Is bad diesel causing my engine failure?

HELPDESK:Answering all your motoring queries

From PK: I bought a 2007 Volkswagen Passat TDi in 2009 with 106,000kms on the clock and a full VW service history. It was a former fleet rental car serviced by a main VW garage. It was serviced three times by the leasing company and the fourth time by the car dealer I bought it from. One year later, after 10,000km of driving, the engine broke down. The VW garage replaced the engine with a new VW factory rebuilt engine at a cost of €4,800. They made a contribution of €2,000 towards the cost. They showed me the broken engine and the crankshaft appeared to be damaged.

Is there bad diesel out there in the marketplace causing diesel engine failure? Could the long-life timing belt be a problem? If the car has a full VW recommended service history, is there any recourse to the manufacturer to fully bear the cost of the engine repair? There was no explanation from VW as to the cause of the problem. Are there many of these engine failings?

Paddy Comyn writes:

We put your query to Volkswagen Ireland and they are writing to you with an official response. Here is some of what they had to say. “Regrettably in this instance the warranty on your vehicle expired in January 2009 and this issue manifested itself in June 2010, 1.5 years later. . . we assessed the vehicle outside the normal warranty terms on a goodwill basis and we were able to assist with the cost of repairs in the amount of 50 per cent of the parts supplied.

“We would not have access to specific data regarding fuel quality in the marketplace, however we can advise that poor or incorrect fuel can lead to damage.”

On the cause of the problem, Volkswagen appears to be at a loss: “At this stage, we are unable to determine the root cause of this failure but can confirm after reviewing our records that this was a most exceptional failure and could not be considered attributable as a manufacturing defect.” If you trawl internet forums, you are likely to see problems with that generation of Passat, which was certainly anything but trouble free. For now, we can see no hard evidence of a spate of engine failures like you describe. But we would welcome any evidence from readers of this nature.

While there is no evidence that it was dirty fuel that caused the failure, there is certainly anecdotal evidence that such fuel is on sale in Ireland. The seizure of illegally “washed” diesel suggests there is certainly a market among some less reputable forecourts in Ireland for this fuel.

From PD: I recently enquired from a number of Toyota dealers in the Cork area about their price for a new Corolla without scrappage. The current Toyota scrappage offer from the Government is €1,250 and from Toyota is €2,110, totaling €3,360.

However, when I asked for a cash-only price, the Toyota element of the offer disappeared and I was back to negotiating best price, which may only approach 50 per cent of the Toyota-only element of the scrappage offer. Given that a cash arrangement, without a scrappage, is considerably less work and cost for the dealer, why in this economic climate is the Toyota element of the discount not available for cash purchases?

According to Toyota Ireland: “as with any offer there are terms and conditions and the additional bonus only applies to cars sold under the Government scrappage scheme. The cash discount offered by a dealer will vary so it is prudent to get a number of quotes before committing to buy.”

The terms and conditions may well apply but they are set by the firm itself so it’s not impossible to change them. In fairness to them you are very unlikely to encounter any other car firm that passes on scrappage discounts for non-scrappage deals either.

One of the reasons the cash-only deals are not as substantial is that the bulk of the scrappage discount originates from distributors so the dealer is largely compensated for selling the car at the lower price. However, in a cash deal, no such financial support is available in most instances, so any discount is coming straight from the dealer’s pocket. That’s probably the reason why it’s not as substantial as the official Toyota scrappage offer.

Send your queries to Motors Helpdesk, The Irish Times, Tara St, Dublin 2 or motorshelp@irishtimes.com