Fixing a DSG gearbox issue in my Volkswagen Polo GT TSI

Turns out the issue that was causing the problem was not the ignition cylinder, but a shifter micro-switch that gets installed in / under the DSG gear lever.

BHPian n4rayan.jagdish recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Apologies for the late update. It's been a daunting year.

Overall the car seems to be doing great. Frequented between Bangalore and Mumbai twice now and have had no issues. Currently been in Mumbai for over a year now due to WFH. Will be eventually heading back to Bangalore once our office wants their employees back.

The car is currently a year and 9 months old now, and has done about ~17,900 km. Due to family health issues and my wedding (a few weeks back), the servicing of the car got delayed (by about 2 months - although had only driven an excess of 900'ish km).

A few days ago, this one time when I parked my car, in some random train of thought, switched off the ignition and removed the keys. To my surprise, the car was in "D" and not in "P". I was not sure how this could happen since I had done enough reading about automatic vehicles that they ignition key should not come out unless the car is in "P". I repeated the same process and every time irrespective of the gear mode (S, D, N, R & P), I was about to shut the car down and remove the ignition key.

Thanks to the delay of COVID and my wedding, gave my car for servicing today in VW Nerul (Navi Mumbai) and informed them of this behaviour. Since the issue could be reproduced 100% of the time, the SA acknowledged the problem.

Fast forward 8 hours - The SA has informed me that the adaptation of the DSG is not completed as they are having issues updating the software (brain-fart) and they are running a few more checks to see what could be the issue. I am just praying that it is nothing super major.

I tried to search on Google and on this forum to see if anyone had experienced this problem, however could not find any relevant information as to what may be causing this (Then again my search skills aren't that great). If anyone can share some insight around this, it'll be super helpful.

I have found a way to solve it, however I do not have the required tools to try it out. If anyone has them, would someone be willing to help me out?

Update

So after a few weeks of waiting (part availability), the ASC has finally fixed the problem  Turns out the issue that was causing the problem was not the ignition cylinder, but a shifter micro-switch that gets installed in / under the DSG gear lever. This is responsible for communicating and letting the ignition lock know that the car is in which gear and whether or not to release its lock so that the key can be removed. Once the part was changed, there were a few adjustments to the DSG lever that was required since there were "metal-grinding" sounds when we changed the gear from "P" to "R" and "N". Given that the parking PIN within with the DSG is just a small piece of metal, on highlighting the sound during the collection of the vehicle, the ASC technicians acknowledged the issue and the required alignment / adjustments were done on the DSG lever, making it "stock-like".

Part #: 5Q0-713-128-A

Link - Since I do not have a picture taken of the actual switch (Was replaced just before I reached the ASC)

On a side-note, I had a chance to meet and talk to "fluidicjoy" (Not sure how to tag / mention him. Mods please help) and I was able to check out the upgrades he had done and also drive his car - link. He is an amazing person to interact with and DIY Geek. Thanks to him, I was able to meet the folks who installed retrofits on his car and I wanted all of it. Thankfully, I have promised myself - 1 major upgrade / per year only.

Another upgrade that I found useful was the installation of the Under-body guard right below the engine. Got it installed from the ASC.

Part #: 6RO-825-901 / 902 - A - Apologies for the bad image quality.

Before Installation:

Post installation:

Note: In-case your area / parking space has rats, I'd avoid installing this as it will give them a nice small space to climb and cozy up.

Most exciting part for last: (For me)

Finally got my hands on the original Ross-Tech Cable (Thanks to my cousin who was returning from the US). I have also installed the Maxidot Cluster in my vehicle and thanks to this thread: "VCDS (Vag-Com Diagnostic System) for VW & Skoda - Discussion Thread" have enabled a lot of features. My other cousin owns a 2018 Skoda Rapid DSG TDi, and was successfully able to enable a ton of features as well. I am however checking other options within VCDS to see what other things can be enabled / improved. (Still new to this)

That's it for now! Thank you everyone!

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