Driving into work this morning and my '56 VRS TDi's engine gave up the ghost, or at least decided I'm going to have to dig deep to get it repaired.

Driving along the M4, cruising about 70 in 6th and when I went to accelerate I started to feel a vibration through the steering wheel. Thought it might be a wheel bearing initially but the vibration was general and not specific to one side.

Eased off but continued and a mile or so further up the road I could hear a tapping type sound coming from the engine bay. I turned off the radio and listened and sounds varied, either like a belt was on its way out/snapped or something tapping against the block. The car was also starting to lose power and the vibration getting slightly worse.

Fortunately the last mile on the motorway was down hill so I free-wheeled but still had the tapping noise, which was now more audible and only quiet when the clutch was depressed. When I came off the motorway and to a stop at the traffic lights the car started juddering with the tapping getting louder, then it cut out. I tried re-starting it and it turned over slowly before firing then cutting out. I tried again, as the lights went to green, and, although slow, it fired so I was able to move away but the tapping was quite loud by this point and completely down on power.

I managed to limp the car firstly to work to phone my breakdown assistance and then to the local Skoda dealer (500yds down the road). Without taking the plugs out and getting a camera down inside the engine they weren't able to tell me a exactly what was wrong but they said its sounds like its dropped a valve, at best. Asked them for estimated price and they said around £1000 plus VAT if its only dropped a valve as its head off, skimmed, new valves, timing belt, etc.

Once I got up off the floor I drove it back to work, where it’s been recovered from, and spoke to my local garage (where it’s been recovered to) but after speaking to the owner even he reckons I'm looking at around £800 +VAT cos, as the dealer said, its new valves, head skimmed, new timing belt kit, etc. He's gonna take a look at the car when its gets to him this afternoon and will give me a better idea of the repair price but either way it’s not good.

I've owned the car almost 2 years and it’s done around 131k miles (it had done 112k went I bought it). It’s always been serviced at main dealer, had the timing belt done at about 82k miles and in August 2011 had the injectors replaced due to failure. Other than the DPF light coming on now and again, I've not had any problems with it.

With that in mind, got a few conundrums:

Firstly, anyone suffered similar and what price did it cost you to get done?

Secondly, and obviously depending on price, is it cheaper / easier to get a recon engine instead of getting it repaired?

And finally, if I was to replace the engine, how much hassle / is it possible to replace the PD engine with the CR engine instead?

Long shot the last one I know but though I'd ask.

Any responses would be welcome.

Thanks

James

£1000 atleast! What you don't want to happen is for the valve(s) to have been hammered into the piston crown or cylinder head or even score the block! Ive seen that before...then it would be time for a new engine.

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I think id have stopped as soon as it started making odd noises instead of driving to work, dealers, back to work etc. Could have made the problem 10x worse...

Head been taken off and contrary to initial assesment its not dropped a valve after all and its bottom end knock so an even more expensive job - like to run to about £1800+ with complete strip, re-boring/grinding required plus replacement gaskets, pistons, etc

Managed to source a replacement, younger engine ('09) with less than 30k miles for £1200 so only the cost of labour, and new water pump & timing belt to add so hopefully all done for around the £1600 mark..... fingers crossed anyway.

Was concerned with my car being an '06 PD engine and the new 1 being an '09 possibly CR type (engine code matches (BMN) so all should be ok) but spoken to Sinclair Skoda's chief mechanic and apart from the injetcors potentially needing adapting to suit the car all should be fine, and he said that if the engine has come from a running car then there shouldn't even be that issue to deal with.

Will update this topic when I know more.

James

Edited 16 April, 201313 yr by jimbob77