Hello,

 

I'm looking for a bit of advice from engine experts or people who might have had a similar issue to me. My 14 plate Octavia Diesel broke down on the M3 last weekend I was travelling at 75mph and I lost all power. Long story short I had it taken to a garage that told me the 'Woodruff Key' had sheared off the crank. A friend has told me this has no doubt caused some serious damage to the engine and the garage haven't stripped it down any further as they wanted a specialist to look at it.

 

Now my insurance company don't really want to entertain this. But I have found out there was a recall done on the 1.6 petrol engine for dodgy woodruff keys and seeing how this part wouldn't have been touched since the car was built, to me this looks like a manufacturer defect and not 'wear and tear'.

 

I have no warranty for this, so should Skoda look to do these repairs or am i now stuck with a big lump of steel on my driveway?

Not sure if the crankshaft pulley has to be removed to do the timing belt on your engine but if it does and your vehicle has had a cambelt change done other than by Skoda main dealer (reciepted) then they arent likely to accept any responsability.

 

How many miles has the vehicle done?

 

If there was any movement between the woodruff key and crankshaft keyway before the failure then the crank will be scrap.

 

These things usually fail after a cambelt change has been done incorrectly or of there is a known weakness even if done correctly.

So i had my belt and water pump changed April last year by a local garage. I was curious if to have done the work would they have needed to go that deep and touch the crankshaft/woodruff key area?

 

It would be my word against theirs on this and inevitably I feel like I would be the losing party. 

 

IS anyone able to confirm if the crank/woodruff would have been touched to changed the belt?

Oh and the cars on about 69,000 miles

Woodruff keys are old and well established technology. A segment of a circle iirc, with the round part sitting in a groove in the shaft and the flat piece protruding from the shaft. I remembering them shearing in old vehicles and replacing them. If the new key was loose then a special Loctite could be used. An NSU Quickly springs to my mind. 

Doesn't  help the poster, I thought things had improved with design and quality. 

2 hours ago, gregoir said:

Woodruff keys are old and well established technology. A segment of a circle iirc, with the round part sitting in a groove in the shaft and the flat piece protruding from the shaft. I remembering them shearing in old vehicles and replacing them. If the new key was loose then a special Loctite could be used. An NSU Quickly springs to my mind. 

Doesn't  help the poster, I thought things had improved with design and quality. 

From what you're saying it seems this part could only fail from a poor cambelt change or manufacture defect?

There would need to be movement between the shaft and the pulley for the Woodruff key to shear. If these components were untouched since new, then I'd consider it a manufacturing fault. 

Well. FWIW Woodruff keys have been around since the 1880s, and are commonly used in reciprocating engines in both automotive and marine applications. I'd need the relevant service manual to establish whether or not there is any need to disturb the crankshaft pulley during a cambelt change on a specific engine, but I've been instructed to lock the crank pulley in place rather than remove it on engines I've looked at.