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If anyone else has a conrod problem with a BXE engine, please, please, please can they report and complain to the following: VOSA, SEAT/VW/Skoda/AUDI as appropriate and then also contact Watchdog. VOSA took my complaint seriously, but unfortunately there have been no other reports to them of such a failure and my prints out from websites such as this are “unsolicited” and therefore they are unable to take them into consideration. Thank you.
This is my story:
I am the owner of a SEAT Toledo and on 1 st July, it broke down whilst driving on my local bypass. The AA recovery service diagnosed a conrod through the engine block and towed it to a local AA approved service repair centre.
Whilst talking to family and colleagues (mainly Engineers) about this unfortunate incident, they have been very shocked and surprised that a car which is only 4 years old should have such a problem. I am upset that this has happened being as I bought the car last year for nearly £7K, thinking that I was buying a quality car that I would be able to use for my commute to work. The car has FSH up to the purchase date and has since been regularly serviced by my father, who is a qualified engineering fitter. My father has been maintaining vehicles all of his professional working life and has spent the last 35 years as the Workshop Manager for XXX, maintaining a fleet of HGV’s. All I’m trying to point out by that background information is that my car hasn’t been serviced by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing and just “tinkers” with vehicles in their spare time! I’m sure that you can appreciate that when you have a professional in the family, it doesn’t make sense to continue having my car serviced by an expensive main dealer.
I had assumed that maybe this incident, whilst unfortunate, was perhaps “one of these things”, but on researching the internet, I understand that this is a common fault with this type of engine. Please find attached a significant quantity of forum reports from others who have experienced the same problem. Some have been fortunate enough to have the manufacturer give a “goodwill” payment; others have not.
Whilst I understand that the SEAT warranty is only 3 years and I am now out of that period, I believe that this fault causes the car to be “unfit for purpose “under the definition of the Sale of Goods Act. I understand that owning a car which is 4 years old carries a risk, but I believe that SEAT should be acknowledging this as a defect in their manufacturing and should be resolving the issue for me. You will understand that I find this financially devastating.
The customer service I have received from both the SEAT Head Office and the SEAT dealership has been superb – I cannot fault either for politeness, helpfulness and responsiveness, however it is the decision made by SEAT Head Office to not resolve this issue for me at their cost which I am aggrieved about. They had agreed to a “goodwill gesture” of 50% if the dealership would match this. The dealership wouldn’t and to be honest I don’t blame them; I didn’t purchase the car from them in the first place (purchased from XXX), therefore it is not really their concern. As the dealership wouldn’t offer a goodwill payment, SEAT Head Office will also not offer me anything. Incidentally XXX aren't interested in helping me either as I purchased the car 15 months ago.
The SEAT dealership stripped down the engine and reported the following:Carried out investigation into engine damage. unable to start vehicle to lack of oil within engine. Carried out gff and checked for any relevant TPI's all ok. Carried out visual check, found hole in engine to oil cooler, new engine required. Stripped engine and found hardly any oil left in the engine this has caused the conrod to go through the engine.
The above simply isn’t true. Having previously owned a car which drank oil, I religiously check the oil level in my car - once a fortnight. I had checked the oil on 28th May before making a trip to Great Yarmouth (4.5 hr drive) and again on the 1st June before leaving for Birmingham airport as part of my normal holiday routine. (1 hour drive) It was parked at Birmingham airport for a fortnight, so I did not check it again before the engine seized - in the year I've owned the car, it's never been heavy on oil-infact I really can't remember if I've even had to top it up. I don't believe that my car was suffering an oil loss for two reasons - the first being that we've just had (in June 2012) a new block paved driveway built and if the car was leaking oil, I would have been well aware and upset about it. I can also categorically confirm that no oil warning light came on (even though I don't rely on this to tell me that I need to top up the oil).
The engine seized whilst driving down the bypass in XXX and managed to get it into "Homebase" car park so it was safely out of the way (approx 1/4 mile). My dad told me off for this, but the AA man said that I couldn't have done anymore damage by driving it, as the engine was as bad as it gets anyway. Both the car and the road were covered in oil (you can still see the trail of oil stain on the road now). So it's no wonder that there is NOW hardly only oil left. But that's the reason -the conrod threw causing the hole which caused the oil leak. Not that there was no oil which caused the conrod to throw.
In addition to the various information I’ve found regarding others having the same problem with this engine code – BXE, I’ve also enclosed photographic evidence that there is no sign on the engine bearings of the engine seizing. If the engine had of seized due to lack of oil there would be scoring/damage to the bearings.
A catastrophic engine failure such as this is dangerous. Luckily we were driving on a relatively quiet piece of road, albeit with my two young children (aged 1 and 2) in the back seat. If I have been driving down the motorway when this occurred, this could have led to a fatal accident.
In summary, I believe that there is a manufacturing defect with the conrods on engine code BXE and I believe that the financial cost of putting this right should be met by SEAT. I also believe that from a safety perspective a recall on these engines should be considered.
I have just had the car repaired at my own cost (£2,400) by purchasing an engine from a salvaged car and it's been fitted by SEAT. I've asked them to save me the conrods out of my old engine incase there is any need for me to get them independently tested.
I’ve since parted company with the car as I need a safe car to drive – I cannot take the risk of owning a dangerous car, but I still aggrieved at the injustice.
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