Yeti 1.8TSi burning oil – and now needs a new engine

[benmahoney]

1 hour ago, rayx said:

Hmm, very unusual, I believe new short motor in 2016 surely had new/modified chain and latest tensioner "K" fitted straight from the manufacturer, no one at dealer should do anything with that, I wonder what is the real issue when mechanic dive deeper into the wreck ... Had you always enough oil in engine?

 

Yes, oil regularly checked especially after the problems last year when it WAS losing (or rather burning) oil with the cracked piston rings. No diesel in the tank either.

 

The reason the dealer decided to replace the whole unit was exactly that - the chains were "too complicated a job and risky to mess around with".

 

The mechanic, sorry, Master Tech, is looking into it today hopefully... Hoping to get a Fabia courtesy car for the missus and little'un too, think they're angrier than me - as much as it's VAG group poor design and mechanics, there's still the unspoken undercurrent of 'you're the one who bought a lemon!'.

 

[Urrell]

1 hour ago, benmahoney said:

The reason the dealer decided to replace the whole unit was exactly that - the chains were "too complicated a job and risky to mess around with".

 

That is unbelievable, makes you wonder about the competence of the dealers staff.
More likely to be profit orientated.

[benmahoney]

Well the saga continues. They're telling me an injector has failed, and as it's not part of the base engine it's not covered under the warranty.

 

They've quoted 6 hours labour at £770, and they've quoted upwards of £1,500 for four new injectors on top of that....

 

I can't believe it. Two major failures in less than 12 months. At a cost of over £4k.

 

I'd laugh but it's no joke.

[benmahoney]

EDIT: they got the cost wrong. It's £1,500 for the lot. But still....

[rayx]

Your last info just show that dealership in not competent at all ... How can they say timing gone and than just tell you they were wrong and only injector failed ... Yes, injector can fail, ask in another dealer for a quote.

[MattC1]

Hi, I have just had an almost identical experience, well the first breakdown anyway.

 

After limping home across London followed by an AA van the car (a 2010 Yeti 4x4 1.8) sits outside, undriveable.

 

The AA guy ran a diagnostics app at the point of breakdown (after juddering, smoking, fuel smell, EPC and engine light coming on) and established cylinder 4 was faulty, then swapped the coils over to check that wasn't part of the problem.

 

He took out the cyl 4 spark plug dripping in oil and cleaned it. Got me home 5 miles. His opinion was that it is the rings as he'd done some reading on the subject and not good news.

 

The local garage have taken a look and confirmed that it'll be an engine rebuild and cost between £2000 and £2500(!) Can't believe this is a known engine issue and Skoda haven't owned up to it!

 

Likewise, we bought the car about a year ago privately and it was in good condition having done approx 65k miles. 

 

You seem to have had some success tackling Skoda. Worth a shot having bought it privately?

 

And can anyone advise, if we want to get rid of the car, should we get the work done and sell at book price? Or just sell it honestly as it is less what it will cost to repair. Same chances you think?

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Ootohere]

Welcome.

 

If you like the car and it is what you wanted, why not get the engine fixed and then use the car you can trust,  get value out of it,

why blow £2,000-£3,000 you will never get back by selling it, and obviously you sell honestly, either fixed or needing fixed if you do sell?

Edited 8 January, 2018 by AwaoffSki

[Goody1]

Its been around 8 months since Ben last posted and I wonder how he got on. Although I am on my 7th Skoda since 1995, I do wonder sometimes how Skoda always finish near the top in the JD Power Survey each year.

[Ootohere]

Strangest thing is each year if you ask on Briskoda the biggest Skoda Forum certainly in the UK there are not many that will say they completed a survey, be it JD Power, Which or anyones.

Is it that there are too many Skoda Dealership employees with time on their hands to respond to surveys?

[aka_pseudonym]

Came upon this while browsing - owning a 1.8TSI with 60,000 on the clock it's not happy reading!

 

So I looked at the Skoda extended warranties.  That involves searching for specific details as there are no links to it on the page trying to sell the cover.  It's here:

 

https://www.insurewithskoda.co.uk/library/pdf/SKODA_Extended_Warranty_Policy_06_01_2015.pdf

 

Anyway the exclusions page is interesting.  It says:

 

"We will not pay for failure caused by deterioration of a covered component commensurate with its age and mileage. This includes, but is not limited to, gradual loss of engine compression requiring the repair of valves or rings and the gradual increase in the oil consumption due to normal operating functions.

 

We will not pay for any costs of repair or replacement of any components where the sudden failure is as result of wear and tear.

 

Design Faults and Recalls – If any components of your vehicle have an inherent design fault or is recalled by its manufacturer, the component which is the subject of the design fault or recall is not covered by this warranty."

 

So the first two are a cop-out on the oil consumption, and maybe even on the rings breaking from "wear and tear".  But quite amazing that an "inherent design fault" can be excluded.  Are there any lawyers on this forum - is it really possible to design something really badly, watch it break, and then say it's not covered by the warranty?  I can't really believe consumer law would allow that.  Mind boggling.

 

But there again, if Skoda/VW actually admitted it was a design fault, then all warranties would be null and void.  So maybe that's why they haven't.  Perverse.

 

 

 

[Ootohere]

Skoda / VW Group will sell you a Warranty then say known issue and refuse you any help / warranty cover. Known issues by them before the warranty was sold.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/440772-nightmare-fabia-vrs-engine-replacement-needed 

[Ryeman]

4 hours ago, AwaoffSki said:

Welcome.

 

If you like the car and it is what you wanted, why not get the engine fixed and then use the car you can trust,  get value out of it,

why blow £2,000-£3,000 you will never get back by selling it, and obviously you sell honestly, either fixed or needing fixed if you do sell?

The old saying, the cheapest car is the one you own.

[MattC1]

Perverse is an excellent choice of words.

 

Thanks for the advice. I agree, we should get it fixed if we want to keep it. Just not sure we want to. Lost a little faith in the engineering.

I mentioned the word "honestly" (I always would be honest btw) as the garage suggested refilling the car with high viscosity oil to mask the issue and flogging in on.

 

So I take it that there's no real difference in doing the work and not doing the work if I'm selling – in terms of getting a fair price?

[Ootohere]

What would you replace your Yeti with that you can have faith in the engineering of and be sure is more reliable than an engine you have had rebuilt 

and that should be as new for the money you spend?

[MattC1]

I suppose I'd replace it with something that doesn't have a known design fault. That's the 'lost faith' bit. And it also sticks in my craw somewhat to think of paying to rebuild something that is inherently flawed and not even covered by a warranty if it reoccurred. 

 

Maybe I'll just cut my losses and rely on my 1983 VW. That's still going strong:)

 

15 hours ago, aka_pseudonym said:

Design Faults and Recalls – If any components of your vehicle have an inherent design fault or is recalled by its manufacturer, the component which is the subject of the design fault or recall is not covered by this warranty."

 

[benmahoney]

Hello all

 

Sorry to hear about your Yeti Matt. I'll do what I can to help.

 

Though my poor experience was compounded by very poor service for Motorline Dartford. I did have success with the head office. And recently (and with the fuel injectors) Skoda Croydon have been great.

 

To begin with I simply spoke with customer services to and didn't take no for an answer. I also emailed. After a bit of polite but firm complaining they offered me a discount on the costs of replacement piston rings. I used the following arguments;

 

1. I believe that due to that fact that the faulty piston rings are being replaced with a newly designed version (as they are), that the originals were not fit for purpose, leading to their ultimate failure and the start of the fault.

 

2. I used the references of the Radio 4 program BBC Radio 4 Your & Yours programme which feature VW Audi engines with the same fault, and the class action lawsuit in the US that was settled out of court (can'd find the links just now, sorry).

 

3. The oil use recommendation for the Skoda Yeti, set by Skoda, is 0.5 litre per 1,000 kilometres. My Yeti was losing was almost double that, I got the dealer to check (though harder for you as its not running, but it's pretty clear the rings are leaking oil) therefore I said "I consider it a breach of contract, and an engineering fault, not wear and tear".

 

I think it helped us (so they said) that our Yeti had always been serviced by a Skoda dealer... And was being fixed by a dealer.

 

It was then though, ironically, that things went awry with the dealer. It took three months to get it fixed. It was just before this point that I emailed the Director of Skoda UK, and the senior bods with a very detailed letter of my experience, including the incovenience we had suffered. You can find email addresses easily enough online. To his credit he did read my email – so they do listen – and customer care got in touch. In the end they covered 70% of the costs of a new base engine. I received two free full services at a dealer. And by way of apology, Skoda roof bars w/ fitting.

 

I decided to fix and keep our Yeti because we'd spent ages finding it in the first place. And it was right for us. And i couldn't face searching for another one – we'd just had a kid. Maybe it was the wrong decision maybe it was right. I'll never know. But it's now got an all new engine I'm confident in, and for us it has been, and still is, a great car for our needs. Despite the VAG engineering and refusal to acknowledge a design/engineering fault that is... We would have also lost money trying to sell it on with a defunct engine. So being between a rock and a hard place, I decided to keep it and get the most out of it. Yours is a bit higher mileage than ours at the time of breaking, so you might not think it's worth investing in now. But either way, it sucks.

 

Though (ahem) despite the fact the fuel injector also failed after the piston rings went, ours has been running great since, in fact especially well in the snow of Yorkshire / M1 / North London with the Michelin Cross Climates... And having decided I'd spent enough cash on it to not enjoy it's full capabilities... I've taken it for a bit of green laning. I was laughing all the way home. It's a lot of fun that car.

 

I think the way you have to play it with Skoda, is they won't admit liability for fear of opening the food gates, because they know it's a problem. But if you keep pushing, firmly and politely, they will (hopefully) give a 'good will' gesture.

 

If you decide to go for it, good luck!

 

ps. Our VW polo was un-killable.

 

 

[Andy916]

Old thread now, but the question was asked: what would you replace it with?

 

I just traded my 1.8TSI Elegance in for a Vitara S (1.4 turbo, 4wd, 6-sp auto with multiple modes). I paid £8k to do this, for something 5y younger, lower mileage, more capable and performant in multiple ways, with no known reliability problems. My Yeti had started down the path of oil consumption, had a small patch of the documented paint problem in two door corners, had a small water pump leak and had developed an intermittent rattle under moderate load at 2k revs in the lower gears (undiagnosed, but the timescale correlates with that of the oil consumption rise). It was also of the period that was vulnerable to camchain tensioner failure.  I had it nearly 3y, two of which were covered by warranty, it was ok but I would never have bought it had I fully researched the above problems beforehand.  I wouldn't have been comfortable selling it privately, but part-exchanging it to a (Skoda) dealer was my solution in the end.

 

The Vitara is better in every way except two: it has a higher waistline so less glass (like every one of the newer designs), and the steering weight isn't quite so good. Very glad I switched, after a lot of reading, a couple of weeks and a few hundred miles.

 

Back in the 80s/90s I had Scirocco, Corrado and a T4 van, they weren't without problems but I loved them. Never felt the same about the Yeti somehow and I'm very glad to see the back of it.