Hi folks,

Updated from a 2009 Cupra to a 280 in July 2014 and everything's gone smoothly with the service package around 40€ a month. Until today: mine's done 21000km (13000 miles) and when I stopped to a red light everything was fine, gave it a good whip of gas when the light turned green but had to stop to another red a few hundred yards away. At that time I noticed that the Idle went from 1300rpm to 2000rpm in a two secondish cycle... Weird, I thought.. I drove around a mile and stopped to the parking lot of a supermarket and the idle was the same... No warning lights had lit. I stopped the engine and restarted and it had a really tough time to hold even 700rpm (usually it idles at 900). I gave it a bit gas and it resumed going back and forth 1300-2000rpm. I stopped the engine after I smelled burning oil, popped the hood and discovered the weirdest sight ever on a VW engine: The whole engine cover hade switched to the back and was now covering the exhaust manifold and the oil filler cap. Also I noticed that lots of oil had spilled to the passenger side (it is a left hand side wheel here in Finland) of the engine. I carefully removed the loose engine cover and saw that the oil filler cap had come off and the oil must have been coming up from there. I inspected the damages and no other than the middle and front left brackets had broken and thus let the cover move while accelerating. After the cover was thrown to the boot, I checked oil levels and put the oil cap back and secured it. Now it runs fine. I thought if it is possible that the torque arm / engine mount had given in and let the engine rotate so that it could squeeze the cover and move it backwards... And if so could it open the oil filler cap? Two days ago I checked the oil levels and added some washer fluid so I am 100% certain that the cap was as it's supposed to be: Tight and secure.

I shall take it to the dealer tomorrow and see what they say... Hopefully the warranty covers it and the engine bay wash-up...
 
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Hi folks,

Updated from a 2009 Cupra to a 280 in July 2014 and everything's gone smoothly with the service package around 40€ a month. Until today: mine's done 21000km (13000 miles) and when I stopped to a red light everything was fine, gave it a good whip of gas when the light turned green but had to stop to another red a few hundred yards away. At that time I noticed that the Idle went from 1300rpm to 2000rpm in a two secondish cycle... Weird, I thought.. I drove around a mile and stopped to the parking lot of a supermarket and the idle was the same... No warning lights had lit. I stopped the engine and restarted and it had a really tough time to hold even 700rpm (usually it idles at 900). I gave it a bit gas and it resumed going back and forth 1300-2000rpm. I stopped the engine after I smelled burning oil, popped the hood and discovered the weirdest sight ever on a VW engine: The whole engine cover hade switched to the back and was now covering the exhaust manifold and the oil filler cap. Also I noticed that lots of oil had spilled to the passenger side (it is a left hand side wheel here in Finland) of the engine. I carefully removed the loose engine cover and saw that the oil filler cap had come off and the oil must have been coming up from there. I inspected the damages and no other than the middle and front left brackets had broken and thus let the cover move while accelerating. After the cover was thrown to the boot, I checked oil levels and put the oil cap back and secured it. Now it runs fine. I thought if it is possible that the torque arm / engine mount had given in and let the engine rotate so that it could squeeze the cover and move it backwards... And if so could it open the oil filler cap? Two days ago I checked the oil levels and added some washer fluid so I am 100% certain that the cap was as it's supposed to be: Tight and secure.

I shall take it to the dealer tomorrow and see what they say... Hopefully the warranty covers it and the engine bay wash-up...

Obviously, that isn't normal. Perhaps during the service things weren't put on right.
 
Id be straight back to the dealership demanding that they clean my engine bay and put things right!
 
The Oil Filler cap came off on my 280 within 250 miles of brand new, spraying oil everywhere - but not the whole engine cover!! That really is weird. In my case it obviously had not been put on properly and was not detectedon the PDI.