a 20 kW electric motor and a 7-speed DSG. Production of the ID.3 began at Zwickau on 4 November 2019 as the first model on the modular electric drive toolkit (MEB), which places a flat high-voltage battery in the floor. Never open, touch or work on the high-voltage system of a hybrid or electric car yourself: it needs trained specialists with the right equipment.

What should Volkswagen owners in Oman keep in mind?

Specifications depend on the generation, the engine and the market. Volkswagen states that the technical data in its German press material apply to Germany, and Volkswagen Middle East lists engines, such as a 1.4-litre TSI in the Tiguan and T-Roc, that differ from Europe’s. Follow the maintenance the manufacturer specifies for your exact car, and have faults diagnosed rather than assumed from an engine’s reputation. Volkswagen Oman also states that its electric cars have not been released in Oman and that unofficially imported ones cannot be serviced by Premium Motors or Volkswagen-approved facilities there. AutoTronix Garage handles the mechanical diagnosis of engines, gearboxes and drivetrains, Lab handles electronic diagnostics, and PERFORMANCE looks after performance vehicles.

Common Questions

  • Did the original Beetle have a radiator? No. Its boxer engine was cooled by air, so it needed no radiator or coolant. Volkswagen’s move to water-cooled engines began with the K 70 in 1970.
  • What is the EA189 engine? EA189 is the series of 1.2-, 1.6- and 2.0-litre TDI diesel engines at the centre of Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel crisis. About 8.5 million cars with these engines were recalled in Europe alone; the fix was a software update, plus a flow conditioner on the 1.6-litre.
  • Is every Volkswagen DSG the same? No. Volkswagen has built DSGs with six and seven speeds, and the 7-speed unit produced at Kassel from the end of 2007, for example, uses two dry clutches and weighs about 70 kilograms. Which gearbox a car has depends on its engine and generation, so check the exact specification of your car.

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