Nightmare turbo failure

[amdby]

Van ground to a halt on motorway after glow plug light came on for 10 minutes. VW centre tells me that initial diagnosis shows that turbo failed and needs replacing £5000, and that could just be the start of it.... Engine may have seized. Van is 2012 but has covered less than 80000 miles. VW UK have offered to contribute 2000£ but I suspect it's going to cost a lot more more than that. Grim. Do I leave it with the VW centre at £140 an hour labour costs, or do I entrust it to an independent garage??? Stressed doesn't even come close.

 

[DevillBelgium]

There are numerous treads on this on the forum. All depends how much trust you have and how deep your pockets are( fast and furious quote ). If you suspect a lot more costs then they let you know now, and you want to use it for a lot longer I would would go for an engine rebuild + an independent center.

 

[Corradobrit]

Not sure how a failed turbo would cause the engine to cease. Was there an oil supply issue? When was the last oil change? How was the oil. If the engine suddenly lost oil pressure that could take out both the engine and turbo.
If it was me I would have a reliable independent take a look and give me a quote. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

 

[sidepod]

If it had seized then you’d have come to a much more dramatic halt than “ground”. !!!

 

[dspuk]

As @Corradobrit says, a turbo failure would only lead to less power as all a turbo does is pump more air into the intake manifold.

If the Turbo failed due to an oil supply issue that is also shared with the engine that would make more sense but a seized engine would have been pretty catastrophic on the motorway.

As for a glow plug - also odd as all a glow plug does is warm up the chamber to aid initial compression ignition.

I’d generally agree that it would be good to get a high quality independent VW expert to look over but for a 5K issue with 2K off I would also suspect that 3K could also end up an indie cost and I’d rather it was with a main dealer so the repair was warranted.