[recshenoy]

WOW, my friend told similar engine replacement stories for his Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI yesterday (2008 August model). I am currently gathering some basic info. I wrote some details and sent to owner to check what i have written is correct. Once he confirms let me post here.

Even he has been asked by TAFE (Mangalore showroom) to replace engine at cost of 4-5L+. And they are asking him to pay 4-5 lakhs. So i thought let me check team bhp for similar stories if any and straightaway find this latest thread. I guess since we have another case in here, I will try to gather more details soon so that we can jointly find solution for the problems we are facing. May be approaching the VW/Skoda headquarters if it doesn't get fixed locally or even going to local media/ TV-9 news etc. Though i don’t have detailed information, i bet there is something fishy about Skoda asking for engine replacement thanks to all skoda horror stories i have read till date. So instead of neutral stance, i am kind of inclined to judge that Skoda is trying to milk customer.

OT: i remember one of uncles friend telling about this incident. 2 weeks back when talking casually he told that "My daughter bought Ford Fiesta i wanted her to buy Skoda Laura " then i said " Skoda is expensive to maintain though" by then he said "oh yeah i recall now. My friend had new skoda laura stalled on the way to Raichur (from Bangalore). Skoda guys promptly towed vehicle to Bangalore workshop (don’t have name of dealership) and promptly billed him 60K (12K towing charges)" The owner was rich and he told showroom guys "okay i will pay you 60K now. But i am going to Majestic from here, call TV-9, Suvarana news channels, narrate this story to them and burn this car" Next moment the bill came down to 3,000 rupees. So when i typed TV-9 above recalled this incident.

[ajmat]

Rs 6 Lakhs for an entire engine. You only need to replace the block, crankshaft and piston rods at the most. A lot of the ancilliary parts can be used

[ajmat]

One small question - whay change engien when the ABS light comes on ?

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by ajmat

One small question - why change engine when the ABS light comes on ?

a friend owning Laura at almost similar odo reading faced issues with dynamic balancing of the flywheel, and eventually changed it. he being strongly technical and with deep diligence he could get the job done at a very smart value

now coming to Kishore's case

Kishore said ""Technically the vehicle did not have any problem except the Check ABS light when it was given for service""

is ABS not an external box and has connection with the wheels rather than the engine?

now for the sake of discussion, even if the ABS fails, there should not by any impact to any other functioning of the car

and, how the heck did the technician touch the engine for a problem relating to ABS malfunction, sixth sense??

moreover, had there been play in the crankshaft, it would had made much audible noise at the lower rpm, and considering this is cited as a manufacturing defect, why did the symptoms not alert everyone for all through 90000 kilometers

this entire episode fails my logic, unless my fundamentals are warped!!

now lets consider that this problem is real, and needs to be resolved, and there is a play between the shaft and the bearing, (and not bearing and the case)

check with the metallurgy engineers for possibly getting a bush made of high grade steel or better material to resolve the gap issue

now oil pump performing at 40% efficiency why did the oil pressure error not throw up?

damaged timing related parts - please do strong diligence

I see so many disconnects in this entire episode

if you have all the documentary evidence, you can consider going to the consumer forum to sue the guys for fraud

[aaggoswami]

I am not sure whether this is true or not, but IMO, they are ripping you off. Rs. 6 lakh for an engine is not likely, not even Rs. 3 lakh. Jaggu is right, probably the entire bill of replacing the engine including the labor cost is Rs. 3 lakh which they are now charging to you.

If at the time of going to service the car's was not showing any problems like knocking, excessive noise, loss of power, etc. there is no reason for the engine being opened. This is wrong in the first place. From what you have posted, there was no need to open the engine at all.

Any horizontal play, like the one you have mentioned, in the crankshaft would lead to cylinder damage and worn out engine. And if the engine is worn out, it would give many symptoms, like loss of power, lower FE, higher smoke, vibration, etc.
You have not reported anything like this, and mostly your engine was OK, but this might be another bad A.S & S. Skoda story in the making.

[kapursaket]

Bhpians this appears to be one of the Dealer concoted stories with the intent of masking some workshop blunder. I have following facts from Automobile engine assembly experience
1)Crankshaft is held in the Cylinder Block Housing with Flywheel on one end.
2)Crankshaft has connecting rods mounted and has to follow a strict regime of tolerance.
3)Most Automobile Manufacturers have a Color coded system of fitment of crank shaft with the corresponding Cylinder Block housing and bearings.
4)Any violation of this strict code adherence is detected by the QC procedures and the engine stands rejected and may be adviced rework through reassembly.
5)Theory of design flaw is unaccepted because 1.4TDI is a renowned SKODA engine and is used worldwide.
6)Wrong assembly will result in engine seizure owing to overheating or will emanate a clatter which could deaf your ears.

In light of above please take in writing from the Dealer and SKODA that it is a Mfg. defect for which you are being penalized 50%. This will be enough to get compensation through counsumer court of this country. I suggest get the car repaired from them and then file a suite of deficiency of service.

[mmmjgm]

Get an independent Garage estimate, possibly it will be cheaper to have it repaired outside at 1/5th the cost.

Nevertheless take an independent informed estimate.

[kpzen]

Kishore C
So, what was the final outcome ?
Its been 3 months, hope you found a way out of this Skoda mess.

[pranavt]

The most probable cause is that some idiot mechanic forgot to refill engine oil after draining, or did not put the drain bolt on and cranked the engine, leading to chewed up bearings and a destroyed crank.

Secondly, have the Skoda engineers heard of thrust bearings? The point of those is to resist crank-walk, or as you put it, allowing the crank to move sideways.

[tacho9000]

Hello KishoreC it has been a long time since you have given any updates. Please do update as to whether you've been able to get a solution to this problem or have you got the car repaired from outside or have gone onto consumer court for this negligency of service by TAFE and Skoda.


Cheers.

[s_pphilip]

Hi, I know I am posting to a long dead thread, but since last week I am facing a similar problem, the car is 2008 Fabia 1.4 PD Diesel, its has behaved well all the while its been with me and I love to drive it when ever possible, last week on our regular weekend long drive, while climbing the Amboli Ghat, MH (from Goa) the amber/yellow ABS light in the instrument cluster lit up and I immediately pulled over, switched off, checked the owners manual, it advised I could cautiously continue with the drive and the problem should be attended by a specialist workshop.

Okay let me give some background here, the Fabia's battery was weak and I kept delaying on a situation where I should have bought the battery a week back (yeah I know, I am sorry and I feel like kicking myself, I am carrying a lot a regret and guilt hence) and every time I started the car it would stutter, cough and come to life, sometimes needing couple of attempts, that apart the car is in fine mechanical tune at least to my understanding, the car has about 2k kms to go for the next service at 85k kms and I kept procrastinating as I believed I could live this way till the upcoming service next month without much adverse effect, for me, the car started despite the couple of attempts and it ran fine thereafter, I was a little tight on cash and did not allot the needed importance to this (I could have borrowed money), also I spoke to the mechanic and he said that everything is fine as long as the car is running fine, he didn't warn me about any other danger apart from getting stranded for not starting.
I even once got a neighborhood battery repair guy to come and jump start the car as the car would not crank after it was in the parking for a month and after running a bit it continued starting.

Every time it was started, while the engine cranked all the lights on the instrument cluster would go blank momentarily as if all the power in the battery went to start the car and after starting only the parking brake light would remain as normal. The battery is struggling since March 2014 and it kept getting bad, I know I was flogging a dying horse for which I need to be shot dead, I foolishly expected Skoda to behave like a Maruti knowing fully well that Skoda battery dependency is far more, this is a sunroof car and the sunroof would open only after a few kms of driving. I love my cars but its just that there were thousand other things I would end up doing till EOD and postpone for a later day, also I use the Skoda only about twice a week.

So that day, the car started after the usual stutter and drove well about 60 kms till we climbed the entire hill when this light suddenly came up.
I addressed this battery problem and changed the battery in a couple of days to similar spec (Din 74) Amaron, the earlier one was Exide.
Now this ABS light keeps popping up every now and then randomly, sometimes it stays on continuously and other times it comes and goes and comes back again suddenly.

The service person hooked it to the computer and it shows no error code, baffling me & him, he asked me to drive and said maybe it will go by itself which hasn't happened, I drove 100+ kms that day hoping the indicator would somewhere go off, took it back and he says since it does not throw any code he can't do anything about it. He checked the fuse, connectors and everything seems to be in place as required, I left the car in the workshop and requested him to some how help me with this. I take my cars to an independent Bosch multi-car workshop and am comfortable with his workmanship compared to the authorized guys. I tried hard braking and a low tread tyre locks up so ABS is not working.

I know there are lots on Team BHP who rival the best as far as trouble shooting is concerned hence this is my next step, Can some one who has a related experienced or knows what this can be about tell me what should the next steps be to get the car back in shape, also please let me know what else could I have damaged due to my stupid way of responding to an earlier simple problem.

Please help me here. Thanks.

[s_pphilip]

I am surprised nobody provided any answers or may be noticed my post but I have an update to share -
I took the car finally to the ASC after 3 days at the Bosch center, I stood besides the car expecting a lengthy troubleshooting process, the SA plugged the laptop to scan and 'lo and behold' it threw up an error, something about a right rear wheel sensor being weak, the SA advised this is a common problem and they will change both the rear sensors as the weak one affects the other.
I asked him whether this is because of the earlier weak battery and he said they are unrelated and this sensor fails over some time because of some weak flux or something.
I was relieved for getting an immediate answer to my worry bothering me over the past 3 days but it was short lived.
The cost of replacing both sensors at 4k each is 4k + 4K + ASC charges, which is quite steep for a sensor, irrespective I have little option and would like to drive a car which is 'perfectly perfect' hence have ordered the same.
I asked the Bosch center why this error did not show up on his laptop and he mentioned that his software is not updated as it is a paid update and he does not attend a lot of Skoda/VW cars. Though in the same breath let me add I am quite comfortable with his workmanship.
I spoke to a vendor for open market original spares for Skoda and he too mentioned that this is a common issue.
For now the car is in covered parking as currently have the liberty of not being totally dependent on the Skoda for daily work, the trustworthy City does this fine thankfully also because there is no difference in the fuel prices in Goa.
On a related note another major issue I 'SHOCKINGLY' realized, the Fabia was parked under the open skies a couple of nights and on opening to shuffle it in the parking, I FROZE. On the floor was a quarter bucket of water, I physically poured it out but could not figure how it entered the car.
Only explanation that I read somewhere on T-BHP is the sunroof drain pipes could have choked or cut, is there some way I can check this myself, if so any users who could advice on a D-I-Y process. Hope to get some answers.
I hope the ASC can sort this out as it defeats the purpose of having an otherwise excellent ride and I will have to give the Fabia an extended monsoon vacation, will be taking the car soon for the pending service as there are few other issues like central locking, headlights etc that needs attention.
This car is like a gf that you enjoy being with, but who needs constant attention. :-)

[fiestarry]

Well I guess it is my turn now ! My Fabia 1.4 tdi has started displaying the ABS light now. Have driven it about 100 km now in three trips totally but the light stays on.
What are my options besides the Skoda SC ?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by fiestarry

Well I guess it is my turn now ! My Fabia 1.4 tdi has started displaying the ABS light now. Have driven it about 100 km now in three trips totally but the light stays on.
What are my options besides the Skoda SC ?

You location says: Bangalore.

Wouldn't you not be having a competent FNG in your city? Do look to the "Directory thread" to get the address for an FNG. Do try Bosch service centres!

Going to Skoda ASC is of no use unless the car is under warranty.

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Originally Posted by fiestarry

Well I guess it is my turn now ! My Fabia 1.4 tdi has started displaying the ABS light now. Have driven it about 100 km now in three trips totally but the light stays on.
What are my options besides the Skoda SC ?

1. Have it connected to the scan to check which wheel's ABS has a problem.

2. As a first measure, have them remove and clean the sensor - this works most of the time.

3. If it doesn't you will have to replace that wheel's ABS sensor.

4. The scan, removal, cleaning and refitting of the sensor should take a max of 30 minutes.