I asked in another post what to change in my 2.0TDI DSG as it reached 260k km and 12 years. As I was trying to put the plan into practice, I got into a discussionwith my mechanic. My mechanic was refusing to do a lot of the work. For example, he was adamant not to change the shock absorbers, which are fine enough (and they are) and insisting I keep that money, for the future. And I was insisting I wanted the car to last 10 years more, so I might as well have brand new shocks for the next 10 years. So he retorted with a killer argument: 

 

Your car is not a 1.9TDI that will last 500k km. I see very few of these who reach 350k km. Hopefully not, but you will be hit by a combination of injectors + DSG + DFP (+Adblue, but mine doesn't have it yet), and each one of those is anywhere between 2k to 6k EUR to fix. So when the first one of those issues happens, you probably will fix one. But you will know the others are around the corner, and get a newer car with the money you would have spent on fixing this one. It may not happen this year, but if I were you, I wouldn't bet that it won't happen in the next five years. And when it happens, I want you to have the money you would have paid for all those things, and not be upset that you overspent now.

 

Is this combination of punches [Injectors + DSG + DFP (+Adblue)] the fate I am going to face and how it is going to end? Does the forum have similar stories? I just saw someone being quoted 2k GBP for a flywheel, so that tracks.

 

In related news, I need to save, bc my other car is a Sharan, 2.0TDI 140CV, DSG, Adblue, and less km but more years, so I will be buying two cars in the near future....

 

The most important thing though: I have a mechanic I can trust and who is refusing to do unnecessary work. Let's cheers to that!

 

 

48 minutes ago, xtp77 said:

The most important thing though: I have a mechanic I can trust and who is refusing to do unnecessary work. Let's cheers to that!

 

I could not answer your question but was going to comment on your mechanic and then saw that you had taken the words out of my mouth!

 

He is a keeper, fingers crossed that your car will remain one for a good while yet.

Your mechanic is a decent man so definately a keeper. He is right when it comes to costs for one who has to do pay others to fix car. Owning an old car 250 000+km, means that one should do everything in home garage as a hobby or buy a new car when either dsg, bevelbox, dpf, dmf, injectors, 4x shock absorbers fail. Its just way too expensive on a old 250-300'km car.

Dsg dmf will fail, when is the question. You will likely hear sounds of a failing dmf. Typical around 150-250'km. This is 3k euro in norway at dealership.

Dpf will also fail, depends on the user. I reckon mine will fail within the next 100 000km. My car now has 230 000km. Probably 2k euro for a factory new one. When time comes I will probably just buy a used one for 100-150 gbp and install myself.

Injectors, well, probably need fixing. But not so sure that these will fail yet. Again, depends on driving style and conditions.

 

Preventive maintenance to keep a car running is a waste of money if you must let dealership do it. 

Preventive maintenance is just for all those who has the tools, computers and knowledge to do it in their home garage with access to a car lifter.

9 hours ago, rbhelle said:

Preventive maintenance to keep a car running is a waste of money if you must let dealership do it. 

Preventive maintenance is just for all those who has the tools, computers and knowledge to do it in their home garage with access to a car lifter.

 

I thought that maybe, in between the dealership and DIY, there was the third option: having a trusted mechanic taking care of things would be feasible. But basically it is not viable as the costs still pile up, albeit not as fast as with a dealership.

 

Only way I would think keeping the car longer would be having a gasoline manual car (no DPF, simpler injection, no DSG). And then, I *really* love the automatic DSG, and that seems to be a 5k ticking bomb.

3 minutes ago, xtp77 said:

Only way I would think keeping the car longer would be having a gasoline manual car (no DPF, simpler injection, no DSG). And then, I *really* love the automatic DSG, and that seems to be a 5k ticking bomb.

Yes, unfortunately thats it. I do help friends and colleagues from time to time. But my payment is easy; I learn a new car and they supply me with different service parts I use on my own cars (oil, filters, coolant and other small parts needed). So, find a friend who has a garage to do it in and buy him a 20ltr can of oil as payment 🙂

 

I am not sure if a gasoline is much cheaper in the long run. Yes, no dpf or egr, but that has more to do with driving style and use. All those who mostly do short trips and city driving should never drive diesel. Electric or gasoline is the preferred option. Diesel cars is basically for those who commute daily more that 40-60min on the highway above 60mph or use it for long distance driving with load imho. But, no rule without exception.

 

We see the same in Norway, there are thousands of diesel cars due to popularity, that now has problems because they have been used as a city daily driver. Those with cars used on the countryside will generally hold up much longer, and by that I mean really much longer. A diesel city car will have problems already before 100'km, and a countrysidecar can last for like 250 000 without egr, dpf, dsg/dmf problems. So, I buy all my cars from preferrably countryside use up north. They dont rust as much due to lack of salted roads and they are not used for short trip/city driving.

 

A good tip when it comes to skoda DSG. The wetclutch version aka dq250/381 is a keeper. They hold up as long as it is serviced accordingly to specs. Better cooling and withstands tear and wear better than the dq200 dryclutch (most gasonline has dq200 from that age). Also, in order to avoid unneccesary tear and wear on the dmf, use manual shifting when in city with queues. Repeatedly start, stop, slow driving will make the dsg shift often from 1st to 2nd and 3rd gear. That will rapidly wear down the dmf on a dsg. I always use manual in city when I assess that now, it will be lots of crawling. Put it in 1st and let it be there during crawling. It is no problem to use it in 2nd even in high revs up to 2500-3000 if it is for short time, just to avoid it shifting to 3rd when you see that you need to stop again after 20meters... just a tip.

I do believe that this is the main reason your mechanic has a lot of his earnings from dsg dmf failures 😆

1 hour ago, rbhelle said:

I do help friends and colleagues from time to time. But my payment is easy; I learn a new car and they supply me with different service parts I use on my own cars (oil, filters, coolant and other small parts needed). So, find a friend who has a garage to do it in and buy him a 20ltr can of oil as payment 🙂

 

People like that, you and I are very very rare these days and thats been the case for at least the last 30 years, I dont think I have come across a single person during that time who had the same passion to learn driven by lack of money that I had and who I should now be turning to for the more difficult jobs as older people did with me back then.

 

When I am no longer able to repair my own vehicle I will accept that it is time for me to stop driving.

 

Like J. R. I am in France too and live in a rural area. It is absolutely  necessary to develop advanced mechanics skills as the garages here are not very reliable in terms of calling one back, 'forgetting' to send out repair quotes or simply overcharging you( € 150 they ask for a diagnose on their OBDII diagnostic computers) Therefore is is paying off to investing in tools as OBDeleven or VCDS and car specific tools. this works for me already more than 40 years. I wish we had YouTube tutorials in my early days.... but Haynes manuals also helped a lot.
The thing of keeping the Superb running lies in the fact that almost everybody loves their cars and want to keep them running as long as possible
I am 70 years old now and I concur with this statement 😏:

On 11/01/2025 at 12:58, J.R. said:

When I am no longer able to repair my own vehicle I will accept that it is time for me to stop driving.