Advice please on misfueled diesel

clockwork.satan · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:29

Hey all, I'm just looking for a little advice on the behalf of my sister, who is going through a bit of a nightmare. Last week her car (a 2012 VW Passat 2.0TDi) started making a terrible racket and losing power during a trip from Manchester back to Edinburgh - this come after a previous three inspections by VW which picked up no problems. So after getting it back into them yesterday they have detected metal shavings in the engine and they've told her that it looks like the car has previously been misfueled but the owner never obviously never bothered to get the car into the garage. She's now facing a bill of £3-4K to have the engine replaced as it's well and truly knackered.

Any clues as to where she stands legally on all of this? She's had the car for a couple of years now, but surely there must be something she can do to either get a discount or something as she has been sold a car with a terminal engine problem?

andicole0 · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:36

After two years, no. How do we know she didn't misfuel it.
Andi.

Participant · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:37

You ask for legal advice and fail to mention who / where she bought it or the terms of the warranty sold with it?

clockwork.satan · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:40

I don't have any information regarding warranty (I assume it doesn't have one now and am posting this without consulting her) but she's absolutely adamant that she or her husband have never misfueled it. Oh, and it was bought from an official VW dealership.

Diagro · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:41

Took 2 years to kill the car??

Who's to say she didn't miss fuel it?

clockwork.satan · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:45

Let's just assume that she (and I totally believe her) has not misfueled it. Hypothetically speaking, would she have any leg to stand on by challenging the £4k repair/replace job without a warranty?

Armageus · 9 Apr 2016 at 22:55

Is it the same dealer with it now that it was bought from?

Has it been serviced with them (or at least main dealer)?

I doubt you will get anything covered by warranty this far on, but if as above it was bought and serviced by them, you can push for a good will gesture and get that discounted by VW.

clockwork.satan · 9 Apr 2016 at 23:10

I'm pretty sure that it has been serviced by the dealership and (short of miracles) I was sort of thinking of/hoping for a goodwill gesture scenario. I guess she's going to have a good deal of conversations with them to see what she can do.

bradUK · 10 Apr 2016 at 01:49

4K? Surely you could do a whole engine swap for half of that?

Akagi · 10 Apr 2016 at 01:54

bradUK said:
4K? Surely you could do a whole engine swap for half of that?

That quote is probably for a brand new engine fitted by VW. Obviously it would be far far less for a used engine fitted by a third party specialist.

iaind · 10 Apr 2016 at 07:53

2 years to do the damage? Rubbish. Either she misfueled it or the diagnosis is wrong. How do they go from metal shavings presumably in the oil to being misfueled?

snapdragon69 · 10 Apr 2016 at 07:55

It's a design/manufacturing fault...
https://www.chimicles.com/volkswagen-and-audi-high-pressure-fuel-pump-failure-investigation
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM475595/INCR-EA11003-61863.pdf

I remember reading some documents of correspondence between VW and BOSCH that a court had subpoenaed and they were really interesting - I can't find them now. One interesting thing was that these pumps were made in india and every time this was mentioned it was redacted and on the photos of the pumps where it was stamped in the metal it was covered in marker pen.

4T5 · 10 Apr 2016 at 07:58

I'd like to meet the mechanic who can tell a car has been misfueled 2 years ago as that's some damn impressive diagnosis skills.

andicole0 · 10 Apr 2016 at 09:11

In light of snapdragon69's find I would contact Honest John at the Telegraph. His team have all records of historical failures in uk based vehicles.
Andi.

Dogbreath · 10 Apr 2016 at 15:06

iaind said:
2 years to do the damage? Rubbish. Either she misfueled it or the diagnosis is wrong. How do they go from metal shavings presumably in the oil to being misfueled?

Metal shavings within the fuel system from the high pressure fuel pump eating itself is caused by running a common rail engine on petrol or at least with a lot of petrol in the diesel.

Brookert · 10 Apr 2016 at 15:11

Dogbreath said:
Metal shavings within the fuel system from the high pressure fuel pump eating itself is caused by running a common rail engine on petrol or at least with a lot of petrol in the diesel.

No mention of the shavings being in the fuel system though. If its in the oil, I suspect it's a fob off tactic.

Dogbreath · 10 Apr 2016 at 15:17

Brookert said:
No mention of the shavings being in the fuel system though. If its in the oil, I suspect it's a fob off tactic.

No mention of it being in the oil either, Op just said "the engine". I agree though, if the shaving are in the engine oil then it's unlikely to be fuel related.

iaind · 10 Apr 2016 at 15:43

Dogbreath said:
Metal shavings within the fuel system from the high pressure fuel pump eating itself is caused by running a common rail engine on petrol or at least with a lot of petrol in the diesel.

I understand how it can happen - my point was more to the vagueness of the diagnostic

Lashout_UK · 10 Apr 2016 at 15:47

Did it have any oil in it?

egraphixstudios · 10 Apr 2016 at 17:07

I hope you get it sorted soon.