[Monty]

Hi, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this fault. Yesterday (30/03/06) I was driving along the M11 cruising at about 80 mph, when a huge cloud of white smoke poured from the rear of the car (3.2 V6 petrol). When I pulled over onto the hard shoulder the smoke was coming out all around the bonnet and into the car through the vents, I was waiting to see flames! I rang VW breakdown, (they arrived in 20 mins, not bad). Under the car was a large pool of tramission oil. The mechanic doesn't know what had happened, but when the car was taken to my local dealership, the service guy said they had had two similar breakdowns recently.

 

[Mark II]

Hi Monty,

Sounds serious - not heard of any similar problems personally though.

Are you sure it was trans oil?

Do you have manual or auto transmission?

I take it there was no warning - leak on driveway or similar...?

Imagine the oil must have sprayed onto the exhaust - hence the clouds of smoke, so am thinking blown oil seal or ruptured pipe (if the Treg's have an oil cooler for the transmission - which I'm not sure).

Hope it gets sorted for you soon.

Anyone else heard of this problem?

 

[Monty]

Hi Monty,

Sounds serious - not heard of any similar problems personally though.

Are you sure it was trans oil?

Do you have manual or auto transmission?

I take it there was no warning - leak on driveway or similar...?

Imagine the oil must have sprayed onto the exhaust - hence the clouds of smoke, so am thinking blown oil seal or ruptured pipe (if the Treg's have an oil cooler for the transmission - which I'm not sure).

Hope it gets sorted for you soon.

Anyone else heard of this problem?

Hi Mark II,
My Touareg is an auto, there was no warning of the problem before I saw the smoke. I have spoken to the dealership today, and they believe that an oil seal has failed on the gearbox. To repair it they have to drop the engine & gearbox out, don't expect to have the car for about 10 days.

 

[Monty]

I have received a call from my local dealership this afternoon saying that my car needs a new torque converter (the seal had failed). I ask if this would be covered by the warranty, only to be told that I was one day outside the expiry date (15 hours to be precise). The service manager then spent the day phoning all relevent VW departments to try to resolve this, after speaking to everyone, including VW Germany, customer service in the UK have agreed to pay 90%, this leaves me with a ?300 bill. Tomorrow I will be writing several letters to various VW departments to express my disgust in not fully covering this breakdown with a vehicle only 15 hours outside the warranty period. :angry2: :angry2:

 

[Mark II]

I have received a call from my local dealership this afternoon saying that my car needs a new torque converter (the seal had failed). I ask if this would be covered by the warranty, only to be told that I was one day outside the expiry date (15 hours to be precise). The service manager then spent the day phoning all relevent VW departments to try to resolve this, after speaking to everyone, including VW Germany, customer service in the UK have agreed to pay 90%, this leaves me with a ?300 bill. Tomorrow I will be writing several letters to various VW departments to express my disgust in not fully covering this breakdown with a vehicle only 15 hours outside the warranty period. :angry2: :angry2:

I agree

not a very acceptable outcome, especially as it would appear from the comments made by your dealership that other cars had suffered similar problems - suggesting a known fault/poss mfr defect.

You don't tend to get many autobox related failures these days - what mileage has your car covered?

 

[chrisbin]

:badbad: :badbad: :badbad:

 

[Monty]

I agree

not a very acceptable outcome, especially as it would appear from the comments made by your dealership that other cars had suffered similar problems - suggesting a known fault/poss mfr defect.

You don't tend to get many autobox related failures these days - what mileage has your car covered?

My car has covered 31K, has been fully serviced and no hard off-road use. I must add that so far the dealership (Vindis Cambridge) have been very helpful, and are also shocked by the rejection for the warranty claim.

 

[Mark II]

My car has covered 31K, has been fully serviced and no hard off-road use. I must add that so far the dealership (Vindis Cambridge) have been very helpful, and are also shocked by the rejection for the warranty claim.

Hi Monty,

Glad to hear your dealer is trying to help but under the circumstances I think the 'company' response from VW is very poor.

Modern autobox's are 'sealed for life' units and this in of itself implies that servicing of the box is not required in order to maintain satisfactory operation during the anticipated life of the vehicle - presumably VW are not trying to claim that 31k miles is the anticipated life of the vehicle/part!!??

31k is nothing for a modern car and as someone with auto engineering qualifications I have to say IMO there is no justifiable reason why an autobox oil seal should fail at such a low mileage UNLESS the part was faulty from mfr - in which case you should (again IMO) bear no part of the cost and VW should do the right thing and cough up for the full amount. The fact that the part on your car failed 15hrs after the expiry of your warranty is NOT your fault.

I believe Paul Willis is Head of VW UK (unless someone knows different) - perhaps you should drop him a line and politely ask if he can arrange a more acceptable outcome for you - it's worth a shot.

Hope it can be sorted satisfactorily and VW choose to repay your custom by demonstrating a more responsible attitude.

Mark

 

[Monty]

Hi Monty,

Glad to hear your dealer is trying to help but under the circumstances I think the 'company' response from VW is very poor.

Modern autobox's are 'sealed for life' units and this in of itself implies that servicing of the box is not required in order to maintain satisfactory operation during the anticipated life of the vehicle - presumably VW are not trying to claim that 31k miles is the anticipated life of the vehicle/part!!??

31k is nothing for a modern car and as someone with auto engineering qualifications I have to say IMO there is no justifiable reason why an autobox oil seal should fail at such a low mileage UNLESS the part was faulty from mfr - in which case you should (again IMO) bear no part of the cost and VW should do the right thing and cough up for the full amount. The fact that the part on your car failed 15hrs after the expiry of your warranty is NOT your fault.

I believe Paul Willis is Head of VW UK (unless someone knows different) - perhaps you should drop him a line and politely ask if he can arrange a more acceptable outcome for you - it's worth a shot.

Hope it can be sorted satisfactorily and VW choose to repay your custom by demonstrating a more responsible attitude.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your feedback on this issue, and for a name at VW UK, I will certainly persue this lack of responsibility from VW and post what response I receive.

Thanks,
Monty

 

[pilgrim]

I have written to Paul Willis and the replies are less than helpful I wish you luck. The generic replies are not written with any knowledge other than avoiding the real issues by some acolyte.

 

[Scottie]

I reckon your dealer has done good @ 90% which is not to bad must be a expensive part for 10% to = ?300 afterall legally your waranty had expired maybe by only 15 hours but in the eyes of the law it had expired and you just know that is going to be the VW UK line.

 

[Monty]

I reckon your dealer has done good @ 90% which is not to bad must be a expensive part for 10% to = ?300 afterall legally your waranty had expired maybe by only 15 hours but in the eyes of the law it had expired and you just know that is going to be the VW UK line.

Hi I've had a call from local dealer this morning. When they were assembling the gearbox back together, they noticed a problem with a bearing. It turns out that this part is not replaceable, and I now need a new gearbox, at the bargin price of ?2616.00. VW Germany have agreed to pay 50%, leaving me with a bill for ?1308.00 plus the original ?300.00. I'm rapidly losing confidence in the build quality of ths car.

 

[Mark II]

Hi I've had a call from local dealer this morning. When they were assembling the gearbox back together, they noticed a problem with a bearing. It turns out that this part is not replaceable, and I now need a new gearbox, at the bargin price of ?2616.00. VW Germany have agreed to pay 50%, leaving me with a bill for ?1308.00 plus the original ?300.00. I'm rapidly losing confidence in the build quality of ths car.

Monty, I'm very sorry to hear that as I had hoped VW would sort things out for you.

Whilst I agree with Scottie that 'to the letter of the law' your warranty had expired, there is such a thing as good customer relations and I really think VW should have done the right thing, particularly as there is such a small mileage on your vehicle and a major component has failed so early in the cars life.

As I said before, auto-box failures are rare these days. I would ask the dealer whether the problem with the bearing was as a result of the oil seal problem OR the cause of the problem. I would surmise that a part that cannot be replaced implies there is no need to service it during the working life of auto-box and so for the part to fail at 31k implies mfr fault, which suggests the car was supplied with a fault from day-one.

If it were me, I would consider threatening an independent engineers report, but as a back-up it might be interesting to get some prices on used auto-boxes.

Good luck!!

Mark II.

 

[Monty]

Monty, I'm very sorry to hear that as I had hoped VW would sort things out for you.

Whilst I agree with Scottie that 'to the letter of the law' your warranty had expired, there is such a thing as good customer relations and I really think VW should have done the right thing, particularly as there is such a small mileage on your vehicle and a major component has failed so early in the cars life.

As I said before, auto-box failures are rare these days. I would ask the dealer whether the problem with the bearing was as a result of the oil seal problem OR the cause of the problem. I would surmise that a part that cannot be replaced implies there is no need to service it during the working life of auto-box and so for the part to fail at 31k implies mfr fault, which suggests the car was supplied with a fault from day-one.

If it were me, I would consider threatening an independent engineers report, but as a back-up it might be interesting to get some prices on used auto-boxes.

Good luck!!

Mark II.

Have got my Treg back today (all fixed I hope), seems to be running fine. It's taken over 3 weeks to get it sorted, but my local dealership have been good in negotiating with VW over warranty costs. I'm now embarking on my onslaught to recover the cost of my part of the repair bill. I'll report back with any progress.

Monty

 

[Mark II]

Have got my Treg back today (all fixed I hope), seems to be running fine. It's taken over 3 weeks to get it sorted, but my local dealership have been good in negotiating with VW over warranty costs. I'm now embarking on my onslaught to recover the cost of my part of the repair bill. I'll report back with any progress.

Monty

Hi Monty,

Good to hear - best of British in your quest.