Hi All, sorry, I'm not on her very much but I need some advice please.

 

On Saturday our 11 plate1.6D Octavia estate went into limp mode, glow plug light flashing.  Luckily we weren't too far from home and managed to get home.

 

On the journey home, temp gauge didn't sit at 90 as it would usually, it kept fluctuating under load.  So we presumed thermostat, sensor etc.  Car was booked into the garage for today.

 

Monday and Tuesday, the wife used the car for short trips only (I needed our other car for work). Car seemed ok but Tuesday there was a tapping sound followed but white smoke out the exhaust.  I drove the car to the garage on Tuesday eve (around a mile) got out of car and really strong smell around car.

 

Today car was in garage.  We had a phone call to say the fault was saying over fuelling and that it was the injectors at fault.  Car is apparently showing 2 at fault but they suspect all 4 are shot and the bill is £1800 (inc VAT) to replace them.  During testing the issue had got worse and there were signs of diesel/smoke starting to appear up the back of the car, with more and more tapping noises.

 

I have no reason to distrust the garage, they have serviced our cars well over the years (to the best of my knowledge).

 

As far as I know, injectors have never been replaced.  We got the car in 2019 with 75,000 on the clock and we are just nearing 100,000 miles.

 

Questions - if only 2 are showing faulty, should I replace them all as they are suggesting, is it good practice and worth the extra money?

 

Is £1800 a sensible price (non VAG parts)?  apparently it's well over £2k for VAG parts.  They said that would include fuel filter, also.

 

Should I get a second opinion?  This bill will wipe out our savings but we need the car and can't afford another right now so need to get this decision right.

 

As things stand, they still  have the car, I've also asked how much they would offer for it so I have options.

 

Cheers  Adrian

Edited 10 January, 20242 yr by HarryHornby

I had an injector fail on mine over Xmas. Luckily I was able to imediately lift my foot off of the the accellerator (which then cuts the fuel supply) and coast into a layby. The car was not used again until after two injectors were replaced. Skoda price for one injector is over £600 without labour or VAT,

I suggest you look around locally for quotes and also for a VAG specialist, if available. 

History shows that once injectors start to fail then you will end up replacing them all. I will change the other two shortly at my convenience.

 

Another way of looking at the cost is to ask how much it would cost you to replace the car. Also factor in the depreciation if it is a newer car and the unknown faults a same age car might have.

Thanks Pikpilot, totally agree about the cost.  It would cost £5500 to buy the same car, same age etc again.  We don't have any extra money to buy anything newer.  At least with this car, we know the history, what has been replaced etc etc.

 

Sounds like it's sensible to replace all 4, thanks for that.

 

I had little sleep last night so got thinking, looking back, we did a 200 mile trip in the car just before Christmas and I thought the MPG seemed a lot lower on a long run like that than usual, also, the engine has sounded a little noisier on starting for a month or so and the other week on a 100 mile run I noticed the temp gauge didn't make it to 90, so I guess there have been warning signs.

 

I think we are just going to have to bite the bullet.  Luckily we have some savings, but this will wipe them out.  Time to tighten the purse strings even tighter.  Now, where's my lottery ticket.... LOL

Sensible move. Better the car you know.............