Hi, my lovely Fabia vrs estate Mk2 (84,000 miles) broke down and is in the garage, and they have told me what is needed to fix it, and it's a lot of money, but less than the car is worth - I'm just looking for advice on whether there are any other options. 

I've always looked after it well - regular servicing, top quality Castrol oil, always monitored this and topped it up (it has always burned about 1L per 1000 miles)

The car went into limp mode, EPC light and engine management light came on.  I got it recovered to the garage, and the diagnostics showed misfires on cylinders 1 and 3.  They did a compression test on cylinder 3 and found compression was low/zero.

They've looked in the cylinder with a camera and can see that there's a burnt out valve, so the price they've estimated is to take the cylinder head off, replace all 8 valves and put it all back together.  New timing chain is an optional extra.

Other options they've suggested - see if anyone wants to buy the car on at a knock down price to do the work, or look for a new engine.  Are either of these feasible?  How would you suggest I go about these if so.  Or are there any other options?

btw, the car is in the garage in the Lake District (near Penrith) as we are living up there at the moment.

Thank you so much for your help!
Carol

Welcome.

There are a couple of threads down the page from the past week on 1.4 TSI twinchargers with the same issue or dilemma as you have.

When you say "a lot of money" do you mean it's north of a grand?

Hi, yes, at least 8 hours labour, plus well over £1000 in parts, and that's assuming they don't find any other issues in there other than needing to replace the 8 valves.

1 hour ago, CarolG said:

Hi, yes, at least 8 hours labour, plus well over £1000 in parts, and that's assuming they don't find any other issues in there other than needing to replace the 8 valves.

 

That's a crazy quote, find an independent VW specialist and get a second opinion.

Be cheaper to stick a second hand cylinder head on , or too fit a second hand engine in , you can get a full engine for about £1000 

It's not a grand to get eight exhaust valves replaced, with gaskets and bolts, it just isn't.

Hi All, Many thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Re the independent VW specialist suggestion - I've spoken to one of these, and when they heard it's the twin turbo engine, they said they don't work on this particular engine because of the complexity of it and they said that in their experience, there could be other issues like cracked pistons so they recommended looking into getting a reconditioned engine.

 

re reconditioned/new engine - where could we source of of these from?  any thoughts on how to go about this?

 

Thanks again

Carol.

 

Twin Charger not Twin Turbo.   It has a Turbo & Supercharger.

 

They are right.

More likely a ring or piston, or actually 1 valve. 

 

It is a minefield getting a reconditioned engine due to the Cowboys there are about, as is getting a £1,000 used engine and it being duff, CAVE or CTHE.

https://bencrossmotors.co.uk/

 

http://The VAG Doctor 016977 3115 https://g.co/kgs/wRgFA15

 

There's a couple nearby worth trying.