A VW Saga

neilo40 · 2004-11-05T08:37:33+00:00

Hello,I bought a new 1600 VW Golf SE in the summer of 2001 from a main dealerin Glasgow. After approx 16000 miles, on the M74 on the way to mywedding, the engine decided to pack up - completely. The error messagewas "Emission workshop" and the yellow engine light came on.The car was duly towed to Dumfries, where the diagnosis was thatconstant misfiring had eventually caused the number 1 piston todeteriorate to the point of failure. At the speed I was travelling(motorway speeds), the damage was devastating. The main dealer therereplaced the short block while we were away on honeymoon.Unfortunately when they replaced the unit, they did not set the enginemounting gaps correctly and sliced into a number of cooling systemhoses.About half a dozen trips to my local dealer in Glasgow and the problemswere sorted. Or was it? Just this morning on my way to work, the same"Emissions workshop" error message and the yellow engine light cameon. The car felt like it was running on three cylinders and I managedto park the car up close to the train station. I guess the lower speedmeant that the engine didn't do itself as much damage as before.It has been more than a year since the first engine replacement, andmore than three years since I bought the car. Where do I stand? Do Ihave any comeback against VW? I feel that there was somethingobviously wrong with the car when it left the factory - and obviouslythe repair done after the first breakdown did not solve the problem.This was the first car I had bought new, and I went for a VW because Iintended to keep it for a long time. Certainly longer than threeyears!Best regardsNeil