Am I just unlucky?

[SamSara]

I bought my 2017 (possibly 2016 registered 17)T6 Ocean in pandemic 2020 when it had been stationary for a while and not driven much before that by the look of things. Apart from having to return to Breeze to be dismantled and dried out following water ingress at the kitchen window all was good. The EGR needed replacing a couple of months out of warranty and VW contributed over half when I threw a hissy fit. I know it happens, probably due to the previous owners not driving much. I do drive on local and long weekend non local trips and to shops and sometimes work as a back up daily driver (cycle mostly). The touch screen consul pretty much was failing from the day I bought it, but I was oblivious of how it was meant to perform and got that replaced last year. I got the All In cover last September because it would be my last chance and I felt that it may be beneficial. As some of you may be aware I had loss of power followed by diagnosis of a dead turbo. It took an age for the warranty company to accept the issue was covered and now I am waiting on the part. When I collect the van are there additional questions I need to clarify about the cause of the failure beyond ‘what went wrong and why?’ Is this just bad luck and the end of my woes or have I bought a dud?

 

[Perfectos]

I bought my 2017 (possibly 2016 registered 17)T6 Ocean in pandemic 2020 when it had been stationary for a while and not driven much before that by the look of things. Apart from having to return to Breeze to be dismantled and dried out following water ingress at the kitchen window all was good. The EGR needed replacing a couple of months out of warranty and VW contributed over half when I threw a hissy fit. I know it happens, probably due to the previous owners not driving much. I do drive on local and long weekend non local trips and to shops and sometimes work as a back up daily driver (cycle mostly). The touch screen consul pretty much was failing from the day I bought it, but I was oblivious of how it was meant to perform and got that replaced last year. I got the All In cover last September because it would be my last chance and I felt that it may be beneficial. As some of you may be aware I had loss of power followed by diagnosis of a dead turbo. It took an age for the warranty company to accept the issue was covered and now I am waiting on the part. When I collect the van are there additional questions I need to clarify about the cause of the failure beyond ‘what went wrong and why?’ Is this just bad luck and the end of my woes or have I bought a dud?

Not sure what you want the forum to say ! Vehicles have problems (i have had my fair share + some )

 

[The Tall Luthier]

Sorry to hear of your troubles SamSara, rotten luck. For our part the 2021 we have has been golden. They do talk about getting a vehicle built on a Friday afternoon don’t they , it sounds like you have one of those!!!
Any road, I hope that once this latest issue is fixed that you have the rest of its life, absolutely trouble free.

Good luck.

 

[larrylamb]

I think @soulstyledevon had the same problem with his biturbo T6.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Yep had a couple of Turbo’s replaced. Bloody expensive job. Doubt I’d have another Volkswagen Bi-Turbo motor.

 

[Velma's Dad]

I bought my 2017 (possibly 2016 registered 17)T6 Ocean in pandemic 2020 when it had been stationary for a while and not driven much before that by the look of things. Apart from having to return to Breeze to be dismantled and dried out following water ingress at the kitchen window all was good. The EGR needed replacing a couple of months out of warranty and VW contributed over half when I threw a hissy fit. I know it happens, probably due to the previous owners not driving much. I do drive on local and long weekend non local trips and to shops and sometimes work as a back up daily driver (cycle mostly). The touch screen consul pretty much was failing from the day I bought it, but I was oblivious of how it was meant to perform and got that replaced last year. I got the All In cover last September because it would be my last chance and I felt that it may be beneficial. As some of you may be aware I had loss of power followed by diagnosis of a dead turbo. It took an age for the warranty company to accept the issue was covered and now I am waiting on the part. When I collect the van are there additional questions I need to clarify about the cause of the failure beyond ‘what went wrong and why?’ Is this just bad luck and the end of my woes or have I bought a dud?

The VW T6 has a good overall rep for reliability. EGR failures are a known even though not common issue, sometimes reportedly have caused coolant getting into the cylinders - very ungood if that happens. Turbo failures seem to be fairly uncommon, even though a couple of people on here have had them - but presumably hundreds of other people on here have not. I'd say you've just been unlucky, unfortunately.

FWIW I've always thought the 'Friday car' thing is a load of guff.

 

[SamSara]

Yep had a couple of Turbo’s replaced. Bloody expensive job. Doubt I’d have another Volkswagen Bi-Turbo motor.

Has it been trouble free since or have you replaced the van

 

[BeeBee]

It’s always hard when things happen ‘back to back’ and you think “ what’s next”. What you can be sure of is all of those jobs are sorted and now just enjoy having the van. We’ve mostly all had some or other issues, they’re complex machines.

 

[SamSara]

Not sure what you want the forum to say ! Vehicles have problems (i have had my fair share + some )

Just confirming that it is not a common issue and to see if anyone had experience or advice on whether it is a blip in my Cali ownership or likely to be a catalogue of issues.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Just confirming that it is not a common issue and to see if anyone had experience or advice on whether it is a blip in my Cali ownership or likely to be a catalogue of issues.

Are you querying whether the EGR failure and turbo seizing could be connected? There has long been a bit of a debate - with modern EGR-equipped diesels generally, not VW specifically - about whether a stuck-open (or closed) EGR valve could cause turbo damage. The consensus seems to be that it's pretty unlikely.

In your case you're unlikely to ever know, the two issues could easily just have been coincidental. EGR valves on any modern diesel engine can fail and, as you said in your original post, the usage pattern by the previous owner might have contributed to that although that also is a bit of a presumption.

 

[derek_j_buchanan]

Unlucky!! I have had 2 calis both for 7-10 years with no probs on the 2nd (‘14) and a few niggles on the first (‘07). Best advice I was given is service like the old days. Change the oil every service and time it to coincide with any lengthy off road periods (winterise basically). I get really annoyed with this forum tbh because it makes out Calis have lots of problems and kills the market - they don’t.

 

[JENNY V]

I bought my 2017 (possibly 2016 registered 17)T6 Ocean in pandemic 2020 when it had been stationary for a while and not driven much before that by the look of things. Apart from having to return to Breeze to be dismantled and dried out following water ingress at the kitchen window all was good. The EGR needed replacing a couple of months out of warranty and VW contributed over half when I threw a hissy fit. I know it happens, probably due to the previous owners not driving much. I do drive on local and long weekend non local trips and to shops and sometimes work as a back up daily driver (cycle mostly). The touch screen consul pretty much was failing from the day I bought it, but I was oblivious of how it was meant to perform and got that replaced last year. I got the All In cover last September because it would be my last chance and I felt that it may be beneficial. As some of you may be aware I had loss of power followed by diagnosis of a dead turbo. It took an age for the warranty company to accept the issue was covered and now I am waiting on the part. When I collect the van are there additional questions I need to clarify about the cause of the failure beyond ‘what went wrong and why?’ Is this just bad luck and the end of my woes or have I bought a dud?

Hello, no its not a matter of luck. My T6, purchased new in 2016 was an absolute nightmare, Servo failure, inlet manifold knackered, window leak, and best of all , in the Alpes on a hairpin it decided to cut out completely, imagine that, NO SERVO on brakes and loss of power steering. In addition it randomly went into limp mode. Engine management issue. There`s more but suffice to say its gone to another place after eventual "fixes" under warranty. I believe that VW had a disastrous production run and at one point held back deliveries on the strength of it. BTW VW flatly refused to replace my underwear after the Alpes incident. Now have a 2018 DSG its a dream machine.

 

[Perfectos]

and kills the market

I hardly think that the issues raised and discussed on the forum “kill the market” .
Every vehicle forum discusses typical problems, simply because people go to forums when they have a problem And want a solution. All mass produced vehicles have issues.
Forums like this do not Kill the market, they support it.
if you refer to the 180 BI turbo debacle VW did that by not doing the right thing by customers, not the forums where the issues are discussed

 

[SamSara]

Thank you for your responses. I chatted with the guy at Breeze and he felt it was just one of those things however they had 4 other 2017 vans in with the same problem. I’m confident the same issue will not occur within the next 6 years