Nightmare - any ideas?

[Fisher 2007]

You should put any old shitty engine in it and trade it in. Can't believe SEAT UK don't give a ****. Actually, I can believe it!!!

I can't believe it either!!!!!!!!

I stated I'd happily get the car to them for review, they then claimed as I'd taken it to another garage to begin with then 'i'd made my choice'. I tried explaining it went back to this garage as that's where the last work, the cambelt, was done and in my non mechanic brain I'd throught it might be related. I said that I wanted to rule that out first.

In reality I wasn't looking for that much, just a token, discount on parts, discount on new Seat, all to stay with the brand but they wouldn't budge. I will write a letter to them regardless, just to make them aware. I referred the guy to this forum and told him that from what I've read Seat have a bad service record on here and they should review that.

I'm actually beginning to regret starting this thread as I'm sure the g#ts review this website and use it in their favour.

So, one way or another I'm going to be getting a new car, sell, scrap or part ex this I'm not sure, but I'm not keeping it. What suggestions do people have? I want a sporty diesel (do a reasonable amount of miles with work), under 5, preferrably 4, years old, low mileage and reliable.

 

[betty_swollox]

Sporty diesel? I would have recommended an FR

In a way, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't want to help. Why would they want to give you a discount on a car in return for a car with a nackered engine. They'd get no benefit from it, but its really ****ing disappointing that they won't even hell out with discounted parts.

I can kinda see it from their point if view,It's been serviced elsewhere, so like someone else stated earlier, you haven't been loyal to them in that sense.

BUT regardless of where it was serviced, a good quality vag engine should not die after 36k. I'd be going ****ing mental if I was you, I just can't believe how unlucky you have been mate.

Chin up mate, keep kicking up a fuss, threaten to break their legs and go to trading standards etc. Good luck mate

 

[Fisher 2007]

On the new car point, I just can't take the risk of this happening again so I must have a warranty with the next one I buy.

Do I, buy from a dealer (whatever make that may be) and get the remainder of the warranty or at least 12 months from the date of purchase or buy private and purchase a warranty? Anyone used after market warranty companies?

 

[Mr Cellotape]

Where do I start...... MTFU. They are not going to just roll over on this.

You need to build your case and check all points of law. Start with the sale of goods act and read it!

Next contact What Car magazine and have a chat with them, they love this kind of story and will be all over it like a rash. 36k, regularly maintained and failed.... And manufacturer don't even want to investigate the vehicle. WTF.

Have you checked the history?
Have you got all necessary invoices?

What the fffff are you doing to fight this rather than rolling over?

Read threads by me, rob, poverty and others who have had shite service from SEAT. You need to grow some danglies and get your gloves on in a well thought out defence.

 

[jzr]

Be careful with warranties a lot are not worth the paper there write on.

Read the small print, like how much there are will to pay up to, as most have a claims limit, also some only pay £35-40 an hour, an you try and find many places that charge that much. Dealers are double that price by me.

 

[Fisher 2007]

Where do I start...... MTFU. They are not going to just roll over on this.

You need to build your case and check all points of law. Start with the sale of goods act and read it!

Next contact What Car magazine and have a chat with them, they love this kind of story and will be all over it like a rash. 36k, regularly maintained and failed.... And manufacturer don't even want to investigate the vehicle. WTF.

Have you checked the history?
Have you got all necessary invoices?

What the fffff are you doing to fight this rather than rolling over?

Read threads by me, rob, poverty and others who have had shite service from SEAT. You need to grow some danglies and get your gloves on in a well thought out defence.

Appreciate your input and I will pursue this but ranting and raving on here right now isn't going to change the situation at present

Can you give me a little more input regarding threads by you and others? Similar problems, similar service, similar outcome?

If you can point me in the right direction then I can start to build a case. Will do some searching but struggle to find a thread by you with the Mk2 bit, anywhere else?

Problems I have in the short term are;

1, the car is at a garage waiting for me to tell them what to do, they do not have space to store this long term
2, I need a car, both for work (its required as part of my job) and regular use
3, I need money from this car, in one form or another to buy another
4, If Seat never see the car then I won't have a leg to stand on. To get the car to them I have to pay for it to be towed, then for them to look at it, now what happens if they still say no....more money last

A pair isn't a problem, its everything else that's going on as a result that is right now!

 

[Fisher 2007]

Ok, from all the research I've done over the last few days the biggest problem I currently face is that the car was not purchased or serviced by Seat, therefore I'm struggling to find anywhere where I can locate information that allows me to pursue them directly.

If anyone can point me in the direction of such a document, body, act, etc I'd greatly appreciate it.

The information I have found here so far has been really useful but how do I get over the above single point?

I need to act quickly and sending letters via recorded mail and waiting for responses it not an option right now. I need to either send the car to Seat or not, and I'm reluctant to do this and incur more costs without satisfying the above.

 

[coggie]

I know this thread is endless talk of 'If I were you' but here's my take

If it was me, I'd buy a cheap car with a couple of months tax & MOT and get your insurance swapped over. You've paid for 12 months cover and at the moment are not getting anything from it.

I would ring round the breakers and source a used engine - even a 2.0TDi 140 if there are no issues from fitting that (probably is i know) and trade it for a kia with a 7 year warrenty.

 

[betty_swollox]

Ok, from all the research I've done over the last few days the biggest problem I currently face is that the car was not purchased or serviced by Seat, therefore I'm struggling to find anywhere where I can locate information that allows me to pursue them directly.

If anyone can point me in the direction of such a document, body, act, etc I'd greatly appreciate it.

The information I have found here so far has been really useful but how do I get over the above single point?

I need to act quickly and sending letters via recorded mail and waiting for responses it not an option right now. I need to either send the car to Seat or not, and I'm reluctant to do this and incur more costs without satisfying the above.

Like you said earlier mate, SEAT won't do anything until they've seen the car, so you might have to bite the bullet and pay to get it towed there. Where do you live? We should take a some advice from the nutters from London and smash up SEATs hq lol
Take it to the nearest dealership and kick off. Write to seat. And like someone else said, write to loads of car magazines about it. Doubt SEAT would want bad press??

 

[robdf2]

Hi Fisher

Sounds like you are indeed having a nightmare !
i havent read all your posts , but can you give me some facts

what year is your car?
how many non seat services have you had done? and do the recipts conform to the seat servicing schedule?
reason im asking is , because having your oil changed or your filter changed will have no bearing what so ever on your flap failing , and reading through the service book it has no reference to checking the operation of the flaps on a service interval.

This is a potential area you could claim not fit for purpose.

But as steve has already said , this is your car ultimaltly your money and you need to fight to get it resolved with the minimum outlay from yourself , i know it sounds like hastle but its a route you have to try , the dealers may stick fast and say nothing they can do take it up with SEAT ect , so you may have to go down this route , infact you will need to contact them to get a case opened up.
Expalin the facts , i will send you an address on p to send a letter in to back up your conversation , they will reply , but this is just the begining , its not going to be resolved overnight.

Rob.

 

[Mr Cellotape]

Appreciate your input and I will pursue this but ranting and raving on here right now isn't going to change the situation at present

Can you give me a little more input regarding threads by you and others? Similar problems, similar service, similar outcome?

If you can point me in the right direction then I can start to build a case. Will do some searching but struggle to find a thread by you with the Mk2 bit, anywhere else?

Problems I have in the short term are;

1, the car is at a garage waiting for me to tell them what to do, they do not have space to store this long term
2, I need a car, both for work (its required as part of my job) and regular use
3, I need money from this car, in one form or another to buy another
4, If Seat never see the car then I won't have a leg to stand on. To get the car to them I have to pay for it to be towed, then for them to look at it, now what happens if they still say no....more money last

A pair isn't a problem, its everything else that's going on as a result that is right now!

Sorry if you thought that was a rant, it wasn't. I'm just trying to get you to see what you are going to have to do to fight this.

My posts were generally within the M1 autos areas and sadly these have been deleted by the mods....unless a friendly mod can dig them out.

Rob has commented below, so searching his threads for words such as problem, SEAT UK, broken, etc should help.

Yours is the first I have seen with a complete bust engine out of warranty, however given the mileage and history I can see no reason for not getting something done.

I suggest you do these:-
1) Ring SEAT UK and get a case opened (Said by Rob)
2) Get the car to SEAT and get it seen. (log the cost down)
3) Buy a cheap low mileage run-around and use that for work. (£500 max).

Keep a diary of events complete with dates/times/names/costs/etc.

Get onto the consumer websites and get reading, talk to trading standards and see what they say, talk to What Car magazine.

If your not prepared to fight then you will get nothing. FACT.

Do internet searches for similar cases and see what the outcomes where.

There is no quick way of doing this so take your time and do it correctly.


Good luck.

Steve.

PS keep updating the post and letting people know how things are going, there may be many others that can help.

 

[grahams81]

Do your reasearch and you will realise there are 170 TDi engines around on ebay for BIN of 1200 quid.
Speak to the garage where your mate works and ask how much to swap the engines over. Can't be more than £500 quid surely.
I know this has little use to the OP but there is a reason main dealers are a good idea, i would bet if the car had full Seat hostory then Seat would have taken care of the matter and either payed half or helped in some way.
As soon as the car is serviced elsewhere then it's a get out of jail free card for the Manufacturers.
My astra company car (private not lease etc) was 20k miles and 6month outta warranty, when the gearbox blew itself to bits, due to full dealer service history they offered to pay half of the costs (new box was £1800) in the end we p/x'd the car (with the knackered gbox)to the same dealer against a new insignia. They gave a very good p/x price of £5500 - same car was being sold for around £7000.

To the OP - get the engine code (normally 3 letters) and do some searching for used engines (they will be common across the vag range), recon's for such a modern car shouldn't be required.

 

[Mr Cellotape]

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=325083&highlight=broken+engine

A quick search on broken engine brings this up..

 

[Mr Cellotape]

I know this has little use to the OP but there is a reason main dealers are a good idea, i would bet if the car had full Seat hostory then Seat would have taken care of the matter and either payed half or helped in some way.
.

You've not had to many dealings with SEAT UK have you....

 

[robdf2]

You've not had to many dealings with SEAT UK have you....

steve you can pm me now , inbox was full

 

[ShaunyboyFR]

Appreciate your input and I will pursue this but ranting and raving on here right now isn't going to change the situation at present

Can you give me a little more input regarding threads by you and others? Similar problems, similar service, similar outcome?

If you can point me in the right direction then I can start to build a case. Will do some searching but struggle to find a thread by you with the Mk2 bit, anywhere else?

Problems I have in the short term are;

1, the car is at a garage waiting for me to tell them what to do, they do not have space to store this long term
2, I need a car, both for work (its required as part of my job) and regular use
3, I need money from this car, in one form or another to buy another
4, If Seat never see the car then I won't have a leg to stand on. To get the car to them I have to pay for it to be towed, then for them to look at it, now what happens if they still say no....more money last

A pair isn't a problem, its everything else that's going on as a result that is right now!

Ive just been reading your thread and don't know if you have still got the car or have had the engine changed but there is another way you could sort out the engine depending on what is actually damaged. If its just the main block that is damaged and pistin no.4, then you could possibly get away with keeping the old head, changing no.4 injector and as your there all glow plugs ( incase another decides to snap ). If the head is all good, no dents cracks or majour scratches then you could always get a short bloc and swap over all the good bits ( hopefully being no.1, 2 and 3 pistons and con rods ) it may take a bit longer time wise but it sounds like most of the engine is apart from what has been said, second hand would be cheapest but not actually know good the part would be, recon is ok again no real garantee that it will last but is cheaper than buying new or get brand new which is almost certain to last the car lifetime, just another idea

Also you have 2 choices about selling the car, 1. you can phone the DVLA or SEAT and tell them you have had a new engine fitted and they will change it on your documents or 2. have the work done and dont tell them. Not many people bother to check service histroy nowadays and hardly anyone would know where to look for an engine code on the engine or paper work. so depending on what you have done would be entirely up to you

 

[Justa]

any up-date on this ?

 

[Fisher 2007]

Hi guys

Been travelling a lot with work so not been around

Update -
Car was last at the garage I originally took it to until a mate of mine (who is also a mechanic) suggested getting the car back to my house so he could take off the cylinder head and give a second opinion. He couldn't understand why the engine was seized and thought that there maybe a chance it could be repaired

So, car back at mine, head off, and piston 4 was trashed (wish I'd taken photos now but didn't think), it looked like someone had attacked it with a hammer. Bore was heavily scored, bottom of the cylinder head (above piston 4) was trashed, valves above cylinder 4 where bent and the valve seats damaged. The reason the engine was seized was pure chance, one of the valves had got stuck on the piston where the metal was damaged. Once the head was off the engine turned (manually of course!)

At this stage my mate who was taking the head off took the head to his garage to show his boss, who races cars and builds engines, who said that the head could be skimmer and valves seats welded but this could always potentially be a weak spot, so wouldn't suggest it. As for the piston this could be changed and the bore rebored but he said they would need to take the block apart and rebore all 4 cylinders. Basically he said that it wasn't worth fixing and a recon/new engine was the only option

After lots of debating I decided to sell the car as it was. There was still a question mark over the turbo and cat, which could be 100% checked until a new engine was in, plus my aircon had been playing up prior to this, so all in all it wasn't worth fixing. The car was sold for £4200 to the garage owner who looked at the car - he claimed he was going to fix it up for his Mrs

Ok, I know I could have put a cheap engine in but with the question mark over the other parts it wasn't something I wanted to do. I also then had the problem of selling the car, or part exing, etc so just took the easy option - albeit expensive

So, new car was needed and I've spent the last few days looking around, options were;

Skoda octavia VRS (diesel) - ruled out as I wanted the face lift version with full leather (hate the standard VRS seats) and couldn't get one with low miles for the money I had

Golf GT TDI (170 diesel) - ruled out because they hold there money too much

Audi A3 (170 diesel) - same as the golf

Seat Leon - wanted one but was obviously concerned over the problems I've had so would only consider one from a Seat dealer so I had a warranty and some come back

Well yesterday I found a 2009 black FR with BTCC bodykit on it and took the plunge. Picking the car up next week. This car has the CR engine, centre arm rest and looks sweet!

So, several thousand pounds later hopefully I can put this behind!!!

 

[Mr Cellotape]

^^^ I can't believe you have come back to SEAT after there treatment of you over this.

good luck with the new one.

Steve.

 

[ShaunyboyFR]

That's good ish news glad you've got another seat I'm always weary of diesels not just seat but all of them, this dpf milarky is more of a pain than it is economical still hope you have better luck with this one.