OT - I should play the lottery this week

GrateEggspectations · August 2019

This week is the last week of warranty on my wife’s vehicle, a VW, model year 2015. I didn’t think much of it when the engine light came on late last week - it had been known to do that in extreme temperatures in the past.

Because we’ve all been sick with the stomach flu, we had to cancel an appointment set for earlier this week to have it looked. We subsequently rescheduled the appointment for this morning - within the very last few days of our warranty.

After having had it looked it, it appears the turbo needs replacement - very costly in both parts and labour. Am thanking my lucky stars that this happened now and that we ensured to have it looked at pronto and under the warranty. The service guys had trouble believing our luck.

In replacing our second vehicle just recently, I was quite adamant that I wanted the outgoing large displacement naturally-aspirated engine rather than the incoming smaller displacement turbo. Our experience this week is helping confirm that this was likely the right move.

As @lousubcap would say, “it’s better to be lucky than good any day.” 🙂

pgprescott · August 2019

Lord knows that in ones life there are numerous occasions when this sort of scenario goes in the opposite direction. Here’s to you getting one in the win column! Cheers!

JohnInCarolina · August 2019

Yes, you most definitely should!

Glad that worked out for you. German auto repairs are tolerable when under warranty. Otherwise it seems like you might as well hand over one of your appendages each time.

Gulfcoastguy · August 2019

I made out pretty well when VW bought back my 2013 diesel in February 2017. Much as it pains me to say it I should have bought a Prius instead. The VW was fun, comfortable riding, fuel efficient on the highway at least. On the flip side repairs were horribly expensive as was maintenance. You couldn't even buy a liter of the correct oil anywhere other than the deal. You were constantly at risk of a six thousand dollar repair if somebody contaminated the diesel tank with a tablespoon of gasoline and the extra cost of diesel whittled away at the fuel efficiency savings. Right now I'm just passing time with a Mazda 3 until I see how well the new electric cars make out and until they will actually sell them within 40 miles of me.

smokingal · August 2019

Wow. You are lucky. And I complain because I have to keep getting the same things replaced over and over again (fuel cap, temperature sensors ($300+), etc.), none of which have been under warranty since 2013. This is my first and last VW. The Honda Accord is looking really nice these days.

With your wife's car only being 4 years old, what would cause the turbo to fail?

GrateEggspectations · August 2019

@smokingal: Too bad for you. I can understand your leanings towards Honda. Reliability is hard to beat. I will mention that prior to the VW, we had a Honda. Although we liked it, it suffered from a horrible and widespread clearcoat defect and, much to our surprise, Honda would do nothing for us. That was enough to have us look at other makes. It would seem there is no perfect choice.

Technically, my wife’s car is almost five years old as I believe we bought the “2015” model in 2014. I don’t yet have any information from the dealership. Hoping to obtain further clarify upon pickup tomorrow.

One thing’s for sure - car manufacturers like small displacement engines with turbos because they are cheaper to manufacture than their larger displacement, naturally-aspirated counterparts. They also look good in fuel economy testing, even though this doesn’t necessarily (and often doesn’t) translate to the real world driving experience.

thetrim · August 2019

Two of our three vehicles are VWs. Glad to see you got it taken care of. Our local service team are all pretty good guys. No issues lately, but I guess we'll see how that goes. I am contemplating buying an extended warranty to take one of the vehicles out pretty far. I have a "friend" in the business (ha freakin ha), and I think buying that would pay for a single trip for something really bad.

Gulfcoastguy · August 2019

I had an extended warranty for the VW and I bought one for the Mazda. I needed the VW one. So far not needed for the Mazda.

smokingal · August 2019

GrateEggspectations said:

One thing’s for sure - car manufacturers like small displacement engines with turbos because they are cheaper to manufacture than their larger displacement, naturally-aspirated counterparts. They also look good in fuel economy testing, even though this doesn’t necessarily (and often doesn’t) translate to the real world driving experience.

So I bought a "B5.5" model, right before they switched over to what I refer to as a horrible new rendition. Barely drive the thing, but it drives like a dream. It has less than 75K miles on it, which is why I can't bring myself to buy another car. If I could move back to a place where I can walk everywhere, I'd probably just sell it to some college kid. It would be a dream come true for them.

Eggcelsior · August 2019

JohnInCarolina said:

Yes, you most definitely should!

Glad that worked out for you. German auto repairs are tolerable when under warranty. Otherwise it seems like you might as well hand over one of your appendages each time.

Or just learn how to wrench. YouTube is a heaven for DIY. Did front wheel bearings, brakes/rotors, supercharger belt, spark plugs, and air filters on my Audi A7 for around 500 bucks. That included buying tools necessary for the work as well. That bill would have been 1.5-2k+ at the mechanic/dealer.

Eggcelsior · August 2019

smokingal said:

Wow. You are lucky. And I complain because I have to keep getting the same things replaced over and over again (fuel cap, temperature sensors ($300+), etc.), none of which have been under warranty since 2013. This is my first and last VW. The Honda Accord is looking really nice these days.

With your wife's car only being 4 years old, what would cause the turbo to fail?

Generally, turbo fails happen from poor maintenance(as do most engine/driveline issues) such as dirty air filters or under-lubrication. Overheating is an issue too, and since OP mentioned the CEL coming on when it’s extremely hot out, I’d lean toward that as a reason. I’m not trying to blame the OP, just mentioning common reasons. Design flaws in the turbo/intercooler with lube/cooling/air flow can be an issue too, but that it typically happening in the early years of a vehicle’s model cycle.

I’m a firm believer in regular maintenance and try to find out what mechanics recommend, not just what the manufacturer does. Both my Ford and Audi have “lifetime” transmission fluid, but the ford mechanics and my independent one recommend 30k fluid changes, so I do drain and fills. On the Audi, ZF, who makes the actual transmission, recommends fluid changes every 60k miles. <100 bucks every 30-60k is way better than a 3-6k repair bill(or downpayment on a new car).

My Ford has a known issue with a power transfer unit used on the AWD drivelines for the Ford Taurus, Edge, Explorer, and Flex. The unit holds around 1 pint of gear oil and sits right next to the rear catalytic converter, getting exposed to incredibly high potential temperatures for oil(exhaust temps can 1,000 degrees that close to the engine). Again, a "lifetime" fluid unit. The oil turns to sludge and the PTU overheats and grenades, which is at least a 1200 dollar repair in any shop. I change the gear oil every other engine oil change for 9 bucks.

GrateEggspectations · August 2019

So, I’ve got some numbers from the dealer. Had we let the warranty expire prior to addressing the issue, this repair would have cost us $6000 out of pocket. 😳

blind99 · August 2019

We just had a similar experience. 7.5 year old Honda Odyssey started running rough - like a spark plug wasn't firing. Bunch of lights came on. I pulled the codes, checked them out on YouTube, found my oil was down a quart. took it in to the dealer, who told us there was good news and bad news. The bad news was half the engine needed to be rebuilt, it would take a month, and would cost around $3000. The good news was Honda settled a class action lawsuit by extending the warranty to 8 years.

OT - I should play the lottery this week

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