Hi all of you!
My vehicle is a 2016 t6 long wheelbase high-top campervan (140ps CAAC engine +DSG) which being retired takes me all over the country, and with your help I hope that it will continue to do so (more on that in later posts). Although I have had a lot of experience with older Transporters (diesel T25’s mainly) I’m not at all good at vehicle electronics or the complex fuel systems of the modern Transporter, not to mention the use of VCDS.
Way back in the past I have worked as a mechanic, a teacher of Design Technology and lastly as a Mechanical Design Engineer. I have always enjoyed doing my own vehicle maintenance but on the few occasions I have gone to garages (mainly main dealers) with issues I was unsure about for help I have found them less competent than myself (sometimes spectacularly so).
My T6 was dealer maintained up until the first cambelt change was due. I had resolved to let them do the work as long as they didn’t change the water pump (it had only done 13,000 miles – I have done dozens of cambelt changes and had no pump fail in hundreds of thousands of miles, but I always turn the pump over by hand and feel and listen for any roughness). Anyway, the upshot was that they said ‘the pump has to be removed to get the belt off, so we might as well replace it while it’s out’. This is most definitely not the case for this engine. I was dumbfounded. Later when I considered the implications of this, I concluded that this person (who had been and would be my only interface with the dealer) was either incompetent or more likely dishonest and I could either have a real bust-up or cease to have anything to do with them. The issue was decided for me when dealership moved a further 20 miles away (and a really horrible journey traffic wise. So ended my 35 year relationship with the dealership (mainly, it must be admitted mainly the purchasing of spare parts).
Sorry to burden you with a long spiel, but this is why I will increasingly need your help as my van gets older and inevitably develops issues (it already has, but I’ll keep that for another time). And just maybe I will in turn be able to help some of you.
My vehicle is a 2016 t6 long wheelbase high-top campervan (140ps CAAC engine +DSG) which being retired takes me all over the country, and with your help I hope that it will continue to do so (more on that in later posts). Although I have had a lot of experience with older Transporters (diesel T25’s mainly) I’m not at all good at vehicle electronics or the complex fuel systems of the modern Transporter, not to mention the use of VCDS.
Way back in the past I have worked as a mechanic, a teacher of Design Technology and lastly as a Mechanical Design Engineer. I have always enjoyed doing my own vehicle maintenance but on the few occasions I have gone to garages (mainly main dealers) with issues I was unsure about for help I have found them less competent than myself (sometimes spectacularly so).
My T6 was dealer maintained up until the first cambelt change was due. I had resolved to let them do the work as long as they didn’t change the water pump (it had only done 13,000 miles – I have done dozens of cambelt changes and had no pump fail in hundreds of thousands of miles, but I always turn the pump over by hand and feel and listen for any roughness). Anyway, the upshot was that they said ‘the pump has to be removed to get the belt off, so we might as well replace it while it’s out’. This is most definitely not the case for this engine. I was dumbfounded. Later when I considered the implications of this, I concluded that this person (who had been and would be my only interface with the dealer) was either incompetent or more likely dishonest and I could either have a real bust-up or cease to have anything to do with them. The issue was decided for me when dealership moved a further 20 miles away (and a really horrible journey traffic wise. So ended my 35 year relationship with the dealership (mainly, it must be admitted mainly the purchasing of spare parts).
Sorry to burden you with a long spiel, but this is why I will increasingly need your help as my van gets older and inevitably develops issues (it already has, but I’ll keep that for another time). And just maybe I will in turn be able to help some of you.
