New look at tensioner worry

[Snoopy]

WATCHDOG
or take the offer of the engine take the car away in bits and get an independant to fit it.

[Rhyso]

Contact your local Trading Standards with all the info.  With a bit of luck they should help you get a much better deal 

[highpeak23]

Both options there Snoopy have been under full consideration and might be taken. What has given me some heart
today and shows the power and benefit of Forums such as this was after placing a simple first time post late last night
was a very helpful and kind reply I got back from Jimmy.

His car and case are exactly the same as mine and I have been taking to a very helpful lady at VWUK CC who has
taken all the facts and case arguments back to the dealer over the last 10 days. They refuse to offer any goodwill or contribution to their stated labour charge of £2350 for a time frame they say of 22 hrs to take out and replace a VW Germany F.O.C new engine. The clearly think they have me over a barrel and that I should just roll over. The ICME software time sheets that independent garages are given shows and we reconfirmed this with the software suppliers yesterday is a time frame of 8.40 hrs.
Jimmy late last night very kindly gave me his case details and confirmed he was quoted from an franchised VW dealership a time frame of 15 Hrs. His car came back on Saturday and his case closed on Monday this week so still fresh and relevant.
I have given his case info to my case handler this morning and she is now checking with VW technical to the time frames for engine replacement but 15 hours to 22 hours is a vast margin on dealer quoted work. I hope the dealer where my car is gets fully caught out on and is fully exposed for it.
All I ever wanted at the start was what could be seen as a fair settlement and pay for me to pay reasonable contribution to rectifying a wrong. Jimmy ended his case feeling he was treated well where as up to last night I felt very very bitter with the dealer attitude. If with Jimmy's input the times and charges being suggested by the dealer are now found to be off the scale of that set by the group then I will feel some sense of justice has come out of it. That in no small part will have been with the help
of this forum. Will post the outcome as soon as its known.

[charlie]

I hope you get sorted highpeak it's a disgrace what is happening to you this tensioner fault is obviously a common fault and there for should be rectified by a recall

[highpeak23]

Thanks for the shout Charlie.
Even though its clearly been a well documented problem on many TSI engines across the group
they will only do a recall if its a safety issue - which this doesn't come under ... ( air bags were fully
deployed though when I was given the first dealer call 10 days ago! ).
What is now coming out though is for those especially on the earlier build engines and are now through
the warranty phase is the enormous labour charges being suggested by the dealers. To a recent point all
cases would be quietly dealt with at no owner cost to keep the issue o the design flaw on the chain tensioner suppressed.
A jumped chain may or may not destroy or wreck a large part of the inside of the top and bottom engine but the build
design of it means either way its probably not worth the strip down time to check - so they always suggest
a new engine is required - to which in virtually all cases so far VW Germany stand the cost for.
What is being found now is the wide variance of dealer times to take out  and install a new engine and seemingly
some dealerships ( mine ) taking full advantage. This is where VAG could do themselves a big favor and standardize
a charge for the labour times to a set number of hours.
Again just had the dealer back on asking have I made my decision yet ... knowing VWUK C.S are still asking them questions.
It was kind of them to say it was just curtesy call as its been over a week in case I had forgotten about !!!
As a GTi owner of 20 years and with this one in its full factory spec'd ABT body kit - its hardly something I'd have forgotten about especially as reminded for 2 hours a day driving a friends 15 year old Ford Ka !!!!!

[Poached]

snip

Do you have a full Main Dealer service History?

[Poached]

To add to this I'm nearly on 60k on a 59 plate GTI.

I did ask the Dealer to listen to the sound on cold start and predictably nothing out of the ordinary was heard but I have it documented.

[highpeak23]

Hi Poached

No dont have full main dealer service history on the current car -  use a local garage who are pukka
mechanics - only use genuine VW parts on the services and this one has never missed a beat.

As you have it recorded on the cold start and presumably pre empted the possibility of the issue
to the dealer you have now put yourself in a much stronger position should the death rattle occur.
Some do and some dont - its almost the luck of the draw on this one.

[spiderman]

Hiya

If it helps i could scan and send a copy of my invoice for the engine change on mine.

It doesn't have the exact amount of hours, but it details the engine change, along with the Fault finding work, timing cover removal, etc. It has it as a Menu Subtotal price Showing my 70% contribution and it is detailed at £713.93 + Vat
It had no Full dealer history (but a full history at a local garage) and the car was out of warranty by 9 months. I bought it at 3 years old from a specialist. I put it to the dealer for a service (as i have used them before and have always been happy with their service) and signed up for a service plan covering the next two services (saved me £100), before they found the fault. This may have helped me, i don't know.

I'm not back to work till Monday if you want a copy It might help

Sandy

[Poached]

Hi Poached

No dont have full main dealer service history on the current car -  use a local garage who are pukka
mechanics - only use genuine VW parts on the services and this one has never missed a beat.

As you have it recorded on the cold start and presumably pre empted the possibility of the issue
to the dealer you have now put yourself in a much stronger position should the death rattle occur.
Some do and some don't - its almost the luck of the draw on this one.

I think the offer you have received might be because the vehicle was serviced outside of the Dealer network?

It's not something I fully agree with but I know from previous experience that this can influence 'Goodwill contribution'.

I also think that Dealer is trying to Rinse you.