Car purchased on 1st April 2004 – Turbo blew on 14th June 2009 – Age of car 62 months.
For the past 5 years I have driven a VW Touran 1.9 TDI and I can honestly say it's been one of the best cars I have ever had, but…… For this to happen, I will never own another VW again…. Please read on.
The turbo completely shattered with the spindle breaking, causing medal filling to go into the intercooler and with a broken oil seal too, all the engine oil was pumped into the exhaust and so the cat converter now is deemed dead too.
On being recovered to my VW main dealer, the net results were that they wanted to replace the turbo, the intercooler and the exhaust system.
A new turbo, a new intercooler and complete exhaust system plus the labour cost – I was given a figure of £3100.
My car is 5 years old with 54,500 miles on the clock. I have done everything VW as a company have asked me to do. It has been fully serviced at a VW main dealer and only by them even to the point they have carried out the two MOTs on the car as well.
I have called VW in the UK and they have stated that "This is Life" and I am outside any good will period.
But they did question me if I ever had any previous Volkswagens as justification on the decision to offer additional goodwill. Unfortunately they stated that because this was my first VW, there was no further justification to offer additional goodwill.
Therefore I was not a loyal customer in there eyes.
They continued and stated.
“Naturally, any component failure is disappointing and repair costs are always unwelcome. Therefore, after the expiry of the warranty, Volkswagen operates a goodwill scheme to assist towards repair costs. Each situation regarding goodwill assistance is evaluated on an individual basis with consideration given to the previous repair history and the owner's compliance with our scheduled maintenance requirements. Moreover, the vehicle's age and mileage are taken into account.”
They continued
“That it is not possible however to make a general statement about the service life of an engine or any other vehicle component. There are a number of factors which can have an influence here. Moreover, each car has its own history of usage, and none is entirely alike.”
The Touran has an on-board computer, which tracks the car, it’s also programmed with its long life service program and therefore it MUST monitor and track how the car is driven as it tells you when these service periods are due. No two service periods are the same; I can prove this over my 5 years driving my VW Touran.
When I questioned VW on the following question, they simple stated "We cannot give you this information"
What is the MTBF (mean time between failures) of the turbo?
Is this type of failure common?
What can cause this type of failure?
How many turbo failures do VW see?
What else could I have done in looking after my car?
What are your goodwill parameters?
How many VW do you have to own to become a loyal customer?
I cannot accept that is 5 years old car that has been fully maintained by VW with less than average mileage can have such a catastrophic failure and to be told by VW UK that I am not a loyal customer - I think this is totally and utterly outrageous.
Are you thinking of buy a VW Car…. Please think again.
Nice car to drive and works well for a family...
Turbos are turbos, even BMW has those problems on the 320d. But, since all the greenies are forcing carmakers to bring out cars that emit less CO-2 and emissions at the same time, guess what -- a lot more turbocharging of smaller displacement engines are on their way. VW 1.4 TSI, eventually BMW's 1-series, the Mercedes C-class, and others. I don't like turbos myself, and even VW a while ago replaced the Passat 1.8T with the V5 2.3 (same power, no turbo, simpler) at least in NZ. I don't like the look of a turbocharged future, not if costs for repairs will make it impossible to maintain a car.
Turbos go when they get too hot or not enough cooling from my experience. VW don't produce the turbos, but they do help to destroy them.
First the 1.8t engine has too small an oil sump, and the oil pump filter is prone to blocking/ partially blocking, causing less oil to the turbo (killed my Passat's engine). When a turbo gets hot, the oil inside goes kinda gooey, then when cooled sits like sludge in turbo. Next time you start it up, sludge moves to that lovely blocking oil filter.
First piece of advice to any one with a turbo powered engine is to warm up to natural running temp before driving. Don't over rev the engine to start with. Cruise near the end of your journey out of the turbo range or at bottom of it to allow it to cool. When the journey is finished, allow the engine to idle for a minutes or so to cool. Buy bigger better intercooler, service more regularly than stated by the manufacturer, and use engine/oil cleaning agents at services.
"First piece of advice to any one with a turbo powered engine is to warm up to natural running temp before driving."
This is impractical, a waste of fuel, and also unnecessary on a properly designed and engineered turbo installation (which the VAG 1.8T clearly isn't). Who in their right mind is going to fire up the family car 15 minutes before they want to go out in the morning? A classic 2 stroke race bike, or a supercar perhaps, but a family runabout? You just get in it and drive it, and the competition's engines, turbo or otherwise cope just fine.
Of course, turbo engines should be treated gently until thoroughly warmed through, and should always be allowed a moment to idle before switching off after a hard run, but that's about it. I have a 150,000 mile turbo petrol Volvo which has had no more than routine servicing and kept under 3,500 RPM until warmed up. The original turbo shows no signs of problems, and the engine uses maybe 250ml of oil between services.
On this type of car, nobody should have to "drive around" poor design. Turbos in general should be treated with a bit of respect, but that should be all they need if the installation was designed by someone competent.
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