34 minutes ago, Rustynuts said:

You know how many short trips the OP has been making? I don't, so attributing a sudden catastrophic engine failure to such is simply guess work. Besides, if low miles / short trips were to cause conrod failure there'd be a load more posts like this one.

I'm suspecting it's not related to the low miles, and until that's disproved I'm gonna stick my neck out and say you're incorrect.

 

Edit: Mother in laws Polo diesel has done 12k miles in the past 10 years. No sign of any conrod poking out of the engine yet.

You are welcome to do so. I will still claim, that diesel is the wrong fueltype for 1.2/5K a year. 

Makes no difference what anyone thinks if it is the car you have and the car you are going to use for the trips you do long or short.

They are not supposed to be sh!te if not covering many miles / km.  

They are not supposed to self destruct to prove the point that they are not suitable for doing not lots of journeys or just short ones.

http://volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/regimes 

40 minutes ago, Gerrycan said:

Would a 10 yo diesel polo have a dpf?

It's not 10 years old. It's 15 years old, and covered less than 30k miles. And no, it hasn't got a DPF.

Is it only the DPF equipped cars which suffer conrod failure when driven for less than 5k miles per annum?

 

Truth be told, I can count on one finger the number of conrod failures I can remember on this forum over the last XXX number of years. I might not read every post, and my memory might be lacking a little, but I know of many low mileage diesel cars which haven't thrown a rod out the side, but actual failures are very low numbers as far as I recall. Happy for anyone to sort through this (and any other forum) and find the total figure, but I don't think it's particularly common, is it?

41 minutes ago, GaSelle said:

You are welcome to do so. I will still claim, that diesel is the wrong fueltype for 1.2/5K a year. 

 

But you'll agree that low mileage VAG (diesel or petrol) engines throwing a conrod is very rare, won't you? Or even high mileage ones?

Edited 27 May, 20188 yr by Rustynuts

Agreed, a conrod failure is very rare which is what made me say it's a bad car.

 

Personally, I'd move the car on if it was mine, the thing is a ticking time bomb now.

Diesel is the wrong car for low mileage and short trips due to the cost and DPF loading/regen .

 

But none of that should cause it to blow an oil seal, dump it's oil then put a conrod through the block.

 

Not without ignoring multiple DPF failure warnings.

 

Lee

On 26/05/2018 at 10:49, Alz1995 said:

Skoda as “goodwill” stumped up 75% the dealship with a some of regociating pitched in another 20% which left me with a £500 bill, which I was not happy about.  

 

Simple maths.

 

Skoda 75%, dealer 20% = 95%

 

You pay 5% = £500

 

Bit more simple maths.

 

If 5% = £500 then 100% = £10000.

 

They were having a laugh at your expense.

2 hours ago, skidpan said:

They were having a laugh at your expense.

 

^^^THIS.

 

However, I suspect the OP has signed some sort of disclaimer which will prevent him/her from pursuing this any further.

 

Not good, car manufacturers (all of them) care about as much of their customers as a dog does its fleas.

I’m guessing that the dealer paid 20% of the REMAINDER after Skoda paid the 75%. That would make the OPs contribution 20% of the total i.e. a total of £2500. 

 

But I’ve been wrong before!

1 minute ago, MediumDave said:

I’m guessing that the dealer paid 20% of the REMAINDER after Skoda paid the 75%. That would make the OPs contribution 20% of the total i.e. a total of £2500. 

 

But I’ve been wrong before!

That was my first thought, but the maths is wrong. 20% of £2500 (£500) is what the dealer paid, which would leave a bill of £2000.

Like I said, I’ve been wrong before but I think the dealer paid 20% of the £625 that was left after Skoda’s contribution, not 20% of the full amount. OP pays 80% of the £625 which is £500.

Edited 27 May, 20188 yr by MediumDave

6 hours ago, Rustynuts said:

What else was there which would be a possibility?

 

15k seems a lot for an engine replacement

 

 (750 / 5) * 100 = 15,000

Edited 27 May, 20188 yr by SimonD316
Clarification

10 minutes ago, MediumDave said:

Like I said, I’ve been wrong before but I think the dealer paid 20% of the £625 that was left after Skoda’s contribution, not 20% of the full amount. OP pays 80% of the £625 which is £500.

 

Skoda's contribution of 75% leaving a remainder of £625 would mean that the initial bill for a complete engine replacement (parts & labour) would've been £2500. That's cheap.

9 minutes ago, SimonD316 said:

 

15k seems a lot for an engine replacement

 

 (750 / 5) * 100 = 15,000

Like I asked, was there any other possibility? If it was your car, what would you do? Scrap it for (let's say £5k) and then try and find a low mileage vRS for that money? Buy a second hand engine / turbo and have it fitted yourself (let's say £1k for an engine, £250 for a turbo, and a days labour for a local garage at £400, fluids, incidentals etc. and total about £2k) and hope it's okay? Or have a brand new engine and turbo fitted with warranty for £750?

The initial cost of the new engine and turbo, the amount of goodwill, the amount of dealer contribution etc. isn't relevant really, all that matters is a new engine and turbo costs the OP £750.

 

Cheapest way to get back on the road.

3 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Agreed, a conrod failure is very rare which is what made me say it's a bad car.

 

Personally, I'd move the car on if it was mine, the thing is a ticking time bomb now.

 

Enlighten me how this is so? It's had a replacement engine put in it not the existing one repaired.

3 minutes ago, Rustynuts said:

The initial cost of the new engine and turbo, the amount of goodwill, the amount of dealer contribution etc. isn't relevant really, all that matters is a new engine and turbo costs the OP £750.

 

Which is £750 he/she shouldn't be paying.

 

Unless you really believe a diesel engine exploding after 21,000 miles is normal?

When I lost my engine on a freelander 2 a few years back (2013ish) to a catastrophic oil pump failure: Land rover were selling a new engine for £6k, that did not include any labour charges to remove the old unit and re-install the new unit. Also not sure if that included the turbo and other bolt on bits.

 

That was the retail cost of a new engine to my dealer, obviously not what it would cost Landrover as the supplier.

1 hour ago, hatchy said:

 

Enlighten me how this is so? It's had a replacement engine put in it not the existing one repaired.

It's already common knowledge that the oil seal, turbo & conrod weren't up to the job, sounds like a Friday afternoon car.

 

How many other bits are sub-standard ?

1 hour ago, SkodaVRS1963 said:

 

Which is £750 he/she shouldn't be paying.

 

Unless you really believe a diesel engine exploding after 21,000 miles is normal?

In that case, don your "Consumer Rights Activist" hat and fill yer boots.

On ‎26‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 10:49, Alz1995 said:

was the banjo seal failure and oil dump, got anything to do with this

Everything to do with it, I'd say. Takes very little time with inadequate oil pressure to wreck bearings that rely on an oil film.

To fully check an engine after such a loss would involve a major strip-down of engine and turbo, which I guess wasn't their approach...

15 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

It's already common knowledge that the oil seal, turbo & conrod weren't up to the job, sounds like a Friday afternoon car.

 

How many other bits are sub-standard ?

 

Engines are built separately, then fitted on the production line. 

 

It’s very likely that there was an inherent fault in the engine that caused it to fail, but that should have absolutely no impact on the rest of the car. If it’s had a brand new engine from the factory fitted there’s no reason why it won’t now have a long and trouble free life. 

On 26/05/2018 at 19:27, themanwithnoaim said:

Sorry you paid seven & a half hundred quid for both the turbo & engine to be replaced on your car when it broke outside warranty 

 

& you wanna whinge about, close to end of warranty or not you still had NO WARRANTY 

The chap also paid for dealer servicing as well. Maybe the car was parked up for a year so could have done 12 months less motoring. All assumptions.

11 hours ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

 

Engines are built separately, then fitted on the production line. 

 

It’s very likely that there was an inherent fault in the engine that caused it to fail, but that should have absolutely no impact on the rest of the car. If it’s had a brand new engine from the factory fitted there’s no reason why it won’t now have a long and trouble free life. 

Nope, once a car is wrongun, it tends to stay a wrongun in my book.

 

I mean good luck to the OP with it but, I'd be moving it on.

does nobody else find it that a "banjo seal" would fail?  at best they will seep a bit of oil but not enough to drain the sump, you would have seen oil patches where you park regular before hand. they are covering something up, especially as they are so keen to pay 95% of it!!

Thanks for all the comments, some are very helpful.  To clarify, the car does do low milage, I didn't think that this would be a problem. It was driven daily, and had not been sitting for any time.  This is my 3 rd octavia,  2nd VRS, but 1st mrk3.  The other was a 2008 model but also diesel, same type of mileage done.  only problem with that was needing to have the lacquer repaired as it peeled on the spoiler, no mechanical problems at all.  Given the lack of similar examples online, particularly in a car with low miles I conclude this was indeed a rare occurrence.  

I have not held any information back as I wanted honest opinions.  I understand that the car was out of warranty therefore in principle not covered, and i would find it easier to accept the odd replacement part, or part failure, not a part failure that causes such catastrophic damage at such low milage.  It was serviced on a fixed plan, and did not miss any servicing.

The £500 was 5% of the full amount, not including the £250 for the turbo.  I am very appreciative that 95% of the cost has been covered, and know that £750 is a good deal for what we have been given and it will have further warranty.   However saying that I do feel that the issue should never have arisen in the first instance, and that is my grievance.  

On the issue of the banjo seal, there did not appear to be any leaks, or warnings that anything was wrong.  no marks on road and definitely no obvious oil seepage. Within 20 feet of the warning light coming on the car had been stopped and and it was towed back on a flatbed truck to the dealership.  It was in on a saturday and I got it back on the Monday , not sure if that was time for the engine to be checked as someone suggested.

The car cost over £21000, and I was going to be trading it in for a newer model, the only option was  to get it back on the road.

 

It is useful the perhaps the 2015 sale of goods act may be still relevant in this case, and I will challenge dealership with this if skoda do not consider my case.

 

I appreciate all of the comments, even those which stated the obvious ( it didn't have warranty).  I have learned from this forum, especially that diesel are not really built for low milage, I am a nurse not a mechanic and had no idea. DPF meant nothing to me, I had to google it.  The dealership were aware that I did very little miles, however I suppose they were only interested in the sale.  

I do truly believe this was a very rare occurrence and events are as I have described.  I see some think that I must be holding back other information.  I have not, you can't get good advice if you dont give the whole story.  I am resigned to the fact it is unlikely I will have the money paid reimbursed, but I feel strongly that in the circumstances that a 3 year old car, with low miles should not suffer this type of mechanical failure.

 

i will be trading it in, i have lost confidence in this car but not the model.  The next lucky, or perhaps unlucky owners, will have the warranty.  It was a great car until this sequence of events, and it does leave a slightly sour taste .  Thanks again for the advice.