1.8TSI and 2.0TSI engine failures

[Auric Goldfinger]

Your wallet sighing?

The only notification is that the engine won't start when you come to turn it over. This thread is bad news psychologically, I'm convinced my car is playing tricks with my mind, with ever so subtle changes in firing up, and timbre of the numerous mechanical rattles and knocks...

I'm not really worried to be honest, the car isn't quite two yet, I'll most likely keep it till she's four and in the fourth year will have Breakdown cover + Extra year approved Warranty.

[JD52]

I may have missed it but are there any tell tale signs/noise of imminent failure?

You may notice a rattle when the engine is started. This may not happen every time, but when it does it is clearly different to the normal noises.

The rattle is caused by the chain being loose, and may cause the chain to jump on the inlet cam sprocket. Result - dead engine.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

1.8 or 2.0TSI (or TFSI)?

2.0TSi as it is a 58 plate probably has the original version installed.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

If you are lucky you may get the rattly start-up or throw a DTC that the timing is out - if you are very unlucky it just wont start at some point as it has allowed the chain to slip too much timing and it has lunched your engine.

[mburt88]

You may notice a rattle when the engine is started. This may not happen every time, but when it does it is clearly different to the normal noises.

The rattle is caused by the chain being loose, and may cause the chain to jump on the inlet cam sprocket. Result - dead engine.

I got this rattle. How can I get it fixed?

[DGW]

Your car has a cambelt rather than a timing chain so this particular problem does not affect your car.

[shrek100]

Just looking at Buying a VRS petrol for the wife, up to what year is this affecting, we are looking at a 10 plate tomorrow.

Thanks guys

[DGW]

The 2.0 FSI cambelt engine code is BWA and the 2.0 TSI timing chain engine is CCZA. I believe that the TSI was introduced in 2009 onwards.

[dirk1978]

I can't believe how many people don't know their statutory rights under the sales of goods act.

Forget warranties, they're additional benefits on top of your statutory rights.

You have the right to expect your vehicle to be reasonably reliable. In the case of a new car it's generally 6 years. I wouldn't be happy unless Skoda were paying 100% of the bill for a 4 year old car. If you took them to small claims court you can claim for all sorts of other expenses too so they'll want to avoid that and give in before it goes that far.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[boston1920]

Ok - I'm the recent fellow who had his vRS (2009) engine fail because of belt tensioner issues. I had no prior warning of impending failure. A couple of months on and the new engine is fine and going really well just like the old one. Has this shaken my faith in the engine and VAG - not really at all. Sure I was hacked off that it blew up on me and that I was hit for £1400! S--t happens as they say!

However out of it I got a new engine, brakes, service and an additional 60k miles or two years on my warranty. You couldn't buy it for that at regular Skoda after sales.

Having seen the latest Octavia and the new VRS spec and design I can say with confidence that I will go for another - but this time in white. The chance of another engine failure is so minimal that the benefits of driving such a superb machine really outweigh the chance of another engine catastrophe.

[gunner216]

HELP ME PLEASE I own a 2010 plated petrol VRS with 36k on the clock and the timing chain tensioner has failed and now I face a £6k bill car is just out of warranty and skoda have offered a 55% discount on that ,any one had dealing with  Skoda on the above issue? I have some links but require as much help on research s possible as I can not afford to get my car back from them as the £2500 I have to pay is beyond my pocket .I bought the car from new and have it serviced by Skoda although they tell me the first servicing was late????Totally irrelevant to an engine with only 36k mileage .Please Please help I am at my whits end .

[rob_e]

You can push the dealer for more discount (but to be fair, it's out of warranty so they're not obliged to give you anything) either way i'd ask for more. Try Skoda customer services too.

Mine was out of warranty but i got a big contribution (more than yours), still had to pay the difference though - you won't get a new engine out of them for nothing for a car that's out of warranty..

Good luck.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

HELP ME PLEASE I own a 2010 plated petrol VRS with 36k on the clock and the timing chain tensioner has failed and now I face a £6k bill car is just out of warranty and skoda have offered a 55% discount on that ,any one had dealing with  Skoda on the above issue? I have some links but require as much help on research s possible as I can not afford to get my car back from them as the £2500 I have to pay is beyond my pocket .I bought the car from new and have it serviced by Skoda although they tell me the first servicing was late????Totally irrelevant to an engine with only 36k mileage .Please Please help I am at my whits end .

If purchased yourself from new I would go down the Sale of Goods Act, you need legal advice when faced with this size of bill. If you contribute towards the bill you will have 2 years warranty on the work and parts, but you need to check your rights and look to use the SOGA to get your contribution down. SOGA applies to your supplying dealer - which is hopefully where the car is.

[boston1920]

If purchased yourself from new I would go down the Sale of Goods Act, you need legal advice when faced with this size of bill. If you contribute towards the bill you will have 2 years warranty on the work and parts, but you need to check your rights and look to use the SOGA to get your contribution down. SOGA applies to your supplying dealer - which is hopefully where the car is.

 

If purchased yourself from new I would go down the Sale of Goods Act, you need legal advice when faced with this size of bill. If you contribute towards the bill you will have 2 years warranty on the work and parts, but you need to check your rights and look to use the SOGA to get your contribution down. SOGA applies to your supplying dealer - which is hopefully where the car is.

Bad luck with your VRS. My incident was exactly the same- 2 months out of warranty and 35k miles on the clock. A few hints : be really nice and polite no matter how p-----d off you are. First and foremost irrespective of what the official VAG line is there is a history with our year of FSI engine belt tensioner going. Apparently it has been recognised and all new engines have a different tensioner mechanism-  sorry I am NOT technical. Apparently it is fairly haphazard and nothing to do with how hard the car was driven etc but just bad luck. VAG would rather do a few remedial engine replacements than admit to it and do a full recall! My engine replacement cost £5300 and I had to contribute 15% towards it. But I also had new brake discs and pads put in, a new MOT done and I received a 60k warranty (for the engine). For my outlay I thought this a pretty good deal. I also demonstrated to VAG/ Skoda UK that I was a loyal VAG car buyer I'v and could list the last 10 VAG vehiles my wife and I have owned over the last 30 years. Bit sad actually... ! I could even show them an article I had written in What Car telling them how wonderful a Golf had been! and a less than supportive article i wrote on a BMW...they had genuinely been published .

At all times I was polite but firm. Get names and take notes of all conversations and emails etc. poit of contact  Go to Skoda UK as your point of contact as your Dealer can and will only go so far.

Good luck.

[gunner216]

thanks JAZZ I am going balls pout on this one ,I could lose my job over it as I cant afford to pay for the car yet I need it for work, kinda sucks when they big boys ignore loyalty. I ve bought 2 new Skoda's in 10 happy years looks like the marriage is over the offer is ridiculous car failed in my drive way ? anyone know how to get this to a higher profile complaint and let the consumer know of this under handed method of pretending there's no issue.

[stever750]

Which legal services? I'm a member and they have been very helpful in similar situations.

[Metblackrat]

Does anyone know when this part was revised? Mine was built in June 2012 so I am hoping the revised part was fitted (although I'm not unduly worried).

[JB-)]

Does anyone know when this part was revised? Mine was built in June 2012 so I am hoping the revised part was fitted (although I'm not unduly worried).

 

First modified ones fitted from May 2010, but has been modified again since. Modified ones have still failed.

[Norco]

Mine was reg'd in May so likely built a few months before the swap. I'm not worried really. We still have a years warranty but if the chances of a failure were in the 10 - 20% it might be worth guarding against, when we are still looking at relatively few failures like this there are many more times chance that it isn't going to happen. 

 

Just keeping an ear out for the tell tale signs is the most I'll do.

[Abarth Moose]

Bad luck with your VRS. My incident was exactly the same- 2 months out of warranty and 35k miles on the clock. A few hints : be really nice and polite no matter how p-----d off you are. First and foremost irrespective of what the official VAG line is there is a history with our year of FSI engine belt tensioner going. Apparently it has been recognised and all new engines have a different tensioner mechanism-  sorry I am NOT technical. Apparently it is fairly haphazard and nothing to do with how hard the car was driven etc but just bad luck. VAG would rather do a few remedial engine replacements than admit to it and do a full recall! My engine replacement cost £5300 and I had to contribute 15% towards it. But I also had new brake discs and pads put in, a new MOT done and I received a 60k warranty (for the engine). For my outlay I thought this a pretty good deal. I also demonstrated to VAG/ Skoda UK that I was a loyal VAG car buyer I'v and could list the last 10 VAG vehiles my wife and I have owned over the last 30 years. Bit sad actually... ! I could even show them an article I had written in What Car telling them how wonderful a Golf had been! and a less than supportive article i wrote on a BMW...they had genuinely been published .

At all times I was polite but firm. Get names and take notes of all conversations and emails etc. poit of contact  Go to Skoda UK as your point of contact as your Dealer can and will only go so far.

Good luck.

Can't agree more with this - be clear with what you want from them, quiet, polite, but self assured. Never accept the first offer.

 

I'll be posting soon about my experience

[Abarth Moose]

So, I am the latest to be added to this list.

 

Car is a 10-plate Octavia II FL vRS with just over 50k on the clock.

 

Took the car in for it's service and left it on the Dealer's forecourt, then got a call from them asking if I'd had any trouble with starting it. I had not and next I know, they're talking about compression tests ........ new engine ............Skoda UK goodwill etc. To cut a long story short, according to the dealer the timing chain was at fault - Skoda UK offered a 'goodwill gesture' of 55% of the cost of a new engine which I refused (and said I would sue the supplying dealer under SoGA), they then looked to see if the engine could be repaired and I was told no, new engine required and Skoda UK agreed to pay 100%.

 

Have the car back now and by 'new' they mean reconditioned and I'm still a little dubious as they're telling me the engine number on the V5 doesn't need to change (I'm still researching this as as far as I know, either they've refurbished my engine or they're telling me porkies - another engine that has been refurbished will have it's own engine number). I also had confirmation from Skoda UK that as this was repaired out of warranty the new part has 2 years warranty with it.

 

I haven't managed to drive it for long yet, but plan a long drive soon to test it out.

[Anddenton]

I believe they take the engine number off the old engine and assign it to the new one to save changing v5 and notifying dvla etc.

[monkeyalan]

With all this in mind and the fact that mine is out o warranty next year would it be a good idea to extend the Skoda warranty for another couple I years? It's about £500 for the extension but might provide some peace of mind. Not sure what happens a further two years down the line though as Sloda don't appear to extend beyond that. I'd rather fork out £500 than £6K in the unlikely event that my chain fails.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Tricky decision to make, yes the number of failures is small given the number out there - but if you are the unlucky person that is left holding the baby - it is a very expensive time for you.

 

There was obviously a design issue there as they have changed the design twice that is known about - it isn't clear either if the latest design has completely fixed the issue.

 

Damn shame that they didn't design the 2.0T as a non-intrusive design like on my Wife's MX-5 - if her cambelt fails it just dies - doesn't lunch the engine.

[boston1920]

Oh well... after  3o months of excellent driving until the camshaft went I've sold my VRS. Traded in against an 8000 miles Audi A6 Avant Diesel with all the goodies. I paid £12000 (what a bargain) for my VRS 30 months ago (it had 16k on the clock and 12 months old) and got £9k on the trade in. Under the circumstances I thought this quite fair - Audi / VAG were not bothered at all by the engine replacement (although they asked to see the paperwork). I looked at the new VRS Estate but was getting a December / January delivery date.

The Audi is big, comfortable, excellent sound system etc but is very boring in comparison with the VRS. Its only when you move onto to something like an "executive" estate do you realize just how much of a real hybrid/wolf in sheep's clothing the VRS is (especially the estate). I'm missing it already for the fun country drives - but not for  the longer motorway drives etc.

Off to middle age retirement and signing out of Britskoda!

Happy motoring - and watch out for those camshafts !.