New engine required - apparently - what would you do?

C

crackon

Member
T6 Pro
Advice required please folks!

My 2017 204 Kombi with 50k on the clock started to misfire recently. Has now been taken to VW dealer who diagnosed lack of compression on one cylinder and new engine required at a cost of £13k + vat - yes you read that correctly. I am now awaiting a breakdown of that huge sum.

Normally I get a new van every 3 years, but with this one I never got round to it as I am in the middle of a house build and was going to do it when the hassle of the build was finished and I could concentrate on other nicer things (like getting a new van and car). Foolishly I never took the extended warranty into the 4th year as I thought I would be ordering a new one again very soon.

Currently neither VW or the dealer wish to assist in any way other than providing the parts and fitting them at RRP cost. Hoping that there may be some movement but doesn't sound promising at the moment. Seems like they are happy to take my money for vans every few years and charge exorbitant hourly rates for servicing but when there is issue that is clearly not wear and tear they are not interested.

Any ideas on best way forward as this is seriously testing my allegiance to VW and I am now considering other options for the next van. Also thinking that they may be inflating the true cost to get me to sell them the van so that they can then fix relatively cheaply and then sell on again due to the strong second hand market.
 
The first thing I’d do is get some other opinions / quotes.
 
I'd be interested in an investigation into the cause, these engines should be good for four times that mileage
What's the service history?
I think your cynicism is justified and I'd want a second opinion, a lack of compression on one cylinder does not always have to equal a new full engine, (although obviously it might) so what has made them conclude that a new full engine is required?
 
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If it were me, I would be creating a fuss with VW as that is shocking.
If there is no budging them I would look for a replacement engine from a body write off.
 
Thanks guys so far for your help.
Service history is full at recommended intervals.
Just waiting for full report in what went wrong to cause the lack of compression - feeling is that it may be the EGR dumping crap in the cylinder, scoring the bore.
 
crackon said:
Thanks guys so far for your help.
Service history is full at recommended intervals.
Just waiting for full report in what went wrong to cause the lack of compression - feeling is that it may be the EGR dumping crap in the cylinder, scoring the bore.
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In that case, you should push them for the replacement engine at no cost and the problems were started and caused during the warranty period.
Questions like "How long has this been going on" will give you leverage.

Keep contemporaneous notes of all the correspondence with VW.
 
Krob said:
Hi
Just thought I needed to let every one know
That I have a 204 67 plate transporter which has had to go in for three erg flushs up to October 20 ?.
Then I started getting high oil consumption and smoke under acceleration ,nearly out of warranty I decided to get one year extended through vw?
Come January it was using 1 ltr of oil every 350 to 400 miles so i booked it in to vw for a oil consumption test?
IT FAILD? Four weeks later it has had a new Engine, dpf, cat etc but no ERG.
Two weeks after getting my van back and running it in, the engine management light came on? Fault ERG again ,now I'm told that instead of another flush it needs a new ERG as the coolant side is letting coolant into the valve turning into gel and causing a flow issue ? Luckily it's getting done on a good will?
From what I understand this is the common problem that caused the 180 bi turbos engines to fail?
Maybe I've just been unlucky?
If anyone else keeps getting told just to have there ERG flushed please question this?
All the best krob
Click to expand...
Perhaps get hold of @Krob and see if any similarity?
 
Useful info guys - appreciated.

I'm was getting no other indications or warning lights, just the misfire. VW dealer reckons it needs a new DPF as it will have been contaminated too.

I will wait and see the outcome from VW and the dealer (will let you know who they are once we see how helpful or useless they are) first but have been getting quotes of about £3k to recondition my engine or do a swap for similar mileage engine. That may be the best option and then order my next van from a different dealer.
 
That’s horrendous. You may as well ask the dealer what they could do on a new van if you were to trade it, it may actually make sense to move the van on and upgrade early. If nothing else it would be interesting to see what difference the £13k repair bill makes to the sums. My BS detector would be working overtime given a repair bill of that size.
 
I bet @Niknak will be able to offer a helpful view, both on whether the issues warrant the suggested solution, and also whether the quote is reasonable
 
As I am wanting to order a new van (was told the other week will not see it until 2022 btw) I asked what the situation would be if I decided to trade it in (not something I would normally do). They said it would be the usual book price less the cost of the repairs. Given that it wouldn't cost them the cost of the repairs I was gobsmacked. Obviously too many people buying new vans for them to give a s**t.
 
You really need to find out the problem and then the cause before worrying about the price . might just be a damaged valve in the head causing the problem...... im starting to feel that i'm sitting on a time bomb owning a T6 all these things coming up i thought VW were bullet proof is why i got it in the beginning.
 
crackon said:
As I am wanting to order a new van (was told the other week will not see it until 2022 btw) I asked what the situation would be if I decided to trade it in (not something I would normally do). They said it would be the usual book price less the cost of the repairs. Given that it wouldn't cost them the cost of the repairs I was gobsmacked. Obviously too many people buying new vans for them to give a s**t.
Click to expand...
Customer Care and realistic pricing isn’t required when the orders out weigh supply, I’m not saying other manufacturers are better but there is a sort of blind allegiance to VW regardless of reliability and customer satisfaction.
 
Mud Digger said:
You really need to find out the problem and then the cause before worrying about the price . might just be a damaged valve in the head causing the problem.
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That was my first thought too, but the OP has clarified that he suspects the bore in cylinder 1 is scored, I would expect the dealer to have checked it with a borescope which should give a definitive answer.
I used to think VW engines were bombproof, I had one in a Ford Galaxy 15 years ago that I sold with 200K miles on it, and I'd caned it every day! It'd never had more than regular servicing.
I think most of these failures, which are still rare, are down to emissions related changes in design over the last decade or so. Other manufacturers have similar problems.
 
Still waiting for dealer to come back with the cause and exact damage and for them to reassess their view. Thinking I'm then going to get a second opinion to see how much has been exaggerated or BS, then take a view. Other mechanics I've spoken with today are suggesting it's overkill on the dealers part. If I don't get a reasonable resolution suggestion from the dealer they will have lost my business for good (and we have 6 VWs in the close family so currently a fan), likewise with VW themselves I am happy (ish) to defect to another brand (blasphemy I know) as there are some really good alternatives out there now. Happy to spend money on vehicles but I'm not prepared to be taken advantage of like this without repercussions.

As @DaveD said my gut feeling is that the underlying engines are good, it's all the stuff they are bolting on causing the problems but they are clearly not sorting them out sufficiently given the number of problems you hear of.
 
Totally agree. Electric vans are looking more appealing despite not quite being there range wise yet due to all these diesel engines going wrong with all the numerous emission busting bolt-ons that seem to be required these days.
Maybe that's the plan? Force us to the electric variants in desperation that we can at least use our vans to 100k?

13k plus VAT is a shocking proposition. :eek:
Hope you find a more realistic solution and can totally understand your frustration as you're gonna be losing money on this van regardless. The question now I guess is how much?

Best of luck getting something sorted.
 
I do feel for you, I agree that these are not the VWs of old, I expect that's true of all manufacturers, accountants rule today I look at ours and everything just feels a little cheap, but my Audi is similar although despite having ad blue don't seem to ever fill it, no regains and goes like stink.

I hope you can find a solution as £13k plus vat is horrendous.
 
Such a shame that ‘they don’t build them like they used to’. We live in such a ‘throw away’ world and nothing is made to last anymore. Especially when you buy a van as a keeper and invest thousands of pounds into it as many of us on here have.

@crackon I genuinely wish you all the best in getting this sorted.... I certainly wouldn’t be giving that Stealer another penny of your money, let alone £13k + the dreaded! :mad:
 
Thanks guys,

Interesting thing now is that the dealer was very quick to come up with that figure to replace everything, yet is slow to let me know all the parts that figure is made up of, or the cause of the problem necessitating all those parts. I think this could mean one of two things, each at opposite ends of the 'trust' spectrum, either they have conjured it up unnecessarily or they are genuinely now trying to get VW to sort this given the scale of the problem.

I'd like to think it's the latter as that would restore my faith but sort of got the feeling it's the former. Let's see if I get any further today.
 
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