Seat Leon Diesel - Glow Lamp Issue - Been in 15 times for fixing

rishishah

Very long story but please bear with me...

1) Car purchased brand new in April 2006 - Seat Leon TDI 2 Litre Automatic


2) A further 7 months down the line the glow lamp issue starts. Initially it would come on just once a month and no re-occur for a month. Seat Repair Centre dismissed this problem on two occasions telling me that stones/dirt were getting into the accelerator pedal.


3) The 3rd time i took in to them in 2007 they carried out some checks which advised the replacement of the Accelerator Pedal, which they did.


4) But the glow lamp issue came back again within a month. Took it back to them and again dismissed as stones getting into the pedal, but as the problem occurred once a month i foolishly believed them. This continued into 2008. Hence i stopped using this Repair Centre and went to another one as they clearly did not know what they were doing.


5) Repair Centre 2 tried to diagnose the glow lamp issue but as the error management system of the Seat is overwritten within a matter of hours they could not find anything so they returned the car to me.


6) Over the course of early 2009 the problem got worse and worse with the glow lamp issue coming back once every week and than once every day and finally every single journey. Basically when this occurs the car looses power, gears 1 and 4 especially have a very hard time getting the car to move and the air conditioning stops (so the windscreen fogs over). So if you don’t notice the glow lamp light has come on, you could try and enter a roundabout at gear 1 only to find the car move 4 times more slowly and an oncoming car would simply smash into you. Or if you try and change lanes on the motorway with the glow lamp light on and loss of power would mean the car was suddenly start to slow down and make it very difficult to move into the hard shoulder safely And as the car is an automatic i cannot even control what gear the car should be in. In bad weather without the air condition, it is impossible to clear the windscreen as it is the de-humidified air that makes this process quicker (as stated by the Seat Manual too). Or if the air condition suddenly goes off while you are driving the windscreen very quickly fogs over (under 20 seconds) and there is no quick way to make it clear again., hence you are driving nearly blind.


7) Seat Repair Centre 2 asked Seat UK to send an engineer out in January 2009, but Seat UK refused to send one out at all the way till today for the glow lamp issue.


8) Car was brought into Seat Repair Centre 2 a total of 6 times over January to June 2009 and kept for a total of 6 weeks. Each time i was told that the car was fixed, given back to me only for it to re-occur. The accelerator pedal was replaced yet again and although i am now on my 4th pedal the problem still re-occurs. The error management/collection of the car is very poor and hence cannot help is proper diagnoses as confirmed by the Repair Centre 2.


9) Seat Repair Centre 2 and myself called by Seat UK 5 times to ask for a Seat UK technician to come out to help, but it was refused every time. The reason for this was the problem had not been investigated enough and the processes had not entirely been finished...so 2.5 years was not enough.


10) Seat Repair Centre 2 said that the only way to get to the bottom would be to open the dash, and check through every single wiring which could takes ages, but Seat UK refused to authorise this. Seat Repair Centre 2 are going beyond to really help out, however Seat UK refuse to provide the fundamental help required for this issue which is very complex and critical.


11) Hence the car was kept by two repair centres for over 6 weeks in total and yet till today nobody can say what the actual problem is.

Car in now 3.5 years old but problem occured during the Warranty stage and i do have proof in wiriting that they would continue to fix this for the life of the issue...but for how long can i keep risking myself and my family.

They actually have no clue what the issue actually is and why it happens.

Has anybody seen this on a Seat Leon TDI 2 Litre?

I have asked under the Sale of Goods Act for the car to be replaced with one of exact spefication and equal age. However i would also like to consider legal action... Small claims court is a maximum of £5K and i believe the car is worth atleast £10K.

I dont want any money...just want another car...can i still put this into the small claims court?

Seat UK Customer Services have now just stopped answering to my email so i am sure that they simply could not care less and hope that i will go away!

:mad::mad::mad:

hewhoisnotintheknow

when my brand new golf was once in the garage having warranty work done (its in at least 3 times a month) i had a golf diesel as a courtesy car(i assume the same engine as your) it would not always start, when i pointed this out to them, they said they have changed everything on the courtesy car and couldnt work it out, he said the issue is to do with the glow plugs but they couldnt work it out

rishishah

YEs all part of the VW Group and hence similar engines....mine starts okay but this glow lamp issue is very irritating and very dangerous.

goldspanners

i think youve left it far too late for it to be totally sorted now, i dont know how you have been so tolerant with your dealer and seat uk over this, if they cant sort it in 2.5 years they probably never will, they will be hoping you just sell the car or trade it in, but i would be making sure i let them know i would not be trading it in for another seat.

4 accelerator pedals and still nobody had even noticed this wasnt curing the fault, that is really poor service from both the dealer and seat uk.
its more than likely going to be the ecu, these cost a fortune and they wont want to take the hit for this under warranty.

vaio

I suppose if you do go down the small claims court you claim will be for the difference in valve between a fully working car and what you actually have. Would that come in under the £5k limit?

rishishah

Appreciate that i may have left it this late....Unfortunately the problem turned for once a month to just about every day in Jan 2009....than become once every journey by March 2009....

The funny thing is the repair centre did say that they have hard wired the accelerator pedal to the ECU and had hoped this would have solved the issue...this was the time they kept the car for the final time for two weeks.

But a month a bit down the line...it started again...which was a few days asgo.

rishishah

Well i got my way.... Just as i was about to start legal action i got more than the value of my 3.5 year old car... I am happy and the dealer who sold the car had to buy the car... I now just feel sorry for the poor chap they will sell the car to...

vaio

good result

Inactive

rishishah wrote: »

Well i got my way.... Just as i was about to start legal action i got more than the value of my 3.5 year old car... I am happy and the dealer who sold the car had to buy the car... I now just feel sorry for the poor chap they will sell the car to...

Great result, thanks for the update.;)

rishishah

I had passed my issue on to the Motor Industry Codes (http://www.motorindustrycodes.co.uk/) as both Seat UK and the independant garage were subscribed to the scheme.

I was amazed that i got a response saying that Seat Uk had broken no code. So the fact that Seat UK tried to fix the car 15 times but were unsuccessfull and left us with a very dangerous issue (sudden loss of power) was not any break of the code.

So as long as a manufacturer keeps trying to fix your car, never manages to fix it, leaves you with a very dangerous issue means that they are doing a good job.

As the Office of Fair Trading monitor this scheme i have sent my complaint to them. I am hoping the OFT will re-look at the way the code is being run and the fact that the code is there to protect the consumer, not the manufacturer!

I have setup a seperate thread (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=25213627) in the hope that others can share any experience they have had with the Motor Industry Codes so that the OFT can atleast see anybody else's issue with the code.

Thanks.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

The problem with your vehicle's loss of power is entirely unrelated to glow plugs, which are an aid to cold starting of a diesel engine, nothing more.

A loss of power while accelerating is not a 'very dangerous issue'.