T6 new engine required at 270,000km

[InBiarritz]

Hi everyone,

I have a diesel T6 Caravelle 2.0TDI 150 which I bought from new in 2018. Have driven it carefully and done all services on time (and at great expense) with the VW dealer here in Bayonne.

Broke down a few weeks ago and they say one of the cylinders had seized so they had to take the engine out to examine. Upon examination one of the valves had broken causing significant damage to the engine and so they need to put a new engine in!

I'm a little surprised as I was expecting the minibus to go for at least another 100,000km before any serious issued like this. Has anyone else had this issue and has anyone managed to get the garage to assist with the costs as it is a prohibitively expensive repair job.

Hope someone can help!

 

[kipperman]

I think your expectations are somewhat high - 270 000km being equivalent to 169 000 miles and you are hoping that after 6 years of ownership you might get some goodwill from the garage ( it's not clear whether you bought it from the same garage). Personally, I wouldn't be expecting anything, but good luck if you do!

 

[InBiarritz]

OK thanks for the info, I bought it from the same garage and that garage did all the services. I was under the impression that this engine could go almost as far as 500,000km until serious issues.

 

[Sasquatch]

I was under the impression that this engine could go almost as far as 500,000km until serious issues.

That's a little optimistic.

There will be vans that have managed 500,000km, 310k miles, but they are in a minority. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that one or these engines will go that far, but it's unusual enough that I wouldn't personally have had that as a reasonable expectation for the average lifespan of the motor.

I've never delved into it in detail but a lot of diesel in la Francais is ultra low sulphur, notoriously hard on valves, particularly on the exhaust side. You can get oiling systems, a bit like those available for LPG, to protect the valves but I don't know how successful they are.

UK diesel fuel meets - or is supposed to meet - the same standard, and while it does do so the stuff sold in the EU vastly exceeds the standard (they probably have one eye already on the next future standard) and generally much less sulphur than UK pump fuel, something like 1 part in 10 million. We'll never know for sure but it wouldn't surprise me if that wasn't a factor.

 

[InBiarritz]

That's interesting, thanks for the info.