Well done sounds hopeful.  Have they examined the tensioner yet? If not are you asking them to do so, it would be helpful for the rest of us.  Is yours at Hughes Aylesbury?  Mine is at Hughes Farnham Common and I will not hear anything now until next week.

 

 

Does anyone have any photos of a failed tensioner out of interest?

Hi Nigel, yes its at Hughes...they have said they are under staffed so tech will be looking at it tom orrow if he has time, im lucky as the Vag/Rac assist guy who took the car there is a good friend of mine, I think he dropped a few hints about me being in the trade and that I had already spoken to several colleagues who work forVw dealerships.

 

Update as soon as I know more, will say one of our Inchcape Vw dealers has pulled in a 1.4tsi with similar problems :think:

 

Phil

Does anyone have any photos of a failed tensioner out of interest?

Not yet bud, if its anything like Toyota ones there should be a tag that locates on the ratchet of the tensioner to stop it fully de pressurising once oil has drained back to the sump...Very interested to see it myself to see where the "flaw" is

 

Phil

Thanks Phil, maybe all their techs are at Farnham looking at mine 

My understanding is that the flaw is a failure of the ratchet to do it's thing, which can be easily tested by being able to push the piston back in without any resistance being presented.

Thought it might be worth putting some additional perspective on this. There must be close on to 150,000 vRS TSIs in the UK according to the DfT (see here) so if the chances of engine failure were say one in fifteen thousand then one would expect ten failures. One in fifteeen thousand is a pretty low risk compared to say something like a one in fifteen-hundred chance of popping it in any one year or around a one in ten thousand risk of choosing to take your own life (Data from the UK would be better (?) but data from USA here). So that sort of means that in any timeframe there will be more dead vRS drivers than there will be dead vRS engines. I assume these are independent events - an engine failure would be a real bummer though.

Thought it might be worth putting some additional perspective on this. There must be close on to 150,000 vRS TSIs in the UK according to the DfT (see here) so if the chances of engine failure were say one in fifteen thousand then one would expect ten failures. One in fifteeen thousand is a pretty low risk compared to say something like a one in fifteen-hundred chance of popping it in any one year or around a one in ten thousand risk of choosing to take your own life (Data from the UK would be better (?) but data from USA here). So that sort of means that in any timeframe there will be more dead vRS drivers than there will be dead vRS engines. I assume these are independent events - an engine failure would be a real bummer though.

 

Where do you get the figure of 150,000 from? That list shows that in Q2 of 2013 there were only around 166,000 Octavia's in total still on the road. That's all models ever.

 

If there were 150,000 vRS TSI's on the road now, that would mean Skoda has sold circa 30,000 per year since the TSI model was introduced. I make it more like 4,000 vRS TSI's still on the road, although it's a bit of a guess which ones are actually the later models due to the different model names used.

 

I make it around 688 registered in the first year they came out. That means so far we know that at least 1.6% of them have failed. It's anybody's guess how many more there are that have not been posted about here.

Just a quick update.... Dealer contacted me today to say all compressions were good, the chain had jumped a tooth and Skoda UK have told them to replace the tensioner to latest spec; one and also to replace the chain, this is being done Wednesday..... Here`s hoping

 

Will update tomorrow

 

Phil :wonder:

Sounds like good news for you - well done!

 

My dealer is still waiting for reply from SUK.

Where do you get the figure of 150,000 from? That list shows that in Q2 of 2013 there were only around 166,000 Octavia's in total still on the road. That's all models ever.

 

If there were 150,000 vRS TSI's on the road now, that would mean Skoda has sold circa 30,000 per year since the TSI model was introduced. I make it more like 4,000 vRS TSI's still on the road, although it's a bit of a guess which ones are actually the later models due to the different model names used.

 

I make it around 688 registered in the first year they came out. That means so far we know that at least 1.6% of them have failed. It's anybody's guess how many more there are that have not been posted about here.

You are right I summed across the columns. Made for an interesting story but wrong.

TsvRS well admitted.

 

Let us hope that the VAGremlin does not punish your genuine mistake by loosening your tensioner while you sleep  tonight!  

You are right I summed across the columns. Made for an interesting story but wrong.

 

I was kind of hoping you were going to be able to prove your numbers, since they made the problem look far less significant   :| 

 

If only 10% of the failures have been discussed here, it could mean that around 16% of engines have had failures.

 

Originally I didn't consider this problem much to worry about, but the more cases that crop up, the more it becomes a concern. Despite having a warranty to cover it I can still do without all the hassle of a failure, and it's even more worrying for those who don't have any kind of protection.

 

I sympathise with those who've had the failure, especially those who've had to foot the bill.

If the number of failures had a stat as high as 16% surely they would have to recall and there would be masses of vRS, Golfs and the like piling up at dealerships waiting for their innards to be replaced? Then there would be the watchdog programmes and the like. I don't want to bury my head in the sand but there is alot in life to worry about it and I'm not sure this should be top of the list.....yet.

If the number of failures had a stat as high as 16% surely they would have to recall and there would be masses of vRS, Golfs and the like piling up at dealerships waiting for their innards to be replaced? Then there would be the watchdog programmes and the like. I don't want to bury my head in the sand but there is alot in life to worry about it and I'm not sure this should be top of the list.....yet.

 

The manufacturers wouldn't do a recall on something like this unless a high number were failing under warranty, costing them a lot of money. A lot of the time they're not even paying the full cost, only a contribution because failures are happening out of warranty. They will generally only do recalls on safety grounds and when forced to by VOSA. The tensioner fails when the car is stationary so wouldn't be considered dangerous.

 

On top of that, VW stats most likely don't quite reflect the true failure rate due to the fact that they wouldn't know about them all. When they're failing out of warranty, some people will just sort the repair themselves, as at least one person on here did.

If you are quick Skoda uk want to know on Facebook what makes your car unique "ŠKODA UK We love making our cars our own, from hanging decoration over the rear-view mirror to heated seats. Tell us what decorations and features make your car unique."

After reading this thread I know for sure what feature I would be posting to everyone who see's skoda UK's Facebook page.

That should do wonders for the secondhand value of 2.0/1.8TSIs. :(

Hi Denis,

 

of course the other side of the coin would be to comment widely on how much a 3 year old VRS is worth on the second hand market with a chassis and ancillaries that have done 36000 miles and brand new engine that has done 36 miles! 

 

I received the first offer from the dealer yesterday regarding my engine.  Once final negotiations have taken place I will post the result.

 

Any final news on yours Phil?

Hi, keeping a bit quiet till all resolved... Had no contact since Tuesday when they told me a new tensioner and chain will be fitted as compressions were showing good. Thought engine would need to be removed for this?

Will ring this afternoon as customer contact from dealer is a bit hit and miss :-(

Phil

The chain and tensioner replacement does not require engine removal.

Ok thanks for that, rang garage and they have been let down on a part :-/ hmm we use that one all the time

Dealer has now had car longer than I have owned it!!! Getting used to the 1.4tsi lol

Guys,

 

A few technical things have been bothering me about these failures (aside from the fact I have a 2010 petrol vRS with 28,000 miles on the clock and am therefore worried about the future of my engine).  I hope the following comments aren't too rambling!

 

Firstly, it's disappointing that there is no published (at least that I can find) technical analysis of the failed tensioner component.  Is it due to corrosion (pitting, stress, crevice etc), fatigue leading to brittle failure, wrong materials, lack of oil or simply too weak?  How was the initial design changed?  If we knew this it would give a clue as to what VAG got wrong.

 

Secondly, some time ago there was a suggestion that leaving a manual vRS parked in gear might tension one side of the timing chain prior to starting it, particularly if parked on a hill and the handbrake slips a bit.  I inferred that this might be over-stressing the ratchet within the tensioner before the oil pressure builds up but I could be wildly wrong. Just in case, I now park mine only using the handbrake (but where I live is really flat anyway).  Has anybody got any information about this?  Do we know how many failures are for manual cars parked in gear, or am I just being paranoid (feel free to call me nuts)?

Have a read of the thread below, and in particular posts 77 and 182 by HSTuning.

http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46284&highlight=timing+chain+tensioner+failure

Some good points Rizmond, mine Is manual full history and I carried out full service after picking car up... it has covered 38k and I serviced it week before it went pop, blame me lol... im a Toyota techie and have worked on Fords Peugeot Rover Audi and Vw to name but a few, all main dealers......The wife started the car one morning and bang, it ran but to her seemed like a heavy misfire, I presumed I had disturbed a coil pack so got 4 ready... on arrival home I new it was more major. The thing that bugs me is car was taken to local Skoda dealer who carried out tests and said the chain had jumped a tooth but compressions were fine (prob because valves stuck in head) with my knowledge this is not a safe engine, but, with 2 weeks on they have only just got round to fitting the chain and as of Saturday they have found an "oil valve" that has blown probably causing the tensioner to fail!! I believe with my knowledge its maybe not the tensioner fail safe failing but a significant drop in oil pressure within the engine, anyone who has tried to move a tensioner back even in a vice will know what pressures are involved.

 

Still my car is covered under warranty, I was not allowed to speak to the tech working on my car and they seemed almost secretive about the problem. I know of one other car in this dealership with the same problem. Working for one of the biggest dealerships in the UK I can get tech knowledge about nearly every make, but mention the TSI problem to the Vw/Audi lot meets with :wonder: lol

I could always use my Vosa connections as a worst case scenario

 

Will update more when mine is fixed, I for one will be happier if a new engine goes in....the garage has now had the car longer than I have owned it!!!

 

Phil

Edited 20 October, 201312 yr by piv34uk

Nice info there DGW, thanks for that, exactly what I had been thinking all along

 

Phil