Rattely engine finally diagnosed.....not good news

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Gates

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Well after a while of messing about we have finally had our rattle in our engine on our tdi170 diagnosed. Not good news either im afraid, it turns out that one of our main bearings on the crankshaft had failed and the bearing cap had cracked in half :aggressive: so a new bottom end is needed.

To say im peed off is a bit of an understatement really i bought the audi thinking i was buying into a decent bulletproof high end car obviously not, now i know my car has done a few miles (130k) but its been fully serviced with audi all its life and a bearing cap should not break in half!!! Really wish id gone with my gut and bought the bmw i wanted now :(

Just what i need before xmas, and i have no idea how the hell we're going to afford a new block at this time of the year.
 
Sorry to hear your news, there seems to be so many problembs with the 2.0 TDI's especially the 170's Engines.

Is there no way you could consider thrashing this out with Audi??

Hope you get it sorted not good to hear whats happened to your motor.
 
Admittedly this shouldn't have happened, but don't let this put you off Audis all together. When you buy a high mile-age premium car you have to accept that IF something major goes wrong with it (and this happens with all manufacturers) it will cost more to get it repaired.

Yes you could have bought an Astra, and if the same fault occured it might cost you a third as much to get it repaired, but you'd be driving an astra (no offense to astra drivers out there, my mum has one, great cars). German engineering is brilliant, but no matter not good the design and maintenance there will always be SOME problems which occur in SOME cars. You could have bought a BMW and had the same thing happen...

Hope you managed to get it repaired without too much hastle. It might be worth raising it with Audi, but given the high mileage I wouldn't get your hopes up about them contributing towards your costs. Having said that it's worth a shot!
 
There's no guarantee a BMW would be any better. Here are two issues that spring to mind:

The swirl flaps are a poor design, they are prone to failure. When the swirl flap breaks, the debris falls into the engine, either sticking in the valve port and jamming it open, causing the piston to collide with the valve, or falls into the cylinder itself causing the piston and head to become damaged.
Click to expand...
What are BMW swirl flaps

BBC News - BMW owners hit by hi-tech theft
 
Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it (no pun intended), sorry to hear it's a biggie though, particularly at this time of year. I would also say Audi are worth a shot, dealers up here seem to be more interested in helping that they used to be (Paintwork warranties are my only experience), maybe a positive for ordinary people in these hard times. Otherwise I would try to find a good specialist and discuss the options, are you keeping the car/want to make sure it is fixed properly or are you just wanting rid/ maybe do as cheap as poss? that kind of thing. My Wife has a 170, we've not had it that long but it is a very nice car to own and plenty power for a diesel. Could yours have had some over exuberant test drivers, in between owners in the past maybe? Thinking about some of the track car threads on here, I am sure there was a botom end failure with pictuires on one where you could clearly see one bearing had been overheating and had then failed. If all else fails...Dear Santa, DO you happen to had any TDI 170s?
Cheers hope you get sorted out without too much wallet pain.
 
100Ninjas said:
How much would a bottom end cost do you think?
Click to expand...

The specialist who has the car has priced up bottom end from audi at around £2.5k

Vorshprungdork said:
Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it (no pun intended), sorry to hear it's a biggie though, particularly at this time of year. I would also say Audi are worth a shot, dealers up here seem to be more interested in helping that they used to be (Paintwork warranties are my only experience), maybe a positive for ordinary people in these hard times. Otherwise I would try to find a good specialist and discuss the options, are you keeping the car/want to make sure it is fixed properly or are you just wanting rid/ maybe do as cheap as poss? that kind of thing. My Wife has a 170, we've not had it that long but it is a very nice car to own and plenty power for a diesel. Could yours have had some over exuberant test drivers, in between owners in the past maybe? Thinking about some of the track car threads on here, I am sure there was a botom end failure with pictuires on one where you could clearly see one bearing had been overheating and had then failed. If all else fails...Dear Santa, DO you happen to had any TDI 170s?
Cheers hope you get sorted out without too much wallet pain.
Click to expand...

We've been onto audi and they have said if we get the specialist to put the car back together, get it taken down to them and give them £890 to dismantle the engine to diagnose the fault then they may help pay towards another engine but wont give us the £890 diagnostic fee back. Seems a bit odd seen as the car is already in bits and will take them approx 10mins to see whats up with it if we trailer it down as it is, but they wont let us do that!

jjmurphy21187 said:
Admittedly this shouldn't have happened, but don't let this put you off Audis all together. When you buy a high mile-age premium car you have to accept that IF something major goes wrong with it (and this happens with all manufacturers) it will cost more to get it repaired.

Yes you could have bought an Astra, and if the same fault occured it might cost you a third as much to get it repaired, but you'd be driving an astra (no offense to astra drivers out there, my mum has one, great cars). German engineering is brilliant, but no matter not good the design and maintenance there will always be SOME problems which occur in SOME cars. You could have bought a BMW and had the same thing happen...

Hope you managed to get it repaired without too much hastle. It might be worth raising it with Audi, but given the high mileage I wouldn't get your hopes up about them contributing towards your costs. Having said that it's worth a shot!
Click to expand...

V6 Quatt said:
Sorry to hear your news, there seems to be so many problembs with the 2.0 TDI's especially the 170's Engines.

Is there no way you could consider thrashing this out with Audi??

Hope you get it sorted not good to hear whats happened to your motor.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, i know what you mean about the bmw's and the mileage of our car but tbh the mechanic who now works at the specialist we're using used to be audi lincolns head mechanic and even he said the bearing cap should never break like it has done. I'll just have to see what he comes back with as a solution.
 
Bad luck there mate.As said bmw or anyother make are just as prone to any sort of problem as the audis.

Noticed this on ebay. 271103518135- item number.

Its the complete 170 engine. Also try a few being broken for spares. Could cost you atleast half what audi have quoted.

Good luck.
 
Really sorry to hear your news....that is awful news!...Am sorry, but for a diesel I don't think 130k miles is exactly what you would term " high mileage"...not for a diesel....maybe am getting old...but I would expect in a perfect world to get up to 200k without an issue from a diesel! I would certainly be inclined to be make a fuss about this. Full Audi service history? Pffffffff...that just shouldn't happen no consolation I know, but I owned a gm/opel diesel150bhp 1.9cdti car from new....and their diesel engines are complete pish....(Alfa Romeo's I think)!....Why are their so many hassles with modern diesel engines?...In the big race for improving emissions they have sacrificed reliability...that's why I went back to petrol. Hope you get a bit of luck out of all of this.

Cheers
A
 
Drive it til it pops. Can't see what you have to lose. Will be cheaper to source a second hand engine than swapping heads anyway.
 
jjmurphy21187 said:
Admittedly this shouldn't have happened, but don't let this put you off Audis all together. When you buy a high mile-age premium car you have to accept that IF something major goes wrong with it (and this happens with all manufacturers) it will cost more to get it repaired.

Yes you could have bought an Astra, and if the same fault occured it might cost you a third as much to get it repaired, but you'd be driving an astra (no offense to astra drivers out there, my mum has one, great cars). German engineering is brilliant, but no matter not good the design and maintenance there will always be SOME problems which occur in SOME cars. You could have bought a BMW and had the same thing happen...

Hope you managed to get it repaired without too much hastle. It might be worth raising it with Audi, but given the high mileage I wouldn't get your hopes up about them contributing towards your costs. Having said that it's worth a shot!
Click to expand...

I am in agreement with whats said above HOWEVER when an engine fails at 68K this is not high mileage and Audi should have recompensed their customers for footing the bill of their own design defects. Yes Audi have in the past been GREAT cars but that stopped around 2005 , the B7 2.0tdi engines are a DOG be it a 140 or 170.Sure some people have been lucky but just type "audi oil pumps" in ebay and see how many people are now selling aftermarket kits to correct Audis juvenile design.These kits would not have been produced if their wasn't a market for them.
Rant over, merry xmas to all.................
 
Just thought I'd give you an update everyone, the cars getting collected and taken to a company in Cardiff to have a fully reconditioned engine fitted and dropped back off at my house in Lincoln when done all for £1920 all in, that's recon bottom end and head and full gasket sets and service parts needed to get the car as it should be. Didn't think it was a bad price really seen as they're collecting and dropping it back off within the price.
 
That seems a fair price mate..Let us all know the result and if they are any good ..Best of luck:racer:
 
Gates said:
Just thought I'd give you an update everyone, the cars getting collected and taken to a company in Cardiff to have a fully reconditioned engine fitted and dropped back off at my house in Lincoln when done all for £1920 all in, that's recon bottom end and head and full gasket sets and service parts needed to get the car as it should be. Didn't think it was a bad price really seen as they're collecting and dropping it back off within the price.
Click to expand...

Are this company well known? Where did you find them and have you done google searches on them? Just wondering as before my audi I had a celiac 190 t sport and the bottom end let go, found a company through breakers yard.com who would supply and fit a new recon engine, pick up and deliver my car all for £1300, I though great, they picked up the car and from then I had issues. They said I'd have the car back in 4 days. 4 days passed and they phoned saying my crank needed replacing along with Conrad and valves, these weren't included in the original guote and I would have to pay another £300 for these parts, I went ahead and said ok. Another few days passed, hadn't heard from them, phoned them and they hadn't started the work on the car! Anyway to cut a very long story short I got the car back 3 weeks later, seemed ok paid nearly 2k after them saying I needed to pay for other things. Ran the car in up to 3k miles all good. 3500 miles start seeing blue smoke on start up, phoned the company, all phones dead (company had folded) tried trading standards they could do nothing for me. Anyway my pride and joy with was a 3k car now had another nackered engine and I was 2k out of pocket. Just a word of warning with reconditioned engines, make sure you fully trust the company before giving them your car.
 
Yeah there's been a change of plan as I read quite a few bad reviews about them on the net, the car is staying with my Indy garage who I trust and I've sourced a second hand engine with 70k on the clock from a crashed a4 with the same engine code as mine from volksbreakers on eBay (who I have read good reviews about) mike is too going to remove the engine, strip it and check it over for wear clean it all up and deliver it to my garage for them to fit it, I was a bit unsure about sending my car all the way to Wales without me or knowing who was actually doing the work. The engine should be with my garage by next week and they can set about getting it in. Fingers crossed I get it back for Xmas but I'm not holding out much hope :)
 
Gates said:
Yeah there's been a change of plan as I read quite a few bad reviews about them on the net, the car is staying with my Indy garage who I trust and I've sourced a second hand engine with 70k on the clock from a crashed a4 with the same engine code as mine from volksbreakers on eBay (who I have read good reviews about) mike is too going to remove the engine, strip it and check it over for wear clean it all up and deliver it to my garage for them to fit it, I was a bit unsure about sending my car all the way to Wales without me or knowing who was actually doing the work. The engine should be with my garage by next week and they can set about getting it in. Fingers crossed I get it back for Xmas but I'm not holding out much hope :)
Click to expand...

Wise choice! I would never recommend anybody getting a reconditioned engine after what I went through. a decent low mileage unit from a decent supplier would always be a better bet. My "recon" engine also started leaking oil after a month due to them using what looked like window sealant for the sump gasket!. Good luck and hope its back on the road soon :)
 
VagCabby said:
Wise choice! I would never recommend anybody getting a reconditioned engine after what I went through. a decent low mileage unit from a decent supplier would always be a better bet. My "recon" engine also started leaking oil after a month due to them using what looked like window sealant for the sump gasket!. Good luck and hope its back on the road soon :)
Click to expand...

VagCabbys advice is sound and having read this thread I am pleased you have made the choice you have. Good luck.

Paul 7
 
Paul B7 said:
VagCabbys advice is sound and having read this thread I am pleased you have made the choice you have. Good luck.

Paul 7
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul, had a message from Mike with the engine earlier tonight and he's had some cancelations at work so should be able to get my engine checked over and to me for Friday, so fingers crossed it should be back on the road next week :)
 
The subject of the dreaded 2.0tdi oil pump balance shaft failures is dealt with in great detail in the November issue of Audi Driver.
If you drive a 2005-2007/8 2.0 tdi powered B7 model and think you will be immune to this problem go read this article and think again .............................
 
Paul B7 said:
The subject of the dreaded 2.0tdi oil pump balance shaft failures is dealt with in great detail in the November issue of Audi Driver.
If you drive a 2005-2007/8 2.0 tdi powered B7 model and think you will be immune to this problem go read this article and think again .............................
Click to expand...

do you have a link to this article?
 
Good news everyone, my car should be back on the road by wed/thur at the latest given there are no issues fitting the new engine happy days :)
 
Glad to hear you are getting there Gates, just been reading the article posted by Scotty76 (Cheers for that) I think I am lucky because I have one of the early "ultra relaible units" (WooHoo!). It really is ridiculous and I see there is now another thread looking for people who have had issues to add their details to work towards a recall.
HELLO AUDI, You should have done this in the first place!
 
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