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Faulty VW Fuel Injectors
Like the above driver, while driving my 07 VW Passat Estate I suffered a sudden, complete loss of power which resulted in the car changing in two seconds from travelling at 60 mph to round about 20 mph. The car was taken to the garage and I had to have a new fuel injector. It was under warranty at the time.
VW told me that this was a one-off and wouldn’t happen again. As we have another Passat I was concerned whether that could also be blighted by this fault and was assured that this was very unlikely to occur at all in any VW.
However, an independent dealer has informed me that this is not a one off with VW / Audi at all and is rife amongst the new breed of turbo diesels. He also said that the cost of replacing one of these four fuel injectors is about £1200 if not under warranty (and one by one they can all go).
Now, I know that I can take out extra insurance for extended warranty. Expensive as it adds about £400 per annum to the cost of the car, but nonetheless the option is there. Between us we have owned eleven VW’s in our time. We buy them as we think they are good quality, good value and reliable. Therefore, maybe we should be philosophical and say they have done us well and been good value for money so let’s not get too upset about it.
However, what is deeply concerning is the sudden, potentially fatal loss of power. What would I think if I had a policeman come and knock on my door and tell me my spouse had been killed in a head on collision whilst overtaking? I would know instantly that the cause was a catastrophic loss of power, resulting in this mortality.
Therefore, I am nervous about driving a VW in case this should happen. But that is not all. Speaking to this independent dealer, I discover that Ford have the same problem and reading the July issue of What Car I see on page 106 that this has been happening to Mercedes as well.
So, even if you do not drive any of these cars whose to say that you may not meet one when they are overtaking and suddenly find yourself in a head on collision as they have suffered a sudden calamitous loss of power.
The poor quality of manufacturing today comes as no surprise with cut-throat competition and although I don’t like it, lower standards is the price we pay for relatively cheaper goods. However, I am troubled by the deadly nature of this fault and feel from that point of view that these companies should be recalling their cars and refitting them, although with what I don’t know as I guess all these new fuel injectors are potentially faulty.
Needless to say, I expect that any fatalities due to this are not exposed as the car is too damaged to prove what the cause was, so the companies can neatly side step that issue.
I would be very very interested to hear from other people if they have suffered the same sudden loss of power, and what make of car they have and how old it is.
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