NSW Another broken 118TSI

[Dud_118TSI]

Hi,

I'm the owner of an MY12 Golf 118TSI manual. It's only done 28,000km and has suffered the all-too-familiar engine failure characterised by a loss of compression (in my case, cylinder 2). It's been a wonderful car up until now so I'm hoping to get some advice from what looks to be a very knowledgeable member base.

I'm based in the Hills (Sydney) and am interested in speaking to anyone who can assist me in my quest to have my recently rejected warranty claim approved to fix this well-known issue.

Facing a $10k repair cost for something that should be covered by extended warranty is a bitter pill to swallow so any help anyone can provide is appreciated. I look forward to speaking to you.

[Umai Naa!!]

Wrecker engine, and sell it.

You'll burn way too much money doing it any other way.

Have you also considered approaching your insurance company and about the repairs?

[Dud_118TSI]

I am currently pulling together as much evidence as possible to take back to the insurance company to show them their black and white adjudication of these claim decisions needs to include consideration of some grey. That 'grey' in this case I'm hoping will be information members might be able to provide me. We all know these engines are suffering manufacturer faults but the insurance company is sticking to their clause in the extended warranty contract that they don't need to pay up if you miss or delay a service (which unfortunately we did). We were over on time but 4,000km under on the interval.

[Umai Naa!!]

Fuel quality is another reason these things go bang. Even 95RON is borderline, even after the software updates several years ago on the ECU.

[ope126]

I am currently pulling together as much evidence as possible to take back to the insurance company to show them their black and white adjudication of these claim decisions needs to include consideration of some grey. That 'grey' in this case I'm hoping will be information members might be able to provide me. We all know these engines are suffering manufacturer faults but the insurance company is sticking to their clause in the extended warranty contract that they don't need to pay up if you miss or delay a service (which unfortunately we did). We were over on time but 4,000km under on the interval.

Scheduled service is 12mths / 15,000kms (which ever comes first).
Was this different under your insurance policy / extended warranty?

Next stop VW Australia...

[Umai Naa!!]

Some extended warranties stipulate a different service interval, with no correlation to the manufacturer.

Many of them stipulate a 10,000km/6 month oil and filter change, with no regard for other aspects of the car that require maintenance.

[Bora Sport]

Under Australian Consumer law any item sold must be "fit for purpose". Clearly a car that has only done 27,000k's and needs a new engine does not fulfill that criteria. I would be onto VW Australia to fix it even if you end up paying a small contribution. My son's newly purchased (2.5 months ago from a VW dealer) 2011 Golf R needed a new mechatronics unit in the DSG, we ended up getting it replaced for a total cost of $190.00 including the oil change and filter. It only had 25,000k's on it.

[LukePolo]

Hi,

I'm the owner of an MY12 Golf 118TSI manual. It's only done 28,000km and has suffered the all-too-familiar engine failure characterised by a loss of compression (in my case, cylinder 2). It's been a wonderful car up until now so I'm hoping to get some advice from what looks to be a very knowledgeable member base.

I'm based in the Hills (Sydney) and am interested in speaking to anyone who can assist me in my quest to have my recently rejected warranty claim approved to fix this well-known issue.

Facing a $10k repair cost for something that should be covered by extended warranty is a bitter pill to swallow so any help anyone can provide is appreciated. I look forward to speaking to you.

If you do have a full service history VW or other, find out where it was purchased and get VW apply for goodwill, this may end up a heck of alot cheaper...

My Mum had her 2010 118tsi Golf engine replaced 2 years out of warranty at 72,000km for 30% of the labour cost with 100% of parts covered.

It is after all a known issue and the cars have a long history of issues.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Yes- definitely a goodwill case. An engine should be expected to last more than 20k km.

You have rights under Australian Consumer Law.

Take it up with a VW dealer and then with head office if required.

[Dud_118TSI]

Thanks for the responses guys. We made a mistake by delaying one service while my wife was pregnant. We got a reminder call from VW saying we were due, told them the car had only travelled 5,000km since the last service 12mths ago and they asked how many kms we expected to travel in the next 12mths and we said less than 7,000km and they said "don't bother with one now". So we didn't. That was a mistake because that's now considered a "breach of service interval". All services have been done by VW and we are now up-to-date but in their eyes the damage is done. Having spoken to a heap of technical people familiar with 118TSI engine failures, a delayed oil change is not one of the possible causes.

I've still got a dispute avenue to pursue with the insurer and I'm building an arsenal of evidence to support my position. Failing that there's VW, Fair Trading and of course A Current Affair.

If anyone can share any of their repair details with me via private message it'd be greatly appreciated.

[tigger73]

Just remember that the landscape has changed majorly for VW in the last 6 months since the dieselgate crisis. Where once they had a big bucket of money for fixing up all these warranty issues they more than likely have a lot smaller bucket now.

All I'm saying is that you're best off talking to people with very recent experience in dealing with VW as their financial position has changed significantly and more than likely what was being paid out 6 months ago is now getting reviewed to see if there's any way that they don't have to pay.

Certainly they may be looking to get out of it on a technicality, however your statutory rights should still hold even if the insurance isn't going to pay up.

[brad]

Hi,

I'm the owner of an MY12 Golf 118TSI manual. It's only done 28,000km and has suffered the all-too-familiar engine failure characterised by a loss of compression (in my case, cylinder 2). It's been a wonderful car up until now so I'm hoping to get some advice from what looks to be a very knowledgeable member base.

I'm based in the Hills (Sydney) and am interested in speaking to anyone who can assist me in my quest to have my recently rejected warranty claim approved to fix this well-known issue.

Facing a $10k repair cost for something that should be covered by extended warranty is a bitter pill to swallow so any help anyone can provide is appreciated. I look forward to speaking to you.

get in touch with the ACCC and find out where you stand. 28k engine failure is a joke.

Also contact VW direct rather than through a dealer.

Record all correspondence. Get things in writing rather than verbal.

[Dud_118TSI]

Great advice guys, thanks.

Some slightly good news (I think). I've been bugging my service centre for a written statement about the fact the failure suffered by my vehicle is a known issue to them and in previous examples it's been caused by <insert known cause of failure>. The stalled for a couple of weeks but I went in and had an hour face-to-face with them and 2 days later, I had a statement saying exactly that. They refused to say outright that the lack of an oil change wasn't the cause, but that's ok, I think they've overstepped the line from a towing the company line message and I now have a powerful statement from the technical experts on this vehicle.

I also have 2 other independent European service centres preparing similar statements for me. In addition to that I have a technical statement coming from Castrol specifying the degradation rate of oil over the period that the car wasn't serviced to prove the oil didn't degrade to the point that it was no longer lubricating the engine. It will be hard for the insurance company to defend their position if all the evidence suggests a multitude of other possible causes exist.

Failing that, onto Fair Trading we go.

[jaytar]

How did you get on?