andysheehan2003

Hi All, Just looking to see if anyone has came across this issue. 2014 VRS TDI Mileage is 168k miles - ex company car. I have the car last 3 years and being a mechanic myself (not working in the trade anymore) the car has been serviced as per schedule with correct spec of oil and always with genuine Skoda parts. April 2019: i put the car into a local skoda dealer to replace cam belt and water pump @ 147k. (wifes car, Audi A4 needed a cambelt and water pump the same week so i done that one.) About 4 times since i ran low on coolant and had to top up. Never got around to investigating the root cause. Sept 2020: Car overheated - no loss of coolant, fan working etc. Brought the car back to skoda dealer and they replaced the waterpump under warranty - as there is a 2 year parts warranty with skoda parts. 2 weeks later - Car has been driven approx. 3 times since water pump was replaced ( working from home). Started the car one day and immediately knew something was wrong. Running rough, missing, and a knocking noise coming from top of the engine. Parked the car up and 2 days later pulled off the air box to check turbo - all was good. No lights on the dash - no fault codes. Brought the car back to skoda dealer and they have diagnosed the cam follower in cylinder #1 was sheared off. See pic attached. Rang skoda ireland to enquire if there was any recall/service campaigns for this issue and was told no. i was told to go back to dealer as they carried out the repair. Spoke to the workshop foreman and he cant explain how this happened. He checked the timing and all marks were lined up etc. IMO i think there is only really 3 ways this could have happened. 1. Engine was ran with little to no oil and top of the engine wasn't getting lubricated and the cam follower sheared. - One look at the top of the engine after rocker cover was off will eliminate this scenario. 2. A manufacturing defect with Cam follower- Again i think highly unlikely if so i would need to start doing the lotto. Skoda having confirmed that there is no issue with this happening on this engine would suggest this is also highly unlikely. 3. Timing was incorrectly setup/something possibly tensioner was left loose and the timing slipped. Piston hit the valve and sheared off the cam follower. If there was an issue with the replacing of the waterpump this outcome would be a direct consequence of the work carried out - in other words they didn't replace brake pads for example - an unrelated job, the repair they carried out directly influenced the timing of the engine. So now the dealership is telling me the car was checked before it left the garage, it drove out of garage with no issue and was fine. They have checked the timing and all is ok. I'm looking at an engine rebuild and a fairly costly repair.Currently i'm getting the engine assessed with a motor engineer/assessor with the view of going further. The question i'm asking here is if anyone has come across this issue(cam follower sheared off) before and if so did you ever get the root cause. Sorry for the long post.