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

rishishah

It was not a loss of power just while accelerating...

Basically the glow lamp light would come on, i am sure this was not the issue, but this is the light that come on.

The issue was if you are driving on the motorway at 70MPH the car would suddenly lose power and drop down to about 50MPH.

If you are stopped at a roundabout and try and get going, push down on the accelerator, the car would take atleast 4 seconds to respond and after starting to move it would move very very slowly at gear 1 and would get better at 2 and 3, but as soon as it go to 4, there would be a drop in power and speed again.

Do i take it that you think this is not a very dangerous problem and it is acceptable for cars to behave like this?

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

No, that isn't a 'very dangerous problem', but it isn't acceptable for a car to behave like that.

The glow plugs are nothing to do with this problem. They operate for less than a minute when the car is started, and then turn off. They are not required once the engine is firing.

Your car clearly had an ignition problem which the garage tried to resolve, but could not (most likely because they didn't have staff skilled enough, or with enough time, to track down the fault).

rishishah

Thank you for your reply.

They had the car 15 times for a total of 6 weeks - so time was no the issue, although skill may have been.

You may feel that this was not dangerous, however trading standards and consumer directly saw it differently and are currently investigating. The Motor Industry Code simply came back with a reply of Seat UK has not broken the code.

I'll leave it at this as i am now trying to accertain exactly what the Motor Industry Codes do for us consumer rather than the Seat UK issue. I got my compensation from them but what i need to understand now is what help does the motorist get in such situations when the courts clearly ask you to go to the Motor Industry Codes first.

vaio

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

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'.

yep, the glow plugs are for starting only but the light can be used to indicate other fault codes.

I'd have said that loss of power while accelerating could be a very dangerous issue particularly if you are accelerating past an artic with another one coming the other way.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

vaio wrote: »

I'd have said that loss of power while accelerating could be a very dangerous issue particularly if you are accelerating past an artic with another one coming the other way.

That's why we have brakes.

My guess would be that the glow lamp comes on when the ignition circuit fails, and the car 'thinks' that the engine is no longer turning.

OP - the garage may have had the car for weeks, but by 'time' I meant the time needed for an experienced mechanic to fault-find the issue.

I'm willing to bet that for most of the time they had your car, it was sat there collecting dust.

rishishah

actually not the 2nd garage, the manager gave me his personal car and used my car as his... they give approximately 400 miles across 6 weeks.

The issue was actually Seat UK who dealt by email only even with the garage as opposed to proper diagnoses.

They also refused to send down their own engineer from HQ to assist, although after 10 tries the garage had asked for help.

I thing is for sure i have learned by lesson...never buy from Seat or the VW Group, the customer service is the worst. I was just lucky that with legal action about to start i got a significant ammount of money back.

Like i say i am now trying to accertain exactly what the Motor Industry Code actually done because both Consumer Direct and Trading Standards are currently investigating while The Motor Industry Code does not want to.

So if anybody else has experiences of the Motor Industry Code please do bring it up.