3.5 Year Old VW Passat - £1,500 of repairs

mickyd67

vax2002 wrote: »

We had a similar fault on my wifes, part bolting on commenced, it kept breaking down, until one day the AA man noticed that the lead to the part they had replaced 3 times had not been fastened down right when they changed the air filter on a service and chaffed on the pulley belt, two bits of insulating tape and it was cured instantly .
The AA man said they are just fast fit merchants at dealers, the code reader says airflow, on gets bolted a new airflow, reset and out you go, if the fault returns, they repeat the process, they dont have the skill to beyond fast fit and code reader.
However, that was just the start, never again.
Had a colleague with a constant fault on a passat TDI and he had spent thousands, it broke down in liverpool and a guy from a independent VW specialist stopped to help by luck, they ran it to his garage , he replaced a faulty glow plug at £30 including labour and all the associated faults stopped immediately, he also had spent thousands on just about every part in the engine bay at VW.

Good info vax - thanks for posting.

I will have a family friend look at the car for me - he didn't want to do this repair because it was replacement sensors and it was mentioned that they had to be programmed and he doesn't have that kit.

I just don't want this car to turn into a money-pit. It's a sickener that the manf. warranty has just expired and the Autocare warranty, as Psi states, isn't worth the paper it's written on.

I hope it's an easy fix.

If it transpires that these repairs have been carried out and the fault hasn't been fixed I wonder where I stand with regard to paying on my credit card.

I paid for the car to get fixed, and it's not.

Strider590

mickyd67 wrote: »

For a car at 3.5 years old, a make like VW, and with the car only having done 54,000 miles it's a bit of a shock.

Will this never stop?

They haven't made a reliable car for over 20 years....... It's nothing but a myth that "VW's are the most reliable", and as far as I can tell it was only ever the earlier "Golf" that earned that reputation.

It sounds like they've seen you go all glossy eyed over the prospect of a "new" car and then sold you a warranty that's not worth the paper......

mickyd67

Strider590 wrote: »

Will this never stop?

They haven't made a reliable car for over 20 years....... It's nothing but a myth that "VW's are the most reliable", and as far as I can tell it was only ever the earlier "Golf" that earned that reputation.

It sounds like they've seen you go all glossy eyed over the prospect of a "new" car and then sold you a warranty that's not worth the paper......

Fair enough Strider - maybe I am learning about VWs not being that reliable. As I said in an earlier post I am far from being an expert when it comes to cars.

Your "glossy eyed" comment is well off the mark, however.

motorguy

This seems an all too common thread of events with turbodiesels these days.

I'm a motor trader by the way...

We've just had similar problems with a 307 HDI with 57K miles. We bought it from a Peugeot dealer and has a FSH.

Car was slightly down on power so we left it with our mechanic to check out. EGR valve was sticking open and had been for some time. This had affected (!) the air flow meter which subsequently needed replaced. Also, upon examining the turbo there was play on the spindle on which it moves so there was an imminent failure coming with the turbo, so we had a reconditioned one fitted.

Also because of all the above kerfuffle the DPF had got clogged up, which has mean two forced refreshes so far and this hasnt totally cleared it, which means that we are now looking at the replacement of the DPF.

Even at trade prices we are in to this for £1,000 so far....

mickyd67

That's the strange thing with mine - the power does appear to be there.

The garage tested the car and said it wasn't under / over boosting - so they think it's fine in that regard, but on the other hand think it might still need a new turbo. I am not sure how they work that out??

As per Vax's post earlier - my concern is that they just keep replacing bits until it seems OK, meanwhile my cash is being drained to fix things that might not need to be fixed.

Hintza

Bearings in turbo shot? Do you allow the turbo to cool down before turning off the engine?

mickyd67

Hintza wrote: »

Bearings in turbo shot? Do you allow the turbo to cool down before turning off the engine?

I don't think so - I just turn off the engine and get out of the car.

I've never read that I should let the turbo cool. How long should you wait etc?

colino

The warranty issue to one side, the problem I think you have is that VWs, like a lot of modern cars, are very fussy about their oil and oil changes. If you add that to a service book full of AC stamps (I'm hazarding a guess that it was a hire/lease/manager car in its initial lives) those service stamps probably equate to white grease on the door hinges and nothing else apart from brake pads and tyres.
The problems you are already getting generally come from poor maintenence on a turbo.

mickyd67

Given what I've posted - would it be worthwhile trying to suss out if Arnold Clark are at it, and have offered me a refund for a warranty I bought knowing it would cost them more than I paid for the warranty, for the repairs?

vaio

vax2002 wrote: »

........The Turbo is a Dum part, two fans with a bearing in the centre, no sensors it either spins or it does not, or it either leaks oil or not from the bearing seal.
So they are either working or not........

not exactly right, lots of them have variable vanes and the associated actuators etc. These can go wrong "hard" or intermittently and because of the skills required to repair them garages just replace them