Touran Running Rough

[Cranley Bob]

My TDi 170ps Touran (5k miles from new) runs very smoothly except occasionally after a short run and stop. On re-starting the engine sounds like a bag of old nails, fuel consumption increases by 3-4mpg and, after a few miles of normal running, the exhaust smells hot enough to have done a couple of laps of Silverstone. Stop the engine and re-start and its sewing machine qualities are restored. It's been back to the dealer and they claim that there is no fault showing on the ECU. Any offers please?

[onzarob]

I would stick with the dealer and hassel them, Just because there is no fault logged doesn't mean all is well. As you know from driving the car.

[snowballpals]

Last week, my daughter had to take her Touran 2.0 litre TDI (approx. 12 months old) into the VW dealership for a new cylinderhead. This followed their discovering that she was losing coolant.

Two days ago, when I went to her home, she asked me if I would take the car out to see what I thought (I also own a Touran).

With the accelerator flat to the floor, the maximum speed that I could achieve was 60 mph, and slower lower down the gears. The max. rpm seemed to be around 2,000. On tick over, it sounded like marbles being shaken in a box, and there was a sound like shovelled glass as it was switched off.

She contacted the dealership and told them, and I also spoke to them, describing the symptoms. They would not collect the vehicle, but advised it be recovered to them.

Her recovery service told her (incorrectly) that she was not covered from her home address. She therefore had to drive the vehicle to the dealership, but broke down on the way. The vehicle was emmitting severe clouds of black smoke prior to final failure, so she called for recovery to the garage. The recovery engineer told her that the turbocharger had failed, and sucked the oil out of the engine.

The vehicle is now at the dealership and, amongst other things, it must have a new exhaust system fitted. Prior to the new head being fitted, the vehicle was running fine, with the loss of coolant being the only indication that something may be wrong.

Did the dealership cause the second, more serious, problem?

[boomboomer]

"Did the dealership cause the second, more serious, problem?"

You'll never know now, if you'd obtained an independent inspection of the car before the dealer stripped it down then it's possible the cause of the turbo failure could have been found - it might have been a simple oil feed left unconnected.

Your only hope now is the sympathy of the dealer to keep the repair costs down. Driving any car making those kinds of mechanical noises is going to lead to a very large bill.

[Cranley Bob]

If the Touran is only 12 months old it may be worth pursuing a warranty claim, bearing in mind it is supposed to have 3 year/60k cover.

Cranley Bob

[Jo308]

There are several reports of this type of problem with the 170 engine on the Audi sport forum.

[Jo308]

And there was an article in the Audi Driver magazine which suggests fuel quality as the cause

at this link

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/h5djr/elsawin/Diesel%20efficiency.jpg

[onzarob]

That made an interesting read, good stuff.

[cbrpaul]

i hope they dont say
" sorry air but you drove it when we told you not too , hence the damage is bad , and we not paying up "