Another one gone on a '10 plate
Thought id put a note in here as I cant find any other posts on this topic for leons. Quite a few on the skoda, audi and vw forums, maybe theres less seats on the road? Interested to see how common an issue this is, although no idea
how to find out!
So my dearest 10 plate Leon fr 2.0tfsi started getting a rattling sound on start, didnt think much of it as the engine has been a little noisy on startup since i bought it second hand from seat in early 2013.
Had a full dealer service around a month ago, mileage around 48k
Drove over to Manchester from Leeds on Saturday night, purring nicely and no problems at all.
Attempted to start on Sunday and it sounded like it almost started, then a little like someone emptied a bag of spanners in the engine bay. Called the aa, they immediately classified the situation as a recovery and took the car to my local seat dealer in Leeds.
Spoke to the dealer on monday, they asked for authorisation to perform an hours labour (at 99 pounds...) so they could analyse the fault. That evening, the dealer says that they need an additional 3 hours to strip the head as they still cant find the fault.
The following afternoon, I called the dealer to check on progress and they confirm that the timing chain has slipped but they dont know why, and in order to present a case to seat uk, they need a further 5 hours labour to strip the engine down.
Asked a few questions around what guarantees I had if they did further analysis, and what further information was required if they had already found the fault. I was told that there were no guarantees, and seat would only look into this if they had full details of the incident including the damage.
Asked the dealer to hold fire while i spoke to seat uk directly, and started a case via the main seat uk switchboard. Waited a couple of days here while seat uk apparently had problems getting hold of the dealer, I'll say no more on that apart from I got the feeling that jct600 seat and seat uk dont like to talk much.
Called seat uk again, and im told that the dealer should have called me to request authorisation for further analysis, we spoke at length around what deatails the dealer had given (no mention of timing chain slip at all) and how useful this information is when the fault has already been found. We ended up coming to an agreement that if i could find the type of oil used in the service 2 years previous (non seat dealer, they couldnt fit me in) and speak to the dealer to confirm the fault, she would present the case and try to make a goodwill gesture. I was also told that since any gesture was goodwill, and based on loyalty to the seat brand, it was unlikely that id get anything, but if i did, it would be around 20%.
Gutted, one day ive got a nice car worth about 8k, next day ive got a large bill and a liability.
Im off to speak to cab, and ill try emailling the senior chap from seat once ive got a cohesive set of correspondance, if anyone has any further guidance on this one id be most appreciative.
Jim