My Leon died today - loss of power, glow plugs on and battery cut out when driving

Hi folks, I've posted on here before about DPF problems I've had a few times since owning my FR - it's needed a forced regen three times in less than a year, but something strage happened today that I'm hoping one of you has experienced.

For some reason last week it didn't want to regenerate on the motorway (I drive 20 miles to work and back each day so plenty of time to do it) and the usual lights came on. My DPF light usually comes on once every 2/3 days - can't be normal but anyway... I rang up SEAT Menston and took it in a few days ago.

The rang back and said it's been through the regen and is now at 9% soot level, that'll be £80 please (was £150 six months ago for some reason, but that's another issue)

Picked the car up today and drove off, all went good, no lights on. Drove for about 10/15 minutes or 3 miles and felt the car 'judder' in 3rd, ignored it thinking it was just some turbo lag. Drove a bit more and my glow plug light started flashing. Thought oh ****, what's going on here then...

A few minutes later the power started dying as I was driving along, tried to drop it to second and put my foot down on the gas but got nothing. Evenutally had to come to a standstill and the battery light went red. Luckily I wasn't on a majorly busy road/motorway or that would have been tragic.

I tried starting it but it didn't start, it tried but could get the ignition so had to call the rescue service.

Rang SEAT Menston back and said the car I just drove away has just died and they advised to bring it back. However they finish at 12.30pm so won't be able to look at it until Monday morning to find out what's wrong...

Right, got it dropped off at SEAT by the recovery and left it there. Now the car's never had that problem before so:

1/ it must have been something done by their technicians that's upset it
2/ it must not have been tested after the regen after I had a power loss after three miles

Has this ever happened to any one? Would you expect SEAT to look at this (it's not under warranty any more) as part of their service for the regen and so I shouldn't be charged?

I'm losing hope on SEAT and am inclined to buy a Jap car that will never breakdown!

Interesting - I'd hope the dealers would have been clued up on this after doing a diagnostic after my regen.

Seems a slight safety hazard when your car dies completely while moving and doesn't restart.

Any advice from people on how to get SEAT to pay for any repairs?

cheers

Sounds like a similar problem that I have posted about on the forum. My FR cut out on me again today when I put my foot down and announced "engine fault workshop". All very well but it was 3am on a Sunday and I hadn't even left the car park at work! Hopefully it'll make it to my nearest dealership on Monday and I'll be able to part with loads of cash unexpectedly.

I'll be having a look at the thread about injector issues. When I restarted the car it ran very rough for a minute or so before settling down. A leisurely drive home without placing any great demand on the accelerator went without any problems so it might be an injector.

It is the injector, the called me today with a quote of, wait for it, £951.

I said that's totally unreasonable and pleaded my case and they agreed to to do a discount because of the FSSH and because I'm probably one of their best customers for regens.

They've now come back to me with an 'absolute bottome' price of £788.

Then I looked more closely at the page Scooby posted above and noticed people had got in touch with SEAT customer care and they've now agreed to take on my case to get something done under a 'goodwill gesture'. They will contact SEAT Leeds and find out the details and then get back to me.

I'll keep you updated - hope this helps other people out who feel swindled.

Update - just had a call from SEAT customer care and they've agreed to replace all 4 injectors (only one was faulty) and agreed to pay for labour costs - '100% on SEAT' and to 'restore my faith in the brand'.

The whole process was painless and I expressed thanks to the lady at SEAT that took up my case.

They said they've had 'a few cases' when I asked whether it was common fault.

I'll be expecting a nice call from SEAT Menston to say all work has been complete - so I'm guessing to replace all four injectors would cost near £4k if I was quoted £951 for one.

I hope this thread has helped others out - make a strong case for yourself especially on safety grounds and hopefully SEAT will realise their errors and get work done for you. Please see the thread Scooby posted above as well - thanks Scooby.

I'll update when I've got the car back to let you know how it runs.

Collected my car today. Simply got the keys and made sure I took some evidence of the work being done ie the job sheet from the garage.

Pick up, turbo and everything seems fine...so far! Can't say I can feel any improvement. There was a tiny little lag in 3rd at 1800rpm when I first took it away but I've not felt anything dodgy since.

I'm trying to find out if the work is under warranty - SEAT Menston say that it's nothing to do with them and SEAT Customer Care should be able to advise, they have said it's not usual policy to give a warranty on the work done if it's 100% by them, if the customers puts something towards it, like 10%, then it would be covered - not worth a contribution in my opinion.

They took the car on a 7 mile test drive after the work - hope that hasn't added to my original problem of the DPF filling up or I'll be back again!

Why on earth is it so expensive? Changing Fuel injectors on other cars is fairly straight forward and the injectors themselves aren't that expensive. There must be a HUGE markup here. For a BMW Mini Cooper S it's possible to buy a set of 4 550cc Bosch Injectors for under £200

Luke hope you got them fixed by SEAT.

I should mention I sold my car a fortnight ago and have gone back to a (hopefully) reliable petrol Astra SRI. Had enough of problems with the Leon, the injector failure was the final straw for me.

Might consider a cupra in future but won't be touching the TDI again. Not worth the problems/bills if you get a dodgy one.

Sef, from what I understand most of the cost isn't due to the parts but the labour, that's why Seat were 'kind' enough to knock off £170 from my original quote.

How did I find Seat Menston? How long have you got, I feel like I know the place inside out, it was practically my second home.

Depends who you speak to from my experience. If it's 'big' David you're on to a loser. He had the wisdom to charge me £150 for my first forced regen, which I told him to his face was daylight robbery. Another lad (can't remember his name) can be bargained with a bit more easily, he charged me £50 for my last forced regen - work that difference out.

I've never had a courtesy car off them (always 'booked out'), so have always used my dad's second car whenever I've had problems.

I think there's also a lack of communication between them all because when my injectors were done David dealt with the paperwork on collection but was not sure whether the work was carried out because the other guy didn't write it on the notes! Instead he checked in the workshop. He also thought it was to pay for - until I smugly told him I won't be paying for 4 injectors and it's on his bosses at SEAT. That's the same guy that didn't remember me coming in before, despite me having a couple of regens off him months earlier.

They're also pretty useless at explaining things 'I don't know' is a common answer to 'what the hell happened to my car?'

The girl that also works on the SEAT desk is also pretty clueless from my brief conversations with her think she's just admin.

I hope you have more luck than I did. Bargain hard with them.

Final whinge is that they moved the bloody garage miles out to Menston when it was just a few miles from my home in Rawdon but that's being pedantic, which I have every right to be after having to put up with them so much!