ARGH! Dead engine!

[virusman26]

Hey guys,

Well, after a good 12 months of totally trouble free motoring (AFTER a new water pump last August) the Skoda gremlins have finally struck my baby down again.

Friday, drove to work no problems, turned of the car, got into work. Got in the car to do the chip run at lunch time........and it was labouring to fire up. Turning over, just not firing. Started up after 5 seconds, no warning lights at all. Got chips, back in the car, same thing. No loss of power, driving well still. Come chucking out time friday night at work, same thing. Drive home was no problem, turned off car and went in the house.

Got up Saturday morning, just needed to pop into the Post Office to pick something up, and it wouldn't start at all........Not even thinking of firing up. My first thought was the fuel pump or something, but then the exhaust and ECU fault lamp came on. Bums!

Called RAC, then Skoda got a VW engineer to come out who hooked it up to the diagnostics........he said its a valve timing issue........The car should have had a recall due the the tensioner needing to be replaced. So, lots of faffing around, got the car recovered, had to sort a hire car out, and then get to the workshop today, to find out what is going on.

Just had a call from Skoda, and the vales are bent........They are now checking to see if the pistons are damaged.................

Why the hell am I reading so many stories of the newer vRS having timing belt failures at 35-40,000 miles (mine only has 37,700 on the clock). I've only ever driven it really hard a couple of times, and I ALWAYS keep my eye on collant/oil levels and put the best in that you can buy. So now, my baby may be having a full transplant after not even 3 years on the road!!! That doesn't really sound right to me, but thank god my warantee is still valid for little over a week.....if this had happened in a fortnight I'd be buggered!!!!!

[Waplord]

Really sorry to hear about this but luckily you're within the warranty period hopefully this will show the people who are saying that a cam belt etc doesn't need doing at 4 years that it does!

[virusman26]

Yep, well happy it's happened while the warantee is still valid. I've heard horror stories of the same thing happening at the same mileage just outside warantee that has cost people upwards of £5000.

After a clutch failure at 9000, turbo boost pipe failure at 10000, climate control blowers unit failure at 15000, water pump destruction at 23000 and now this, I seriously doubt I'd be looking at another petrol vRS. I'd like to think VAG group would be keen to keep sales up by rectifying these problems, but all these recall jobs seem to keep going under the radar.

[allan1888]

Really sorry to hear about this but luckily you're within the warranty period hopefully this will show the people who are saying that a cam belt etc doesn't need doing at 4 years that it does!

The thing is a FL vrs doesn't have a cam belt it has a timing chain so I don't think the 4 year rule applies to these. It's not the first one on here with a failed vrs Tsi engine due to an issue like this.

[Grizzle]

I'm saying nothing about reliability.

[bulls20042002]

Sorry to here that its a real pain,

looks like this one might of had the same!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280981373162?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Edited 22 October, 2012 by bulls20042002

[marcevo1]

Interesting to hear 'should have been recalled'

As far as I'm aware there is no official recall on the defective tensioners?

[booke23]

I feel for you.......really lucky you are still in warranty.

It's not the first one on here with a failed vrs Tsi engine due to an issue like this.

According to a lot of petrol vrs owners on a recent "buying advice" thread, petrols have no reliability issues and the diesels are very troublesome and best avoided. Not entirely accurate advice it seems.

Edited 22 October, 2012 by booke23

[IMT]

Sorry to here that its a real pain,

looks like this one might of had the same!

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649

This one's done over 100k so slightly more understandable

[sh4rpsh00ter]

I'd be speaking to SUK and asking them what they're going to do seen as you've had such a bad run of luck with the car!! Ask them to extend the warrant maybe??

I guess shy bairns and all that doesn't do any harm!

[D@z]

I feel for you.......really lucky you are still in warranty.

According to a lot of petrol vrs owners on a recent "buying advice" thread, petrols have no reliability issues and the diesels are very troublesome and best avoided. Not entirely accurate advice it seems.

cant say I disagree though, the diesels seem to go through a lot more "general" issues, eg EGR,DPF,Turbo,Flywheel Porous heads etc, although when the petrols do have probs they seem to fail catastrophically!

[silver1011]

On the petrol does the timing chain need removing to access the waterpump (as it does (cam belt) on the diesel)?

Could the dealer have messed up the timing when they swapped out the water pump?

[Tech1e]

Water pump is at the other end of the engine on a TSi.

[allan1888]

According to a lot of petrol vrs owners on a recent "buying advice" thread, petrols have no reliability issues and the diesels are very troublesome and best avoided. Not entirely accurate advice it seems.

Not really Inaccurate either. I'm on my 2nd petrol vrs last one was a TFSI and this one a TSI. On my last Vrs I only had the rear wiper motor failure and a rattle from front suspension and a crack appeared in the bootlid Seam which was fixed under warranty. So in the 4 1/2 years I had it I would say that's pretty good. My current vrs has only had its sat Nav antena replaced due to failure again sorted under warranty.

[Bullit]

I feel for you.......really lucky you are still in warranty.

According to a lot of petrol vrs owners on a recent "buying advice" thread, petrols have no reliability issues and the diesels are very troublesome and best avoided. Not entirely accurate advice it seems.

More accurate than you probably, since as I type this on the first page there is 3 different CR owners that are having problems !

But you no doubt have the most reliable diesel and DSG in the UK............I really hope you do.

[booke23]

More accurate than you probably

What, exactly does that mean?

since as I type this on the first page there is 3 different CR owners that are having problems !

For every petrol octavia on the road there are three Diesel Octavias.........go figure.

But you no doubt have the most reliable diesel and DSG in the UK............I really hope you do.

Yes, the most pointless sentence I have ever seen written on this forum.

Edited 25 October, 2012 by booke23

[allan1888]

For every petrol octavia on the road there are three Diesel Octavias.........go figure.

I wouldn't put that down to reliability though I would put it down to the fact that more people need a diesel due to doing higher mileage. Personally for me even if I was doing lots of miles I would still have petrol over the diesel .

[rob_e]

Personally for me even if I was doing lots of miles I would still have petrol over the diesel .

same here. my 2010 vRS is showing just under 83k miles.

[reverse]

And its again about diesel vs petrol..

Reliability is mostly down to the owner. There are loads of people out there who always seem to have car trouble and there are some who never have any.

Regarding DPF issues - who do people buy a diesel if they only do short runs in the city and get the dpf clogged up? It's just plain stupid to complain about something like this. Same thing goes for complaining about mpg figures on the petrol vrs when commuting hundreds of miles daily.

Buy a car after your REAL needs and you will have a trouble free life

I've seen cambelt snap only having 5k on the clock. Faulty belt and bad installation. Sometimes life is just unfair.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

I think though what upsets most people is ending up with a large bill for what turns out to be a design fault.

Having to spend 5K replacing an Engine that has been correctly cared for, due to a manufacturing or design fault of a £100 part (estimate probably less than that) and the end user having to either pay up or write the car off isn't on when the motor group is making billions in profit (though granted not all of them at the moment).

About time these car companies stood by their product.

Paul

[cheezemonkhai]

I think though what upsets most people is ending up with a large bill for what turns out to be a design fault.

Having to spend 5K replacing an Engine that has been correctly cared for, due to a manufacturing or design fault of a £100 part (estimate probably less than that) and the end user having to either pay up or write the car off isn't on when the motor group is making billions in profit (though granted not all of them at the moment).

About time these car companies stood by their product.

Paul

Sales of goods act. Not of a suitable quality.

Sod playing nice, if they don't offer, complain and if that doesn't get you it fully paid for and your car is less than 6 years old, then sue the dealer you purchased it from.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Sales of goods act. Not of a suitable quality.

Sod playing nice, if they don't offer, complain and if that doesn't get you it fully paid for and your car is less than 6 years old, then sue the dealer you purchased it from.

Does the SoG act still apply if you aren't the original owner though ?

What about if you buy second hand from a dealer ?

Paul

[Chrispy]

I'm saying nothing about reliability.

I'd read about lots of faults on the TFSI but not the TSI. Tumble flap, turbo, high pressure pump, pump cam follower blah blah blah. Thought they'd use the TSI an an opportunity to iron all this out?

Again, on the reliability front it's best if I keep quiet. :think:

[cheezemonkhai]

Does the SoG act still apply if you aren't the original owner though ?

What about if you buy second hand from a dealer ?

Paul

You have to take it up with the dealer you purchased from as they're still selling goods that must be of a sufficient quality.

For the exact rules around second hand, I'd suggest speaking to Citizens Advice.

On the reliability front, IMHO it's quite simple. Don't think that the VAG reputation for reliability from the 80's applies. It doesn't.

Edited 26 October, 2012 by cheezemonkhai

[virusman26]

Generally the build quality and reliability of the vRS has been abouve previous new cars, but given the choice of my vRS and on old RS Ford, I'd still go back to the blue oval. You can do all the mechanical jobs on the drive and generaally always get the things running. I've got no faith in new cars at all.........