Lockdown has caused £1000's of damage to our car due to lack of use. What can we do?

m0bov

Try an indie who might repair the turbo than just replacing everything.

Stubod

..there are lots of "known faults", but once out of warranty, (and particularly with an incomplete service history), you have no chance of any "claim".

As above, best to find a good indie and get it done...

Herzlos

All you can do is repair it; the lack of use isn't really anyones fault and lack of use is generally bad for cars but it probably wouldn't have been wise to sell the car at the start of lockdown either.
If the car failed due to being sat on a forecourt then you'd have a claim as the onus was on the garage to maintain it but since you were responsible for the car it'd fall to you. I'm not sure you can do much to prevent these things from happening again beyond taking it on a slightly longer run occasionally or even just running it on the driveway/parking space for a while though you'd need to rev it a bit for the turbo to do anything.

Supersonos

Why does everyone seem to think their problems have to be someone else's fault?!

mattyprice4004

daveyjp said:

Components on cars fail, once out of warranty the responsibility for repairs lies with the owner.  Turbos are known to fail and they are expensive to repair, two good reasons to avoid them.

Last car was on the original turbo at 290,000 miles, current car is on 195,000 miles (also original) and the 'work car' is just about to tick over to 200,000 miles with the original turbo too.
Can't see the issue myself, if it's a crap design that doesn't mean they're all bad.
First two are both Garrett GT2260V and the third is a GT15.

photome

peskyparttimer said:

elsien said:

I've managed to get a service and an MOT on my Skoda during various tiers and the current lockdown. I do think there is likely to have been a window where the service could have been completed at some point since last March. 

It was only an oil change service so i did it, at the time they were fully closed (april-may time). So it's not like its not actually been serviced, it just didn't go on the main dealer history record. Wouldn't have contributed to the fault we now have anyhow.

Who was fully closed ? I have had my car serviced 3 times since March last year and an MOT at a separate time .  ( first of those 3 was April last year.

I don’t see how this is anyone else’s fault .

son had the similar issue to you on his Seat ( same engine ) but he got it in to a garage as soon as the EML came on, actuator fixed for a few hundred pounds

AdrianC

Whether the DIY service voided the warranty or not is academic - the three-year warranty expired a year before lockdown started.

And, yes, dealerships have been open since about June for servicing.

The turbo itself won't have failed, all that'll have happened is that the actuator will have got a bit sticky through lack of use. Given that it's only done 20k in 5 years, I suspect it gets used fairly gently at the best of times. The turbo on the EA111 is built-in to the exhaust manifold - not a total horror-show to remove and refit. A quick google suggests three hours labour or so. Even if it can't just be lubricated and freed-off once on the bench, there's used manifolds and turbos on the 'bay for £150 upwards - so it should be EASILY doable for less than 20% of the figure quoted.

...but main dealer...

The_Groat_Counter

OP needs to take the virus to court for damages.

Manxman_in_exile

For Gawd's sake!  Don't give him ideas...

AdrianC

Shush, you.

<starts selling tickets>