I am hoping to complete negotiations with the dealer early next week and will then be in a position to update.

 

I have been made an offer, but as yet nothing has been said as to the cause.  The last thing the dealer said was that the cylinders have been looked at with an endoscope and it is on the basis of this that SUK are offering an exchange engine with me paying a contribution to labour costs (remember mine is almost a year out of warranty).

 

I agree with Phil's thoughts.  From SUK/VAG point of view it seems 'whatever you do, don't mention the tensioner failure'. 

 

I will be seeking re-assurance that the engine will be new, will have a 3 year warranty and that it will have the up-rated tensioner.

 

I have asked the dealer for a quote on a new VRS and am interested to note that the same dealers trade in on my vrs when it has the new engine fitted (£5k approx. retail) is approx £6.5 k.  It does have 48k miles, scuffed wheels and scratched front and rear bumpers.  

 

Therefore the car with a new engine is worth nothing more than it would have been with the 48k original engine!    :wonder:

 

Anyone interested in buying it off me for, say........ £9k..............   

DGW, thanks for the great link. It looks like it's mainly the poor ratchet retaining pin design, but there's also some talk about oil sludging. Unfortunately, frequent oil changes and using the handbrake are no guarantee of longevity though.

 

I'm torn between leaving it alone and spouting SOGA if it goes wrong, taking out a further 2 years Skoda recommended warranty or proactively changing the part.  I don't want to change the car as I love it. Pity we don't get the 60,000 mile US engine warranty in the UK.

 

P.S. I've signed up for Simpsons Skoda track day at Angelsey on 8th November. I've no doubt the potential issue wil get discussed!

Well guys got the call today to say car is ready to pick up. Going to collect it tomorrow so will report back more when I have got it.

Only real concern is I have been told Skoda do not "warranty" the warranty items fitted they will only "warranty" parts you actually pay for...... so I said to her you are telling me that if the chain and tensioner you have fitted fail after the end of November they wont be covered, "no" she said!!!!

 

Apparently as well "I" was lucky it didn't take my engine out, im sure the service advisors where I work don't say things like that...to be honest I would of preferred a new lump

 

Any how it will be good to have the car back as they have had it longer than I have....

 

Phil

Hi Phil,

 

 I have been offered a new (remanufactured) engine with a 2 year warranty to which I contribute about £400.

The only investigation on the car has been an endoscope of the cylinders.

Therefore the tensioner has not been examined, and I don't think it will be until it disappears behind closed doors in some German warehouse..

Having a new engine in the car does not add a penny to the trade in value. (last chance for anyone who will offer me say £8500...?)

 

Don't understand your situation regarding the fitted parts and warranty - seems very bad PR on SUKs part.

 

My best guess is the dealer is under severe pressure from SUK to 'do as we tell you or'...........

 

Will post more tomorrow when I have agreed things with the dealer.

 

 

 

I was thinking of paying a visit to Shark to have my 2010 VRS re-mapped, but I take it I'd be in a very weak position with a mapped car should the tensioner fail as far as SUK agreeing to fund all/part of a replacement engine?

Hi again, Strange one Nigel as SUK told the dealer to put chain and tensioner on first, both our cars are with the same dealer (different locations) I may have been lucky as the service advisor said but she did say the chain/tensioner has to go on first before confirming the engine is dead. My engine did however run, not sure if yours did??

 

Kr, if it was mine I would be looking at fitting the new tensioner before doing any mods, this IS the weak point and if you check post 223 by DGW you will see comments about the tensioner.. its a good read

 

I have asked to speak with the Techie who worked on my car to gain more info and as long as im there before 5:30 he will speak to me.......Will post findings later

 

Phil

Edited 23 October, 201312 yr by piv34uk

I was thinking of paying a visit to Shark to have my 2010 VRS re-mapped, but I take it I'd be in a very weak position with a mapped car should the tensioner fail as far as SUK agreeing to fund all/part of a replacement engine?

This has happened to one car that we mapped (that I know of) and the engine was replaced FOC under normal warranty terms, as it was deemed that the faulty part was the cause which wouldn't have been affected by any external factor.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

 

Only real concern is I have been told Skoda do not "warranty" the warranty items fitted they will only "warranty" parts you actually pay for...... so I said to her you are telling me that if the chain and tensioner you have fitted fail after the end of November they wont be covered, "no" she said!!!!

 

 

Phil

 

I think any parts fitted free under the Warranty are only covered until the Car warranty runs out. If you extend the Warranty they will be covered under the new Warranty.

 

Any parts you pay for are covered for 2 years regardless wether there covered by warranty or not.

Hi Phil, 

 

I have just instructed the dealer to order the new engine.  

 

You are correct, my engine did not run at all and I suspect the endoscope examination of the cylinders showed a new engine was he only way to go.  At the beginning of this I had to be pretty 'pushy' in an attempt to work out who was going to give me trouble.  I think in the end it was not the dealer. 

 

As to re-mapping, I know nothing about this process but I would suggest hat if you want motoring pleasure, keep the vrs un-mapped and buy a classic Lotus Elan!

Any contribution towards the parts would then cover you for an additional 2 years, not quite sure how that works with an Engine though, so for example if you contribute a month before the warranty runs out - is the Engine covered for the next two years ?

 

In theory if you have the latest tensioner fitted by a dealer it should be warrantied for two years - the interesting part would be if it failed in the two years and lunched the Engine would it be down to the dealer or SUK to replace the engine or just the failed tensioner ?

Well the new girl is back home, only had the car 2 weeks when she misbehaved lol..... Big thanks to master tech "Max" at Hughes of Aylesbury for sorting the problems out and allowing me to question him a bit about the problems. Believe it or not my car was the first they had seen with the tensioner problem, this problem had caused over the last 38k miles to stretch the already knackered tensioner, it couldn't cope so allowed the chain to jump "5" yes "5" teeth, luckily this was in tolerance of the inlet cams cold start advance/retard movement but rather than the valves meeting the pistons it just helped it to have a major misfire, his words not mine. All I will say without putting liability on anyone is get the tensioner updated asap to the latest spec one or else............

 

Anyhow all was covered under warranty and I will be on the phone to SUK tomorrow to ask about extended warranties, after all this is our 3rd Vrs, my dad is n his second and my father in law had owned one  Customer loyalty will hopefully come into it especially if I tell them I work for Toyota

 

If you need any other info Pm me

Phil

Edited 23 October, 201312 yr by piv34uk

Good news Phil and I'm sure you will be pleased with the car now it's back home

 

Do you have the part number for the new tensioner.?.

 

I assume the one fitted to my Vrs will have a part number on it so I can contact my dealer to see what they say about fitting a new one, after all it could be in there interest to save any problems further down the line

 

Having said that they'll deny any knowledge  that tensioners are failing

The new part is indestructible I take it?

Having said that they'll deny any knowledge  that tensioners are failing

 

Quite possibly! I can say that I've worked at a Skoda dealers for getting on towards a decade and I've still not seen one of these tensioners go.

Infact the only time we've had an incident with a chain driven 1.8/2.0TSi was a Superb 1.8Tsi that was misfiring on cylinder 3 and that turned out to be due to the valves not sealing correctly any more. New cylinder head was fitted and all was fine (after messing around with the cam timing, hated doing that)

Agree with Dan above, as this is what techie told me.......he did however say with the Vrs`s it would be "sensible" to change the oil "frequently" by this I think he may have been hinting at not doing variable servicing.

 

As for new tensioner Monkey, only time will tell..... looking at the original part I can see how sludge/carbon deposits can easily clog up the ladder stepping of the ratchet on the tensioner allowing the locking device to "float" over the top so to speak

 

Auric, I will try to find out part number as no details on invoice, tech assured me its the latest revision though which leads me to believe he knows what`s going on!!!!!

 

Phil

VAG have form for this sort of thing.  The Audi A6 V6 petrol (previous model, not the original) was notorious for stretching its timing chains and causing pistons and valves to meet (expensive repair time).  The current 2.0 TDI suffers from oil pump failure (new engine time).

 

In comparison, the old 1.9 diesel in most of its forms from can't-get-out-of-its-own-wheel-ruts SDI up to 150bhp PD TDI was famously tough, although the PD ones were a bit of a technological dead-end (Alfa showed that common rail was simpler and worked just as well).

Edited 23 October, 201312 yr by rogerzilla

I've had various BSS (2.0Tdi PD PDF) balance shaft/oil pump failures in my time.

Thankfully I've never had much dealings with the old 2.5 V6 diesel and 2.8 V6 in the old Superb Mk1 but I generally don't like them.

 

1.9PD's were generally reliable other than munching turbos (seem to remember doing alot of these when I was younger!) and ruining camshafts and tappets when the incorrect oil had been used.

 

I personally haven't had any dealings yet with a BKD or CR 2.0TDi engine destroying itself yet (thankfully!)

 

Petrol chain driven engines really aren't VWAG's strong point imo. The 3 pot 1.2's used to skip timing, heads get ruined (nice little repair kit for this including new cat)

The 1.2TSi's seem to like making a horrible racket on cold start up on the earlier models.

 

As for knowing the new part number, 9 times out of 10 parts people have no idea what the techie's are on about when they want something pricing. So it's easier to give them the old part number, they whack it in ETKA and when they click the pop up box (once they've found the right part) it'll go through all the supersessions and go to the most upto date part.

As for new tensioner Monkey, only time will tell..... looking at the original part I can see how sludge/carbon deposits can easily clog up the ladder stepping of the ratchet on the tensioner allowing the locking device to "float" over the top so to speak

Don't actually know where this sits in the engine bay, but historically from working on belted engines that pretty much sit on the OUTSIDE of the block, can I presume that this doesn't? Only guessing from the comments about oil fouling it up, and the logical part of me thinks, 'fine, if it's accessable and that's an issue.... then I'll clean it with a toothbrush once in a while!'

 

Take it this is NOT an option, cos it would seem to help the problem quite easily if it was?

Check out post from DGW 223, has a lot of info about the Tsi problems, if only it was that simple to remove the tensioner Blackspaven

 

Phil

Don't actually know where this sits in the engine bay, but historically from working on belted engines that pretty much sit on the OUTSIDE of the block, can I presume that this doesn't? Only guessing from the comments about oil fouling it up, and the logical part of me thinks, 'fine, if it's accessable and that's an issue.... then I'll clean it with a toothbrush once in a while!'

 

Take it this is NOT an option, cos it would seem to help the problem quite easily if it was?

 

Chain drives are different. They're internal, all contained behind the cover on the left hand side of the engine as you look under the bonnet. The cover is bonded on, apparently with stuff that's tough to remove. The tensioner is not easily accessible. The only realistic way to try to combat the build up of sludge is regular oil changes with good oil, along with an engine flush.

 

The tensioner is the blue bit on the left of this pic

 

 

Agree JB, I for one have took the "hint" from the tech and will carry out frequent oil changes...

In threads on other sites it still seems to have happened to cars that have had frequent oil changes. ..some even changed every 5k miles! This is why I don't believe in variable servicing and always do oil changes at least every 10k miles.

Mines always been done every 5,000 miles so im a little happier if this comment is actually fact. Haven't we seen failures on the cars with the revised part installed from factory though? 

FWIW I think it is more important to check the oil level regularly and make sure that it never falls below the hatched area on the dipstick rather than to change it more often than the service recommendation.

Hi, Well I've got my car back now, Progress were very(?) helpfull and got the cost down to just under £2400 for the new engine! 60% contribution from SUK customer service and themselves.

I got the following from one of the men there "

The lower timing cover was removed, the piston on the tensioner was found to be moving on test, and not sticking in. was checked several times, before rebuilding engine complete, that has been now returned to Skoda. As discussed from previous findings and from evidence of heat damage to upper engine, an oil supply issue indicates the main cause of the engine failure.  

"

To expand on the "heat damage" - one of the bearing surfaces on one of the camshafts was somewhat shot - I saw it and it had obviously run dry for a period of time as both the camshaft and the bearing in the head were somewhat damaged... not enough to blow the engine but a point to be aware of.

I would suggest that a close watch on oil level and frequent changes are the order of the day!!!